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Some Sundays, some sentiments
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Wisdom Tree recently unveiled "Sunday Sentiments" drawn from Karan Thapar's columns
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SOME GOOD TALK The launch of the book was as palatable as the book itself
Long back, when Shobhana Bhartia of Hindustan Times asked Karan Thapar if he would like to do a column for the Sunday edition of the paper, Thapar said, he "would jump at it". The former suggested him to pen something that he doesn't like.
"She said, if you have an idea and you like it, drop it and think again. Write what comes to your mind the second time," Thapar says, recalling "the condition" put by Bhartia "to be different". And so the Sunday Sentiments talked about everything from Musharraf to Sharmila Tagore, Sanjay Dutt to Vajpayee to a "deceptive" coverage on Star TV about snake charmers and so on. Some of them just made interesting reading and some raised issues and some questioned the meaning of a true journalist.
And Shobit Arya of Wisdom Tree sifted through Thapar's writings spanning nine years and compiled 226 columns. And thus the book Sunday Sentiments came out recently.
"I have chosen those few which don't talk about celebrities only, but about issues too. These are timeless," says Arya. What makes the book interesting is Sudhir Tailang's cartoons that accompany some of the writings. The book was formally launched by L.K. Advani at Ashok Hotel this past week.
Karan Thapar says, "When I told my mother that Wisdom Tree is publishing my book, she said, they are barking up the wrong tree," mused Karan overwhelmed at the "unaccustomed privilege" at the launch.
Musings too
Tailang who lamented that the "position of cartoons is still in inside pages" revealed that Thapar is "a nice man" and not really as he is seen on screen. Because of the variety of topics and subjects Tailang has made Thapar his "subject". It mocks at him, grills him and even exposes his `screen personality'.
For instance, in one of the cartoons, a politician is sweating before appearing in front of Karan. The make-up woman consoles him saying, "Don't worry sir, he will hardly give you a chance to speak", and in another a lady keeps some tissue papers on his table saying, ... "in case your guest gets emotional and starts crying" and so on. While both Karan and Tailang were a delight on stage because of their wonderful tales marked with punch lines and anecdotes, Advani was lacklustre. He found the dais a platform to voice his opinion in favour of Jansangh for their perfect "aachar, vichar and vyavhar".
A yawning audience, though, was soon giggling when he realised it and laced his speech with some wit and humour.
The book that runs into 230 pages is neatly divided into seven sections.
While `Portals of Power' and `In the Frame' speak about a host of interesting personalities and subjects, `Point of View' raises some pertinent questions.
RANA SIDDIQUI
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