Uttar Pradesh: decoding the enigma

I must confess at the beginning that the heading is a bit misleading but I liked it so much that I decided to keep it that way. Perhaps no one will ever be credited with fully decoding the enigma that Uttar Pradesh is so I must not have high hopes of being the exception. I have often thought why UP is treated the way it is treated and what exactly makes it so unique and in some cases scary. Why UP and UPites are ‘lawless’ broadly speaking and why they are looked upon with fear in large parts of India.

As a young man I was extremely offended when people talked in unflattering terms about the state as I belong to a family which has been a resident of the state for nearly two centuries. In the last five years when my sudden urge to visit Hindu pilgrim sites took me to remote areas of India as well as the metro cities; I have understood that notoriety of UP and UPites is well earned.

We have to understand that the real pathos of the situation lies in the fact that UP is the land of Rama and Krishna the greatest heroes if not Gods of Hindus. Lord Rama it must be added was ‘Maryada Pushottam’ meaning a person who zealously clung to honour and led an honourable and exemplary life. It would appear logical then that the inhabitants of the state would be more ‘religious’ and gentle then the other states of India but this is clearly not the case. This in itself is very mystifying! Apart from this UP has been the birthplace of some of the greatest saints of modern times like Swami Brahmananda Saraswati who trained some of the most famous saints like Swami Shantananda and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. So clearly religious richness of a state, almost the cradle of Hindu civilization was not lost. The state also gave birth to a lot of Sufi saints and great masters from other religions. What then went wrong or what then was always wrong?

I am yet to meet an intellectual who can fully decode the enigma that is UP. Yes that is one of the biggest enigmas yet unsolved. What is wrong with the land of Gods? Well I guess therein lies the answer – Gods; a part of answer though. Gandhi Ji was a great thinker there can be no doubt about it. Great people sometimes make mistakes but they were great because their thinking was original. They sound ridiculous because their ideas were not in sync with contemporary beliefs or even modern beliefs. I am sure many ideas of Gandhi Ji were too repulsive to people back then. I have a feeling that his stay in foreign countries opened up his mind. He had access to some of the greatest literature of his time and this is what enabled him to look at Hinduism with a near objective viewpoint. He got it right or nearly right when he said that Hindu epics are full of violence, when I first read it some three decades back I thought it was only his obsession with non-violence that made him say it. Like I said in the beginning he got it nearly right. The great Hindu epics though seemingly full of violence are no different from Bible in this regard. I am quoting the example of Bible because I have read major parts of it and many parts of Bible appeal to me very strongly, but if Bible is read by a layman without the help of an expert it could be a big disaster similarly with Ramayana and Mahabharata. My Guru of journalism used to say if Bible is read, specially the Old Testament, without the help of an expert or a good book of commentary one could find parts of it indecent. I may add that he himself was a devout Christian.

Another aspect that one has to remember is that in Hinduism popular belief is that if God is happy with a person He will give him whatever he desires whether the person deserves the things or not. It is my belief that large parts of UP where these epics were actually played out have in their ignorance extracted events and sayings of the epics without expert guidance and in isolation of other events. For e.g. killing of his own relatives by Arjuna, well and it makes me laugh, Arjuna was most averse to doing what he did and then he was guided by the very Lord - Krishna himself. Ordinary people are not supposed to do what Arjuna did; they have no need to do it. But killing is dramatic it is fascinating to most people; it is populist so this particular aspect is extracted and the very intricate sermon by Krishna is discarded.

Every Tom, Dick or Harry in UP wants to play the violent king and people of UP so obsessed by the wrong things in the epics, love to be afraid and rally behind such dons/gangsters. We must be having thousands if not millions of these small time dons in UP. They give assurance that once you come under their benevolent shadow they will give you everything whether you deserve it or not and they will create all the loopholes you need for bypassing all the inconvenient laws. This type of thinking is absolutely at odds with modern institutions and laws. But in UP religion is supreme.

The region tolerated the British for a hundred years, suffering and saying nothing but the moment the British interfered with religion we had the so called ‘Mutiny’ of 1857! The British managed to escape being annihilated by the very skin of their teeth in this one! They were good and quick learners, they never again interfered with the religion of the ‘natives’ in a crude kind of way. They perfected the fine art of divide and rule and our politicians took on from where the British left off.

So belief in fate and too much religion and total lack of respect for laws and modern institutions is what UP is all about. Another thing that may or may not have happened is that the British had a very tough time in UP and of course Bihar, remember Mangal Pandey was from far eastern UP that is one of the most backward areas of UP. Could it be that the British deliberately allowed the recalcitrant areas in the two states to remain backward, without modern education and helpless in the hands of local war lords? Though giving eight prime ministers to the country except for Atal Bihari Vajpayee no one seems to have done anything revolutionary for the state. Did it suit the politicians in general to keep the largest state in India in poverty and poor education so that they could manipulate the voting patterns? This is what I found on the internet, I do not agree with it completely. My belief is that there is a bit of truth in it but the soil of UP was fertile for such mischievous ideas. People in UP never believed that the government is beholden to the populace in a democracy, that the government simply has to perform. They probably believed that according to the epics, it was their fate to suffer in poverty. They had their epics to run to for solace.

One may argue that it is not only the Hindus that live in UP a very large Muslim population lives in the state too. Yes that is there but my belief is that on the core issue Muslims are not much different from Hindus and unconsciously they have learnt the habits of Hindus. Both communities rose up as one when their religion was touched in 1857. A UPite is a UPite first and a Hindu or Muslim later. The belief that all rules will be kept aside in granting riches if one is in good books of God is not an alien concept in any religion so far as I know; only in UP it appears the belief is specially popular.

This does not of course mean that there are no non-violent and progressive people in UP but yes they are not mainstream. What makes matters worse is that mainstream media never shows a mirror to the majority it only shows what the majority wants to see. This was not always so but this has been the greatest tragedy, a global tragedy in the last two decades. It makes it worse for progressive ideas to be spread far and wide.

The worsening of reputation of UP in the last two decades in UP is clearly due to rise of regional parties and fanning of communal and casteist emotions. Even the most suave, educated and polished person in UP has some casteism in him, and yes I have met quite a few. Casteism permeates everything be it academic institutions, business or politics. This has been very unfortunate for UP. The institution of caste has to be shattered with a sledge hammer but with the rise of regional parties bent upon splitting society on casteist lines, we are getting away from an ideal casteless society. This again is in keeping with epics very few of which discourage a casteist society. Once caste comes into play backers of a candidate from a particular caste are ready to condone the most horrible crimes the man in question might commit leave aside the very question of asking him to perform. This is very convenient for professional politicians most of whom are there only for money.

In epics and most religious books characters are in black or white there are no shades of grey, which happens only in Hollywood; Bollywood is yet to get there fully. So likewise in UP you will find either a blood thirsty fiend or a perfect monk like holy person. This reminds me of an incident in Allahabad where the head of an ancient temple gave me his own footwear, the only pair he had and went about barefoot for days as mine had been stolen from outside the temple. I have also had the opportunity as a journalist to meet at least two people who later went on to become dreaded dons. Even policemen were dead scared of them. They were pure evil and in typical UPite don style they promised to do absolutely anything for me I just had to ask them and they would not refuse any request.

This is an ongoing research and as I meet new and more intelligent people both physically and on the internet perhaps I will be able to unravel fully the enigma that is UP.

Please feel free to comment!

Was a ban on Nirbhaya documentary justified?

At the outset I must confess I have not watched the documentary because I could not find it anywhere but I have read a lot about it and have a very good idea about the contents. I think it was unwise to ban it simply because these days millions of people can upload banned stuff on millions of sites and have the authorities looking for them in vain. Anonymous netizens will upload important parts of documentary even now after youtube removed it.  A ban therefore is not practical.

Things are not hunky dory in any big European city including London from what I have heard my brother say who is a regular visitor to Europe due to his job. No Indian documentary producer has however made any documentary on violence against women  or abuse of children by clergymen in the west. An Indian film maker just cannot imagine doing it because he looks up to the west for inspiration and accolades. That said one will simply have to accept the fact that not only Delhi but a lot of Indian cities are unsafe for women and banning a documentary cannot change that. The change has to come from within the system which is rotten to the core. Every entity has played a part in rotting of the system, the government alone is not to blame. Electronic media airs news basically centred around cricket, Bollywood and TV soap operas. Is that the ideal content for news in a country where people do not know from where their next meal is going to come? If media focuses more on injustice that a common man has to put up with everyday in India, the authorities are bound to sit up and take notice. Now this documentary did just that, it showed the raw horror of what happens to a helpless victim when half a dozen delinquents totally devoid of fear of law, decide to shatter a family’s dreams.

What happened in the aftermath of Nirbhaya case was witnessed by the whole world on their TV screens. It horrified some of my friends overseas so much that they actually emailed me and asked whether it was safe for ladies in my home to stir outside the house. Banning the movie on the pretext that it shows interviews of under trials is simply not correct our very own Kiran Bedi as per a BBC journalist allowed interviews of several under trials when she was jailor of Tihar jail. Afzal Guru was interviewed while in jail too. Interview of one the rape accused Mukesh Singh is thus nothing new and if anything his very fearlessness should shake the law and order machinery out of its complacency. I have often observed that it is the innocent who is afraid of the law and order machinery and the delinquent elements think of it only as a bit of machinery that can easily be manipulated. In many ways the documentary holds a mirror to Indian society which has to bring about a sea change in its outlook where rape victims are not treated with sympathy but as people who themselves have committed a crime. That said the government must also pursue relentlessly anyone who might have broken laws to facilitate making of this documentary for monetary consideration or otherwise since the law of the land is supreme and greater than any individual. Vital changes have to be made in justice dispensation system so that unscrupulous lawyers who have no fear of law think a thousand times before making statements like the defence lawyer made on camera. We do not need vigilante justice like the recent unfortunate incidents in Dimapur in Nagaland where a mob lynched a rape accused in public about whom later people doubted whether he actually did commit the crime or not. Justice has to come from designated bodies like in any civilized society but justice must be swift and just. Banning the documentary is like sweeping the trash beneath the carpet, it just will not work.

Let us hope that with the new government at the helm there will be no need for another Nirbhaya documentary ever.

My visit to Lord Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu

Embarked on a journey for Darshan of Lord Pashupatinath in Nepal recently. Below is the hurried travelogue of the holy journey. I will add pics and maybe videos to it soon.

23 Oct 11:05 pm – Boarded train no. 15008/LJN MUV express from Lucknow Junction station.

24 Oct 6:30 am reached Gorakhpur station on scheduled time

Got out of station and without waiting left for Sunauli the last stoppage before Indo-Nepal border on Indian side. Gorakhpur is not exactly famous for courteousness or honesty so I was expecting neither but the driver was a rather nice guy and we reached Sunauli in nearly two hours. The driver charged me Rs. 1500/-.  I was carrying my pass port as an id proof but neither the Indian immigration people nor Nepalese immigration people were interested in me since I was an Indian. I went to both the offices to make sure I did not miss any paperwork. Paperwork is required only if you are carrying a vehicle with Indian license plate into Nepal. That could be tricky I was told.

I had no prefixed plans for onward journey into Nepal. Once you cross into Nepal you land into Bhairahwaha or Siddharthnagar. It is a much undeveloped town with very little facilities. From my knowledge gathered from internet and bits of info from travel agents I could make out that there was an airport at Bhairahwa and that I could get a ticket at one of the several airline counters.

I quickly changed money from a bearded Muslim guy who used his waistcoat pockets as his bank lockers. He quickly gave me Nepalese rupees at the rate of 1.6 Nepalese rupees per Indian Rupee. In Nepal Indian rupee is popularly referred to as IC and at least in Kathmandu IC is accepted as freely as Nepalese rupee but the catch is that they do not like big notes like 500 and 1000 rupee notes so I had taken along lots of 100 rupee notes though that proved to be quite cumbersome.

At Bhairahawa parking I again met the driver who had brought me in from Gorakhpur. He offered to take me to Bhairahwaha airport for another Rs.250/- so I agreed. Bhairahwa airport is really a joke of an airport but the Nepalese staff is extremely polite and helpful both the airline staff as well as the police. I went to the first airline I could spot which was Yeti Airlines. The man said the flights are full and my heart sank but then he asked for an id proof and I presented my passport to him and he said there was one last seat for Rs.3900 approximately. I told him to give me the ticket right away which he did along with a pack of biscuits. The security check was hilarious but the man was extremely courteous. There was no X-ray scan just frisking. After the security check I was ushered into a medium sized hall full of Indians and tourists from, as far as I could make out, France, Japan and USA.

In a few minutes a really tiny cute little plane from Yeti Airlines showed up. The ladder was so hilariously small I almost laughed. I looked more like a plane from World War II movies though it was, as I later found out, a rather newish production a Jet stream.

The airhostess was very very polite and in a few minutes we were airborne. I took the liberty of taking out my camera and photographing the Himalayan mountain range though my vision was blocked by the turbofan engine of the plane to a great deal. The pilot was a lady but she flew the plane most smoothly and with no jerks or pressure changes.

Soon it was announced that the plane was about to land. I was flummoxed because there seemed to me no open space for a runway. We were right on top of densely crammed together houses but a landing strip soon appeared and the plane landed smoothly.

I was anxious all the time for my checked in baggage but I soon spotted it in the cargo cage and requested the airline bus driver whether I could pick it up out of turn, he allowed me and soon I had my precious baggage in my hands. The bus driver was all praise for India and said “I love India!” to which I answered “I love Nepal!” so this was a good beginning!

The departures terminal was even shabbier then the Bhairahawah airport but the people again were very friendly. I took a prepaid taxi for Nepali rupee 500 to Pashupatinath temple. I wanted to have darshan as soon as possible but felt extremely tired. I was told the aarti would be 6 pm.

Now was the turn to find a hotel. I located a neat looking hotel belonging to Indians after seeing a couple of other hotels. This hotel was Hotel Maharaja Palace right on Tilganga road and what sealed the decision was that the Shikhar of Pashupatinath temple was visible from my room window.

I checked in and ate a hearty meal in the hotel’s restaurant which served vegetarian meals freshly cooked. I wanted to take a small nap but dozed off and slept for nearly an hour and a half. Then I quickly woke up bathed and wore a new dress and after wearing my slippers and leaving behind my mobile and camera set out for darshan. The taxis in Kathmandu charge rather exorbitantly though they are really the discarded Maruti 800 mini cars from India and very poorly upholstered. The minimum that I could negotiate with them was Rs.100 in Nepali currency for the shortest distance. I took one such taxi and he took me from a roundabout way to the entrance of Pashupatinath temple. It was early yet only about 4:30 pm so I spent a lot of time sitting in front of temple gate and counting beads. At about 5 pm I decided to enter the temple. The temple gates were open but the gate of Garbha Griha or sanctum sanctorum were closed yet. It may be mentioned here that non-Hindus are strictly not permitted inside the temple according to temple rules.

I lingered around the sanctum sanctorum and started counting my beads there and to my amazement I found the temple to be extremely beautiful. It is built in Pagoda style with gilded top and all the doors covered with solid silver sheets. Outside the sanctum sanctorum are two figures of kings of Nepal prostrating themselves before Lord Pashupathinath. The decoration all over the temple, which is mainly made of wood, is extremely intricate with great attention being paid to detail. Not a square inch of space is left undecorated. It is not advisable to carry eatables inside the temple as an army of monkeys is always on the lookout for exotic delicacies though they are well fed otherwise. The temple staff is extremely friendly unlike most temples in India. One is not allowed to go and touch the shivalingam and has to watch from a distance while aarti is performed. I stayed for a long time in the temple as I could not take my eyes off Lord Shiva and left only with a heavy heart but having a sense of being blessed by Lord Pashupatinath himself.

The darshan done and my job over I suddenly became very homesick and wanted to return back home the very next day. I tried my luck at Yeti Airlines which has an office on Tilganga Road but the lady told me that the morning flight at 9AM for Bhairahwa was full so I rushed off to Buddha Airline office half a km ahead. The guy was closing down the office but as a special favour he again checked his system and said there was one ticket left for next day’s flight but it was held by an agent. I again ran to Yeti Air’s office and pleaded with the lady for a ticket for next day’s flight but she said everything was booked out. I returned crestfallen to the hotel but mentioned the fact of my not finding the ticket to the hotel owner. He immediately arranged for a ticket for me and there I was booked back to India the next day!

25^th October 2014 – I could hardly sleep and walked down to the temple in the morning. It was so peaceful and serene. I did not enter the temple though just bowed before Lord Pashupatinath. Then I walked down to shops selling Prasad and flowers. What I actually wanted were pictures of Lord Pashupatinath.

I went back to the hotel and had some breakfast with owner of the hotel.

Soon I checked out. The waiter brought me a taxi which charged me Rs. 500 Nepali.

Reached domestic airport. By mistake I had brought along a Swiss knife key ring so the security guy plucked off the Swiss knife and handed over the keys though very politely.

It was ok with me! Rules are rules!

I waited and then went for security check which was better than the one at Bhairahawah complete with and X-ray machine. After security check I found myself in a large hall crammed full with people but the vibes were good all around, not something one experiences generally in India. After about fifteen minutes we were ushered into the airline bus.

Buddha air ATR was in an excellent shape and the two airhostesses were extremely polite and helpful.

Soon we took off.

Flight took only 35 minutes!

At Bhairahwaha luggage collection was easy. Most passengers left for Lumbini. The Nepali drivers and rickshaw pullers started asking for insane amount of money to take me to Sunauli the Indian border. I decided not to co-operate with them. I waited for an Indian taxi but none turned up. Soon I saw an educated Nepali gentleman turn up in a battered jeep. I requested him to drop me to the border he agreed but the Nepali taxi drivers started a verbal duel with him too. He scolded them severely and said to them that they were standing on the land where Buddha was born and they had the bad manners to misbehave with guests from abroad who had come on pilgrimage. This cooled them down a bit but I do not think this is going to change anyone. Perhaps they had very strong reasons to do what they were doing. The gentleman had mentioned at the outset that he would not be able to go all the way to Sunauli but would drop me at a place where I could get a bus. It did not work out though since all buses were crammed full and I ended up paying a taxi guy just about the same amount the guys at the airport were asking.

I managed to reach Bhairahawa border taxi stand. A taxi guy approached me for drop to Gorakhpur for only Rs.1100 it was a large air conditioned taxi so I agreed. The guy was very nice and dropped me at Gorakhpur railway station. After making inquiries I understood I was not going to get an inch of space in any train so I decided to drive down to Lucknow in a taxi. It was tough almost 300 km and more than half the day gone.  Finally I found a taxi at the station itself which agreed to take me to Lucknow for Rs.6000 including toll tax expenses with I later realized were almost Rs.450.

The taxi driver drove like a man possessed and we were in Lucknow in almost five hours which was excellent for the areas we drove through!

So it was back to Lucknow safe and sound...God willing will go to Lord Pashupatinath once more!

Review of Lunchbox starring Irrfan

This is my first movie review and a series of awesome movies from a few talented and courageous directors like Tigmanshu Dhulia, Anurag Kashyap and Ram Gopal Varma absolutely forced me to take up movie review writing.

Coming back to the movie in question Lunchbox, watched it a couple of days back in Lucknow. I could guess the plot from stuff on the movie that one can find on social media. But my guess work was not altogether correct second half of the movie has its surprises. The character of Saajan Fernandes has many layers and his innate goodness shines through in moments that would have had even the most virtuous fall. I think this was the high point of the movie for me at least. But this is most subtly portrayed in the movie and the credit for this goes to not only Irrfan but the screenplay writer too. The Lunchbox offers a release from the drab and uninteresting lives of the two main characters but the force of habit and limitations of a middle class life are too strong as shackles to break. Watch the movie to see how it turns out between the two main characters. Any words used to describe the talent of Irrfan are words wasted because it appears as if Irrfan was created by God only to act. He has successfully put life in otherwise dead movies by his very presence. In this he resembles Marlon Brando and Rajesh Khanna who could carry the weight of dead movies on their soldiers. What happens when such an actor is supported by good direction and a very engaging story – sheer magic happens.  Nimrat Kaur plays the part like a veteran of many movies though this is her first movie. Much credit must go to the makeup man who changes Irrfan’s makeup subtly with each new turn in the plot. Direction is near flawless though I personally never liked open endings. As a middle class and middle aged person myself I can relate very much to this masterpiece by Ritesh Batra. Bravo!

Hope inspired by such movies, Bollywood takes a new road lately travelled by Tigmanshu Dhulia, Anurag Kashyap and which was created perhaps by Ram Gopal Varma.

First Lucknow Tweetup in 2010

Around August 2009 I came onto twitter and after that there was no looking back! I have loved twitter in all this while and found it an awesome source of knowledge. What differentiates twitter from other social networking sites is that there is so little element of anonymity and in general people who are active on twitter are highly educated and discerning individuals, there may be exceptions but in general the active ones are the very serious ones.

I had been thinking of a tweetup in Lucknow which is actually a 'meetup' of people active on twitter. Now Lucknow, to be honest is really not one of those cites where social networking sites are used by a large part of the population no it is not that way at all. I was not able to convince many people to come to a tweetup and had almost given up but then came this guy Gaurav Srivastava a software engineer, he had kind of dug his heels in and so this first tweetup happened. He named this 'when Nawabs meet' so I instantly thought of the fitting venue for Nawabs and that could only be Falaknuma roof top restaurant in Hotel Clarks Awadh the best restaurant in all Uttar Pradesh at least to my thinking.

Finally we met on 30th Jan 2010 and the tweetup started at 1pm and was scheduled to last till 2 pm but actually finished at about 3:30 pm. It was a blast. Falaknuma made everyone happy and I do not think any other venue could quite have brought about the desired effect. It was attended by me twitter username anuragkumarlko; Gaurav Srivastava twitter id sangfroid; Surendra Gupta twitter id SurendraGLKO; Raza Hasnain Naqvi twitter id RazaLucknow and Ashish Chandra twitter id AshishChandra.It was also attended by Mr. Manish Chandra Pandey Principal Correspondent Hindustan Times Lucknow who very kindly agreed to join us along with his colleague Mr. Dheeraj Dhawan who photographed the tweetup.

We had some really awesome food which included two types of veg kebabs - Surendra Gupta just loved the Hariyali Kebabs; two types of veg biryani with raita and one special pulao. You must be wondering why I never talked about what we discussed well I did not because our talks would have powered a battle tank we talked so much and we talked such innovative ideas. I can never put all that down in words it was so fascinating, those people had awesome ideas.

Hope others will take up the baton from us and organise many more tweetups in Lucknow. We made history in a way and well we did our bit for Lucknow! That was my primary concern - Lucknow - as far as I can help it I will never allow Lucknow to lag behind.

Now enjoy the pics!

I am a former journalist, historian and author. My first novel Recalcitrance was published in 1857 based on events of 1857 in Lucknow. I wrote it to commemorate the 150th anniversary of The Great Uprising of 1857.
My second novel Remembrance- of fading dreams is a sequel to Recalcitrance and is based on a plot to overthrow British rule by 'veterens' of the failed Uprising of 1857.

Social media versus mainstream media and how the former salvaged my novel !!

Social media versus conventional media - well I can go on and on about it but I will leave the broader topic for the experts and only talk about my own experience.

I have been interested in history from ever since I can remember. In early nineties I dropped out of medical college and suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. I discovered to my surprise that after reading one book on 'Mutiny' of 1857 I suddenly got hooked on to the topic. I read almost forty books on the subject over the  next few years. I then read almost everything there was to read on the internet. Then I moved on to actual historical papers in archives the ones the professional researchers should be reading but often do not.

I had hoped to write a book on the subject but not being able to control myself I churned a number of articles as a start, forgetting about the book for sometime. It was a different time altogether for traditional media, being yet free from clutches of revenue driven bosses. The editor still decided the content of newspapers. But the winds of change were already knocking at the doors of traditional media. Gradually, and I think it was precisely when traditional media, the newspapers really, turned colourful shedding the black and white past which had lasted nearly a century and a half. Suddenly the media content was in the hands of an unknown force and not the editor. They no longer wanted articles on history and I stopped trying to push my stuff.

It was suddenly 2008 and it dawned on the lazy me that this was the 150th anniversary year of 1857! I wanted to make it memorable for myself and for everybody interested in the event. Surprisingly not everyone, even in UP, the very epicentre of The Great Uprising of 1857, was interested ! I had hoped that a lot of books would be released but there were few very few.

Three to four months before the 150th anniversary year was due to end I suddenly decided to have my own book released. I had a nearly half finished novel, a historical novel, based on the events of 1857 and decided to complete it. It was hard very hard and the anxiety of finding a publisher always troubled me. Somehow I completed the novel though I amazed myself with the energy that I suddenly discovered while writing Recalcitrance, as I would later call the novel. My brother who works for a multinational company and is more than busy was kind enough to edit it. He did a very good job but he neither had time nor is a professional editor but somehow we were ready with a printable book. Less than a month was left for the 150th anniversary to end. I made a very wise decision then. I approached the only known printer publisher of some repute in Lucknow and told him to print the book. I was always very short of funds being a man of many unnecessary expenditures and small income but I was panicky and spent almost all my savings.

This was not the hardest part as one might imagine, it was still to come.

At this point I am tempted to criticize UP my state and its academics but maybe I would be making very broad generalizations so I must restrain myself.

I am a very unsocial being, not proud of it, but that is a fact. Most of my life has been spent in libraries. I did not have the courage to go to every editor in Lucknow and talk about my novel which incidentally was the only novel to be released in 150th anniversary year of 1857. I imagined that the editors would be thrilled beyond words and would invite me for a chat. I cannot say that it did not happen. A couple of papers did publish my interview but that was it!

I can say with some confidence that not even a single copy of the book was sold due to exposure by the aforementioned newspapers. They somehow were not the papers the book buying people in Lucknow read. The book buying paper in Lucknow never responded to my repeated letters to the editor. Perhaps they did not find my book good enough, was what I thought back then but now I know for sure that the editor I wrote to had virtually no control on the content of the supplement I was hoping would carry my interview. That control was with revenue driven bosses.

Then I suddenly discovered the world of blogs! I wrote a detailed blog about my novel. Soon after I was introduced to twitter and then to facebook. It was almost as if I had crash landed into a new world. A lot of people started connecting with me when they came to know about my novel. It helped that there was only one novel in whole of India at that time connected with the 'Mutiny'.

Major book chains like, you know the big guys refused to stock my novel; only a few old book stores in Lucknow were kind enough to stock it. I was very fortunate that the biggest book store in UP - Universal Booksellers in Hazratganj were rather enthusiastic in selling my novel.

But almost all my sales even local ones had their origins on either twitter or facebook.

On twitter I met some wonderful people who very kindly reviewed my novel on their blogs. I knew for sure that none of the professional reviewers in India would touch my novel with a barge pole. Perhaps they have good reasons for doing that perhaps they would have reviewed it after all but I never knew how to approach them back then.

Recently I came across an article in which Guy Kawasaki describes his experiences regarding self publishing and without knowing him I was doing something very similar to what he did. He criticizes mainstream publishers, I want to criticize them too but I know it is not going to help. They will do things exactly as they have been doing it and maybe will eventually have to close shop as Guy Kawasaki predicts who knows?

Meanwhile the very same people who helped me sell my first novel Recalcitrance by their combined efforts have forced me to write its sequel Remembrance and I am spending major part of the nights these days surfing the internet for finding ways to inform its potential readers that what they were looking for has suddenly started to exist but it is a long and hard journey and I know only social media can help me connect...