Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Bookbuzz

ANAND PATWARDHAN

Books that have left an impact: Funnily enough, anti-war books seem to be the ones that affected me the most — such as "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller that exposed the madness and corruption of war but did it with wisdom and wit, and "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut, for similar reasons. I suppose it's because I read them during my formative years, during the heady days of protests against the Vietnam War. Earlier, the author whose anarchist vision and powers of prophesy I'd admired the most was George Orwell ("Animal Farm," "1984" and "Homage to Catalonia")

Favourite authors: It depends on what my need of the moment is. If I want to forget the woes of the world, I turn to the malice-less world of P.G. Wodehouse. On the other hand, if I have the energy for serious analysis, I'd pick up the works of B. R. Ambedkar.

Books you feel are a must read: Rajmohan Gandhi's "Ghaffar Khan: Non-violent Badshah Of The Pakhtuns", a biography of the Frontier Gandhi, is one of the most moving books I've read in a long time. We need to read this to learn about a man who spent almost his entire life in prison, and yet never lost his humanity. Other works I'd recommend are the novels of Ben Elton (I've read "Gridlock" and "Stark"), a brilliant satirist who concentrates on the rape of the planet by corporates.

Current read: "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts. It's compassionate for the most part and well written, though exaggerated and paced like a Hollywood version of Bollywood with a major catastrophe on every page. I'm enjoying the experience.

One book that inspired you to make a documentary: Not yet but the Badshah Khan one definitely has me thinking.

An author you'd love to meet: Mahatma Gandhi. I'd like to thank him for his experiments with truth and all that he has given the world, but I'd like to ask him if in hindsight, he would still maintain his differences with Ambedkar.

(The documentary filmmaker spoke to SAVITHA GAUTAM)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail