Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 6/18/2013 12:30:00 PM

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The End of Telegrams, the End of an Era, a Zeitgeist

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 6/13/2013 7:44:00 AM

'They were used to announce births, deaths and also as greeting on a wedding. There was a whole array of emotions aligned with telegrams. We have sent plenty of them: greeting relatives on their wedding, births, birthdays and anniversaries. We have also received numerous ones announcing death of a loved one. You could write ten addresses and send one message to all ten, as happened during a bereavement of a family member. The postman who delivered these telegrams at an odd hour with (...)'

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Why we think women activists should change their attitude of "wear what you like"

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 6/10/2013 2:17:00 PM

'Here's why we think women activists should change their attitude of "wear what you like," and should ask the young people and media moghuls to tone down. Go slow, relax, you aren't proving anything by dressing provocatively. Okay? You find these girls so scantily clad on the streets and think whether it's fashion or a deliberate attempt to provoke. Look at it as a fashion moghul's attempt to degrade the female of the species. No, it's not just the stree(...)'

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Rain-spattered courtyard, raining with a sweet vengence after the heat!

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 6/9/2013 9:40:00 AM

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The Bombay Fornicator - A Distinctive Piece of British Raj Furniture

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 6/7/2013 7:23:00 AM

'Searching the web we found this image of a Bombay Fornicator. They are spread on the verandah of the David Sassoon Library of which we are a life member. Truly satisfying is the sensation of reclining on them in the breezy verandah with a newspaper in the afternoons. The long armrests on either sides can be extended to rest the feet also. We would spend many afternoons there when we were editor of the journal of the Bombay Management Association, reading newspapers, magazines and pl(...)'

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IPL and Criminal Elements, Chota Chakli of My Novel

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 6/4/2013 9:56:00 AM

'Guess it was bound to happen. This news items has it that the IPL 6 matches garnered a viewership of 140 million, which is twice that of IPL 1. Our mind boggles and so should yours. And the betting money must surely have been huge. If it doubles in six years what could happen in the tenth year, or, the fifteenth? And a drought was going on in the country, a drought that many people sitting in their drawing rooms forgot. A drought that went unacknowledged. How did they do it? Was it(...)'

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Cricket Shenanigans, and Other Equally Important Ones

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 6/2/2013 2:29:00 PM

'About the cricket scandal that has the press in a tizzy, we have nothing much to say, except that we bitched about it in this post. People are waking up to the reality of corruption in sports, but we knew this all along, that something was wrong, as can be seen in this post, wherein we had highlighted that Srrinivasan's son Ashwin refused to pay for his drink and punched a cop. Therein we had also raised the issue of the BCCI chief being the owner of an IPL team which (IPL) come(...)'

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Book Blurb: From Smart to Wise

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 5/31/2013 12:26:00 PM

'We have been sent From Smart to Wise to review and it looks like a useful tome for corporate types, deep into the mire of corporate philosophy which we recently quit.The book is authored by Prasad Kaipa and Navi Radjou and the theme behind it is that we may be smart in our own deathly air-conditioned cubicles but aren't wise enough. Which we realised once we gave up the cubicle life. Yeah, guys, all those hours behind the glass is not worth it; so get up, walk around, catch the (...)'

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Visit to Kerala

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 5/27/2013 10:55:00 AM

'It was a short visit to "native place" a.k.a. Kerala, the state where we were born. We have this habit of visiting this native state during summer when the state is going through a heat wave and coming back with our impressions of what has changed and how life has inexorably taken a new step into the void. First of all, it was hot. It was really hot as hell. No second thoughts about it. Our room in our brother-in-law's (our host's) well-appointed house had air-con(...)'

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Why Isn't Narendra Modi Being Indicted? Were We Always Corrupt?

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 5/13/2013 7:40:00 AM

'The past few days have been overtly ones of introspection for us. The continuing saga of reportage on rapes has upset one. So, it seems, rapes had been happening all around us and we weren't knowing about it till now. Why aren't the lawkeepers as efficient when dealing with gender violence? Then the resurgence of "Narendra Modi as prime minister" bogey has also been haunting us. Narendra Modi has accepted that he may have made a mistake then why isn't the mista(...)'

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Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard Finishes Third Edit

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 5/10/2013 11:05:00 AM

'We have finished a third editing of our novel "Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard" (details in this link) which was rather difficult. Uffff! Time to celebrate. Now we are glad we did it because we feel a manuscript has so many inconsistencies that have to be dealt with. (May be, that's why most of those who pontificate about literature, yeah, some of our own self-styled worthies, do not attempt a story. But that's another story.) Storytelling requires a skill all its(...)'

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IPLT20: A Review

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 5/6/2013 8:15:00 AM

'We are watching the horrendous IPLT20, perforce, as we have nothing else to do. We didn't know a gentlemen's game could descend to such depths of triteness. There's so much distraction that we can't concentrate on the game anymore. Guess it's that guy Srinivasan who did it. Yes, he did. There is something Rajnikant-ish in all that crap that goes on on screen. Why those comments on screen when a shot is played? Is it necessary? Let the discerning audience judge f(...)'

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How Age Changes People: We Remain the Same Despite Age

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 5/1/2013 2:43:00 PM

'Yes, age does change people. Wrinkles start appearing, teeth drop off, bone structure changes, hairs thin, well, we become old. The strange thing is we aren't aware how time passes so quickly and a decade, and another, and another, pass so fast.  This must be something these four sisters also wondered about, which prompted them to photograph themselves every year since 1975 to today (See photographs here.). (We were in college then and roughly our ages correspond.) We hope they(...)'

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Saudi Deports Fashion Photographer as Being Too Handsome

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 4/26/2013 8:57:00 AM

'Saudi Arabia recently deported a man, a fashion photographer, they thought as being "too handsome." Hehe. So what's too handsome? See it for yourself here. However, one thing Saudi men must remember is that the repression they afford to their women is to blame for the lack of faith. Wait a minute, hold on, we are just coming to the point. Yeh, the guy is handsome, agreed. Lips like the young John Travolta's, eyebrows like Brooke Shields', eyes, like, well, Bra(...)'

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Another Delhi Rape and It's Aftermath

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 4/22/2013 10:13:00 AM

'Rape. It's a crude four-letter word. And it happened again, in the national capital rocked by a violent rape just a few months ago, in fact, four months ago. The inspiration for this blog has been the esteemed Nilanjana Roy's article in The Hindu which appears here. Now, admit this: rape and brutalisation has been happening for a as long as India existed, or even before, according to our friend Henry. It's only coming out now because some people became angry and made (...)'

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On Finishing Chapter Seventeen!

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 4/19/2013 6:52:00 AM

'Actually to let the world know, erm, that we are making slow and painful progress on the novel. Finished Chapter Seventeen at the Cafe Coffee Day's Cafe in Belapur, New Bombay last night. Only three more chapters to go. Yay! CCD's Cafes are a good place to be in, a bit tony, if you ask us. They take orders from the table and there's no number card to be carried back to the table. Hm. That's a good improvement from the ordinary CCD joint.  But there were a few busine(...)'

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Korean Star Psy's New Album "Gentleman." Gentleman as Tyke

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 4/17/2013 10:21:00 AM

'So Psy's new album "Gentleman" has received 82 million views on youtube. But if you see his video you will retch. His antics are anything but gentlemanly. In one obnoxious scene he gathers his fart in one hand and applies it to a woman's face; in another he pulls the chair from under another woman. We won't detail all the ungentlemanly behaviour here, but, will vouch - God be my witness - he is no respectable gentry in our opinion. He is a downright tyke. That(...)'

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Happy Vishu! Vishu Sadya at Kerala House

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 4/14/2013 2:25:00 PM

'Today, the family went for the Vishu sadya at Kerala House in Vashi. The idea was to give the better half a break and to taste the variety of Kerala's cuisines. On turning up we find a milling crowd clad in their best Kerala "settu" sarees and bhasmam on their foreheads. We were number sixty-nine on the waiting list and the man in-charge warned me that it would take half-an-hour. It turned out to be a long wait, one, no, two hours. We started wondering, among squealin(...)'

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Do Women Make Better Writers, Editors, Publishers, and Readers of Novels?

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 4/12/2013 10:33:00 AM

'Here's what Alexandra Pringle, chief editor, Bloomsbury has to say about fiction for women by women. Hell, she is right. Mostly novels are written, edited, published, and read by women. Come to think of it why didn't I notice it before, though I had a premonition about it. Most editors I know are women, and when I walk into a book store mostly it is women who crowd around the fiction shelves and men, if at all, the management and self-development books. (I used to think, mis(...)'

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Commonwealth Book and Short Story Prizes

Author : John Mathew      Blog : Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!      Date : 4/10/2013 11:53:00 AM

'Here's the list of the Commonwealth Book and Short Story prizes, in some detail.If you prefer to see it in the list form, here it is. I wish! I wish!John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.'

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