 Red Room Writer Profile
|
|
Sunny Singh's Blog
November 20, 2009
- I have been thinking about deception quite a bit recently. As children, we grew up in the smoke-and-mirrors world of international espionage thanks to my father’s career in the government. In that world, deception was the norm: people were never who they said they were; information was always suspect, to be double and treble checked with multiple sources before it could be believed; potential ...
- Continue Reading » 3 Comments
November 14, 2009
- This past week was my mother’s birthday. I called to wish her in the morning and then headed to work. On the way to the tube stop, a strange thing happened: I caught a glimpse of myself in a shop window and was startled enough to stop and stare at the reflection. Somehow, for the first time in my life, I reminded myself of my mother. Not resembled her, but somehow echoed her. And that was ...
- Continue Reading » 3 Comments
November 4, 2009
- For the first time in my life, this past week I felt pity. It may sound strange as the word is so commonplace and yet it was profound experience. As a writer, I am fascinated by the near impossible challenge of capturing human experience in words. It is the ultimate paradox: to attempt to capture the subtleties, complexities and vastness of human experience with materials and tools that are ...
- Continue Reading » 4 Comments
October 8, 2009
- As if this morning's news were not nauseating enough, apparently Nico Sarkozy - yes, him of the model wife and high heeled shoes fame - found Mitterrand's tell all "autobiographical novel" with lurid details of paying Thai boys for sex and orgasmic descriptions of being turned on by the "slave market" (Mitterrand's terms) not only acceptable but also: "courageous and ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
October 8, 2009
- When the Roman Polanski story broke, I pretty much ignored it: A paedophile, albeit a very successful and famous one, was finally brought to book and about time. Then the media circus started, led by Polanski's equally or more successful and famous friends who insisted that "genius" was beyond mortal reaches of the law; that he had "suffered" already by losing his wife to a ...
- Continue Reading » 5 Comments
July 25, 2009
- First of all a confession: of all columnists spouting their views in British mainstream media, I believe Johann Hari to be one of the best. His arguments are well researched and well made. Plus, his liberal (as opposed to left-of-centre) views are refreshing in a world where opinions of everything from the colour of Michelle Obama's clothes to piracy off the coast of Somalia are tainted by ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
July 22, 2009
- The July 2009 issue of the ArtCiencia carries the text of an email interview that Dr. Nilanshu Agarwal conducted with me last year. The interview covers a host of topics including postcoloniality, literature, and writing.Enjoy!
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
June 23, 2009
- As an "eastern" woman who has lived nearly half her life in the "west," I can admit to a personal interests in debates that tackle issues of gender, race, colonialist history and sex. After all it is an immensely rich vein to mine for political, social, emotional narratives. So I was obviously intrigued by a book review emailed to me about Richard Bernstein's The East, The ...
- Continue Reading » 4 Comments
June 12, 2009
- The summer issue of The Drawbridge is now out. Available online as well at major bookstores, the issue carries writing by Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago and the Latin American great Mario Vargas Llosa. It also has a new translation of a short story by Sadat Hasan Manto, as well as contemporary writers: Vicenzo Ruggiero, Etgar Keret. It also carries a short story that I wrote last year. I will write ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
April 22, 2009
- Full disclosure: This piece was written immediately after the Abu Ghraib story broke. It was meant for an anthology on America and torture but never published. Think its a good moment to share it what with the new torture memos being released: Pentagon says response to controversial ad overwhelming By: Jeffrey DahmerWASHINGTON, April 1: Pentagon officials announced today that the response to a ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
March 8, 2009
- Last couple of weeks have been all about writing: On a personal level, I have a minor writers' block - not the kind that goes on forever, but the sort where ideas and sentences flicker in and out of consciousness, too vague, too fast, too out of reach to make sense. Having been in this state before, I am just getting on with things until the block dissipates: watching interminable hours of ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
February 28, 2009
- Last year, well before the now-ubiquitously adored Slumdog Millionaire was released, I promised myself that I would not add to the general hysteria. There were two reasons for it: the film promised to push every ideological and political button I have (for the record, it does!); and second, having followed similar mass marketing exercises about India before, I knew that all dissenting voices ...
- Continue Reading » 4 Comments
February 11, 2009
- A couple of years ago, a friend was on a business trip from Delhi and we decided to head out to Brighton for the weekend. Not, mind you, because Brighton was particularly attractive but because she had read about the place in all those old English romance novels. Then a couple of other friends - also from Delhi and travelling through the UK - joined us. Finally, there were about half dozen Indian ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
January 8, 2009
- There is that old adage that "history is written by the victors." And that has indeed been true for much of human history. Yet something has shifted with the technology that now global communication systems. No longer can a government dictate what gets reported. No longer can a newspaper or television channel be the sole determinant of who and what gets counted as news, and therefore, ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
January 6, 2009
- I first learned of Gilad Atzmon through his music, hearing him play at the Jamboree in Barcelona. I have since managed to get to another concert - this time in London - and have his CDs on my iPoD. I have also learned to be careful with his music - a die-hard Israel-supporting acquaintance stormed out of a party simply because I put on Atzmon. A colleague told me that there were Jewish homes in ...
- Continue Reading » 0 Comments
