Vengeance of Ravana: Book 7 of The Ramayana Series – on the path to publication
This is the almost final cover design for the Penguin India edition of VENGEANCE OF RAVANA: Book 7 of The Ramayana. I’m posting it here along with some good news. The first is that I have finally resolved the textual issues I had with the manuscripts of VoR and SoS and as a result I’ve finally (finally-finally-finally!) decided that both books ought to be published. This means that the series will end at eight books, not six or seven, and that I have finally been able to deal with the Sita banishment issue in a manner with which I feel satisfied. It’s only taken me six years – which is longer than it took me to write the first six books in the series! But it’s done. VoR will be released in a mass market edition by Penguin in a few months, followed within three months by the mass market edition of SoS. I’ll confirm publication dates once Penguin informs me of the same.
For those of you – “you few, you happy few!” – who’ve bought and read the exclusive limited signed AKB BOOKS edition of VoR and have ordered the exclusive limited signed AKB BOOKS edition of SoS, this may not be reason to jump up and down, which is bad for your joints anyway. But for the vast majority of Ramayana Series readers out there, I’m sure you will be happy to see why I chose to rescind my own earlier decision to end the series at six books and chose to continue it in these two additional volumes. I can’t promise that the answers I provide in these two books will please everyone. Indeed, they may please no one. Because the point of writing these books is not to please or displease, it’s simply to complete the mental journey I embarked upon when I began writing Prince of Ayodhya and finished that first book way back in the year 2000, long before any publisher was willing to even look at such a manuscript, let alone publish it. Today, I have journalists, readers, editors, booksellers, publishers and others who keep writing to me and telling me that I’m responsible for a wave of resurgence in Indian mythology. I really don’t give a damn about any resurgence or the commercial ramifications of making mythology “cool” as one editor put it. What I do care about is the wealth of great Indian literature that has been ignored by the world for so long in favour of other mythologies and legends of the western hemisphere and that deserves a wider readership and exposure.
As I’ve always said to anyone who praised me for the series: This is not about me. It’s not my story alone. It’s our story. Our history in fact. I’m proud and happy to have been the one to retell it in my humble and flawed attempt. But I’m not anyone special or talented for having done it, just a product of a great culture and people that share one of the world’s finest storytelling traditions. In my opinion, the finest.
The Lit Agent Who Lit Out
It’s often easy to slot people by their professions, and to slot those professions into narrow pigeon-holes of assumptive cliche. Publishing is one such profession which you’d rarely associate with things like sex scandals, corruption, financial theft, fraud, and the like. Yet, these things are more common than you may think even in the hallowed halls of high literature. What’s surprising is how many of these cases never make it to the public eye, due in part to publishing’s strong ties to and back-office control of the news media. Most publishing firms are owned by MNC conglomerates that also own or control news media as well. So it’s a simple enough matter to kill a potential scandal or douse a smoldering spark before it reaches ignition point. It happened most recently in the Penguin Canada sex scandal where the truth about what went on behind closed doors was effectively bought off and silenced by Penguin’s fat chequebook and pressure to clean house. And it happens in Indian publishing far more regularly than you will ever know through the media because the media has a vested interest in keeping a lid on such things. You’ll also find many people online, several anonymous, ranting against the very possibility of such things happening in their hallowed profession, lionizing the very perpetrators of such crimes, and demonizing anyone who dares to even suggest that they are tainted.
This happened in the Harriet Wasserman case in the USA. And due to this very closed-circuit approach in publishing and the media, it took its time coming out in the open. But in the end, it was too big a scandal and too blatant a crime to be covered up. There was also the fact that the victims weren’t mid-level employees like Lisa Rundle, they were well-known authors. And there was a fair amount of money involved.
So what was the Harriet Wasserman scandal about? Well, there are a couple of things about the case that didn’t come out – or were not permitted to come out fully – such as a drug habit and the fact that such pilfering by literary agents in the USA is not unknown or unheard-of, especially during recessionary times. But the blatant misuse of funds, the unprofessional attraction to a client, and the thriller-like ‘disappearance’ all made the case just too juicy to cover up completely. To quote the literary news aggregating blog The Daily Beast, a prestigious site run by former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown:
Most infamously, Wasserman also represented Saul Bellow, whom she was madly in love with, as she wrote in her tragically confessional 1997 memoir, Handsome Is (the title refers to Bellow). Bellow had other plans with other agents; he left Wasserman for Andrew Wylie in 1993. That, thinks Mooney, is when Wasserman began a long decline, one that her other clients would not realize until it was too late.
“When Saul, whom she just adored, left her for Wylie, she thought, f— it,” says Mooney, trying to make heads or tails of what happened next. Several people contacted for this article gave the same story: over the coming years, Wasserman’s clients, in increasing numbers, began to question her stability, and the attention being paid to their works being pushed out into the world. Aggressive representation and vigorous attention, it seems, were exactly what Mooney had needed those other times.
News and Updates: The latest from the Bankerverse (again)
As with the last update on 11th June, those of you who’ve been keeping tabs on the right-hand News & Updates column may not find many surprises here. But there was one important announcement that wasn’t in that last update and a couple of minor ones, so here goes…
Waiting eagerly for my next books? Book your copies now!
AKB Books, the limited signed editions of a few select titles of my work, available exclusively via this website, are all currently sold out. However, if you wish to ensure your copy of any forthcoming AKB Books title, all you have to do is fill in the Request Form to book your copies! Don’t worry about payment – you will be contacted once the book is available and informed of the necessary details.
AKB MBA is on its way at last!
After all the ups and downs of the past several months (and years), I have finally found a way to share my Mahabharata retelling with all those of you interested in reading it. No, it still won’t be mass published and distributed in bookstores worldwide – I’ve already explained earlier why that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon – but it will be available from this website in a few months, before the end of this year. If you wish to ensure your copy, please fill in the Request Form now, and keep in touch with this website from time to time.
THE VALMIKI SYNDROME
Next in line for publication is THE VALMIKI SYNDROME, my first major non-fiction book being published by Random House India in a few months. As mentioned earlier, I have chosen not to offer any sneak peeks, previews or sample chapters from this book, unlike all my earlier titles. In fact, I’m not saying a word about this book until it’s released! You’ll just have to wait and see what it’s about.
SLAYER OF KAMSA
As outlined in my Epic India Library plan, my Mba Series will run in parallel with the Krishna Coriolis. While my Mba will be available exclusively via this website, the Krishna Coriolis series will be on bookshelves across India, thanks to HarperCollins India, the publishers! The first book, SLAYER OF KAMSA, will be out in stores before the end of 2010. The series is an action-packed retelling of the life and adventures of Lord Krishna from before his birth until after his death on the mortal plane, written in a narrative style suitable for Young Adult readers. The Krishna books will be much shorter than the Ramayana Series books and written in a far more compact and thrilling narrative style. SLAYER OF KAMSA will be followed soon after by DANCE OF GOVINDA. These first two books in the series will follow Krishna’s story from before his birth until the day he confronts and kills Kamsa. I’ll post excerpts as well as the cover design here sometime in August. So don’t forget to check back!
SONS OF SITA
Delayed but not forgotten! My seemingly interminable revisions are finally approaching an end. As I’ve mentioned earlier, after considerable thought, I decided to cancel mass market publication of Vengeance of Ravana, extract a substantial portion of that book (VoR) and add it to the manuscript of SoS. That required a fair amount of revision and rewriting, hence the delay. Many of you have pre-ordered copies of SoS and have been waiting eagerly for them. Once again, apologies for the delay and thanks for your patience. SONS OF SITA will be available in its signed limited AKB Books Edition in August. For those of you who have been asking, there will be a few copies of VENGEANCE OF RAVANA also available. Please note that I’m unable to inform each person individually by email, so you will have to keep in touch with this website for further updates.
PRINCE OF AYODHYA, the Graphic Novel
The first volume of my long-awaited graphic novel adaptation of my Ramayana Series, written by me and illustrated by Argentinian artist Enrique (Quique) Alcatena is ready to enter the publication pipeline. Those of you who have seen sample artwork from this comic or have been following its development for the past several years will be aware how much work and patience has gone into its creation. I will confirm publication dates in a month or two, once I know for sure.
TEN KINGS
My first historical battle epic, TEN KINGS based on the Dasarajna incident in the Rig Veda, has been bought by new imprint Amaryllis Books in a very good deal. Thanks to Jay and Priya of Jacaranda, and Sanjana Roy Choudhury, Chief Editor of Amaryllis! TEN KINGS will also be my first book published in Hindi and other Indian languages. The book is currently scheduled for mass market publication in January 2011. If you thought my Ramayana Series was good, and if you think my Krishna books are action-packed and fast-paced, then just wait until you read TEN KINGS. It’s by far my best book ever. A great story, a magnificent battle epic, and a historic saga of the founding of the Bharata nation.
THE KALI QUARTET
A BLOOD RED SAREE opens my first contemporary fiction series, The Kali Quartet. This is a global thriller featuring three strong women protagonists who are caught up in a major financial conspiracy involving financial institutions secretly profiting from human trafficking. This is likely to be my next internationally published series as well and currently, my agents are fielding offers from Indian publishers for subcontinental rights. I’ll update when I know more, but look at this as my next major work for the next few years, now that my Ramayana Series, Mba, Krishna Series are all complete and in the publication pipeline. It’s also, in my humble opinion, my best work ever! 
More news and updates every month from now on…
A BLOOD RED SAREE – Book 1 of The Kali Quartet
This is an earlier post (from May) which I’m reproducing here as this is going to be my next major publication after TEN KINGS. As I write these words, at least two major publishers are in negotiations with my agents to purchase publishing rights to The Kali Quartet. It will be at least a week or two, possibly even several weeks, before I’m able to confirm which publisher and roughly when the first book, A BLOOD RED SAREE, will be released. But for the moment, I thought these brief notes would help keep you informed about this, perhaps my most ambitious contemporary fiction series ever.
Some of you have been writing in asking me about The Kali Quartet. Some have assumed it’s another mythological epic like my Ramayana Series. I thought I would set your minds at rest and tell you a little about this upcoming project.
For one thing, The Kali Quartet has nothing to do with the Ramayana Series or mythology. The ‘Kali’ reference is just that, a reference. The story is completely contemporary.
So without further ado, here’s a short note on The Kali Quartet and the first book in the four-ology, A BLOOD RED SAREE.
The Kali Quartet by Ashok Banker
A BLOOD RED SAREE
THE BURNING SAFFRON SKY
THE AGE OF KALI
THE COLOUR OF RAIN
A Blood Red Saree
- Synopsis
Three abused women unite under the guidance of a mysterious American benefactor to battle a powerful conglomerate profiting from the trafficking of women and children.
An international conglomerate of financial masterminds is secretly funding human trafficking and passing off the multi-billion dollar profits as a legitimate international investment opportunity.
Can three ordinary women stop this barbaric conspiracy of profit? They are not alone in their fight for justice. A powerful caucus of wealthy high-placed women in Washington DC led by the First Lady herself meet in the White House to pledge to end this despicable business. With financial aid and secret information from these anonymous benefactors, the three women form a Trimurti, a sacred troika.
Now, the battle is on as each of them uses her considerable skills and determination to attack on a number of fronts: legal, financial, and when all else fails, through violent confrontation.
One will not survive, the other two will face brutal opposition and immense challenges. Like three aspects of the Eternal Goddess KALI herself, they risk their lives and loves in a struggle to the death.
Each volume of THE KALI QUARTET is complete in itself, while forming a section of the larger story. Read consecutively, this is one epic thriller in four volumes.
- Series Synopsis
Sheila Ray: daughter of a disgraced dead police officer, she’s finally put her traumatic childhood behind her to establish the first successful women’s gym in Kolkata. When she protects a pair of persecuted lesbian Olympic women boxers from a vengeful politician, she finds herself literally under fire and on the run both from the powerful forces running the Maoist insurgency in India, as well as the Government and police.
Nachiketa Shroff: her ex-husband and his family’s attempt to kill her for not bringing a dowry for her arranged marriage put her in a wheelchair for life; after using the law to destroy them financially, she now runs her own NGO offering free legal representation to battered Indian women. But when her office burns down, destroying a decade’s work and almost killing her (again), she knows it’s time to step up the activism and go after the people at the top of the pyramid of exploitation.
Anita B: The first Indian woman private investigator, unabashed lesbian and LTBG activist, she returns home to Kerala to attend the funeral of her childhood best friend and runs smack into a cobra’s nest of trouble. Not only was her friend murdered for opposing the development of a major five star tourist resort but Anita’s own misogynist brothers are part of a ring of child traffickers using a Christian mission and orphanage as a cover.
Three women, each of whom has been abused by men in different ways and has built a life and reputation designed to help other women from similar abuse, are unwittingly drawn into a web of international human traffickers. Working alone at first, each discovers a different face of the hydra-headed monster that is modern-day slavery. Their individual quests for justice and survival lead them up to the top of the pyramid of power, where they discover a terrible secret. An international conglomerate of financial masterminds – bankers, insurance executives, fund managers – who are secretly funding illegitimate activities such as the enslaving of women and children in the third world, drug trafficking and even terrorism, and then whitewashing the multi-billion dollar profits under the guise of a legitimate international investment opportunity!
The stakes are phenomenally high, the parties involved are the Who’s Who of the financial and political world, and their resources immensely powerful. What can three women do to stop this barbaric conspiracy of profit?
But they are not alone in their fight for justice. An equally powerful caucus of wealthy high-placed women in Washington, DC, led by the First Lady herself, meet in the White House to pledge to end this despicable business. With financial aid and secret information from these anonymous benefactors, the three women are able to form a Trimurti, a sacred troika, and unite together.
Now, the battle is on as each of them uses her considerable skills and determination to fight the forces of unbridled profit by attacking on a number of fronts: legal, financial, and when all else fails, through violent confrontation.
Like three aspects of the Eternal Goddess KALI herself, they risk their lives and loves in a struggle to the finish. One will not survive, the other two will face brutal opposition and immense challenges. But at the end, they will triumph and succeed in substantially crippling the enterprise and as importantly, exposing it to the world at large.
TEN KINGS: The historic battle that founded the Bharata nation
The 7th Mandala of the Rig Veda (quoted above) tells us of a great and terrible war called Dasarajna: The Battle of Ten Kings. In that legendary conflict, ten major tribal chiefs (kings) of the ancient world sought to displace and destroy Raja Sudas of the Bharata tribe.
The ten kings were supported by numerous individual champions and smaller forces, and were instigated by the great seer Vishwamitra. Many of them were allies of Raja Sudas and traded with the Bharatas and were friendly with them. But that fateful day, they turned against Sudas and his small but strong tribe of Bharatas, surrounded them with forces so superior that Sudas could have no chance of survival.
Their intention was to destroy Sudas and the Bharatas, take them as dasyas (slaves) and divide the Bharata lands and possessions as spoils of war. One day, out of the blue, their great army assembled on the banks of the Parusni river (present day Ravi in the Punjab region) and challenged Raja Sudas.
Vastly outnumbered, outmatched, and outplanned, Sudas should logically have surrendered. But he knew he had done nothing wrong, and being a righteous king, with the support of his people who loved him and respected his leadership, kindness and generosity, he chose to fight.
He was also supported by the spiritual mentorship of his guru, the legendary Vashishta.
And so, upon a stormy day by the banks of the Ravi, the battle was fought.
Legend tells us that in fact, Sudas might well have been Raja Bharat himself, son of Dushyant and Shakuntala, grandson of Vishwamitra.
The Rig Veda tells us that against all odds, Raja Sudas of the Bharatas (hence Bharata-Raja) fought that day against the Ten Kings…and won. The battle was impossible, the victory a miracle. The Rig Veda also tells us that the devas themselves watched from above as the battle progressed, and due to the moral superiority of Raja Sudas, Lord Indra chose to support the Bharatas.
Not only did Sudas and the Bharatas win, they routed the enemy in a massacre that was aided by nature itself, when the river and weather came to their aid. Was it Indra himself or merely a brilliant battle strategy by Raja Sudas? Either way, the Bharatas won the day. And as a result they became the dominant tribe of the Indian sub-continent.
Later, Raja Sudas’s descendants split into the Puru and Kuru lines, and waged another great war for Arya supremacy: the Mahabharata yuddh.
In a way, DASARAJNA (Battle of Ten Kings) was the turning point in the itihasa of the sub-continent.
Because it was by winning that war that King Sudas Bharata established his tribe as the ruling tribe of this part of the world.
And it is in his honour that all people of the sub-continent came to be known in time as Bharatas.
That story has never been before been told in all its glorious detail. Indeed, while the Rig Veda tells us some details of the war and its aftermath, very little is known about why the war began, how it became inevitable, and so on.
It’s a rousing tale filled with intrigues, conspiracies, back-stabbing, fierce erotic encounters, brutal court politics, family conflicts, and race against time in the hours before the battle. All the enemies and allies who will face one another on the battlefield are seen in the first half of the novel, playing their shrewd politics and pretenses in the court of Raja Sudas, pretending to be his allies, his friends, his neighbours, well-wishers, advisers, while secretly plotting and preparing to go to war against him. The reason they do this is because they intend to destroy his kingdom from within first – and if that fails, their armies are already assembled and waiting at the boundary of his kingdom, ready to invade. And as the story progresses and Sudas stands firm to his principles – his dharma – they all desert him, one by one, and go to join the other side, until finally Ten Kings stand against him, outnumbering his force more than ten times.
Leading and instigating them is Anu, the longtime arch-enemy of Sudas and the Bharatas, and Anu’s spiritual adviser, none other than the legendary brahmarishi Vishwamitra (of Ramayana fame). Vishwamitra has an old history of enmity with Sudas’ own adviser, Vashishta, and has an axe to grind by instigating this attack on Sudas and the Bharatas.
DASARAJNA is based on events described in the Rig Veda and confirmed by historians and archaelogists as being a true story. It is the seminal tale of the great battle that established the Bharata nation in the sub-continent which is present day India.
TEN KINGS will be published in English and Indian languages by Amaryllis Books, an imprint of Manjul Publishing, in early 2011.
Request A Book
Hi. As requested by several of you, I’ve created a Request A Book page where you can fill in your details and book a copy of any of the forthcoming AKB BOOKS Limited Editions.
The best thing about it is that you don’t need to pay in advance to place a request. That’s why it’s called a Request and not an Order. Even if you already have my bank details, please DO NOT pay or transfer money for any book. That’s why I haven’t mentioned any prices either.
Once each book is printed and copies are ready to despatch, you will be contacted and informed of all necessary details such as price, etc. At that point, you can choose whether to buy it or not, change your delivery details, ask for more than one copy, etc.
Unlike previous AKB BOOKS, these titles will NOT be personalized. That means that when I sign each copy, I will not be able to address it to you or anyone else by name. It will only be signed by me.
Right now, all you need to do is fill up the Request Form, providing all the details correctly as of this point in time, and selecting the titles you are interested in getting – you can always change your mind and details later. This form is just a way to Book your copy of each of these AKB BOOKS Limited Editions so I know roughly how many copies of each one to order from the printer.
And you don’t actually have to pay even a rupee in advance!
Isn’t that cool? Well, what are you waiting for then? Go for it!
Mba: The Limited Edition – okay, let’s do it!
Thanks to one of those extraordinary events that nobody can predict, the situation with my Mba has changed. I’m not going to explain what happened and go into details here, but let’s just say it’s completely unexpected and out of the blue. In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have guessed this would happen and the fact that it did is probably the exception rather than the rule.
First the not-so-good news. This doesn’t change the situation completely. I still don’t know if or when the series will be published in the mass market. Probably never. So those of you who have been voting to buy copies after they’re available in bookstores – or even to buy the full series once it’s in bookstores – you’re not likely to get that chance.
But for those of you who have voted (and are still voting) to pre-order a copy or buy it once it’s available here from AKB Books, well, this news is meant for you all! In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that all those who voted for Option 1 in the poll – you are the ones who gave me the motivation to do this. If you’re so eager and willing to pay to get the AKB Mba in hand, then I’m willing to bring it out in a limited AKB Books edition. It won’t find the much larger audience that it probably deserves (in my humble opinion) but at least it will reach those who want it the most.
In fact, you guys are willing to pay in advance and pre-order it, but I’m not going to ask you to do that. It’s enough that you’re willing to order it online and that there are enough of you who do for me to issue it in this limited edition for you. There will be no pre-orders or advance bookings as I’ve experienced too many delays and put you through too many postponed deadlines already. This time, I’ll wait until I have the printed copies in hand, and then offer it for sale via this website.
The good news is that I will be accepting all major credit cards as well as direct bank transfers and payment via cash deposit. There will be only a limited number of copies and each volume of the series will be available for a limited time only. But at least it will be available in this way. The limited number of copies means that you will need to place your order at the right time and make the payment promptly.
I don’t have a definite date for the release of volume one yet. But I’m hoping to be able to offer it by November or December this year. That means that copies will be ready to order in November of December 2010 and are likely to sell out within a few days of opening orders. It could even be sooner, it’s possible.
Due to the limited number of copies I’m able to offer this way, and the presumably large number of readers who would be interested, I’ll be giving first priority to those who have ordered books issued under my AKB Books imprint already. I already have your email addresses and will be emailing you closer to the release date. But mainly I’ll be using this website to post the information and so I’d request you to kindly keep in touch and visit here as often as possible.
This is official and confirmed by me – the first book of Mba will be printed sometime before the end of 2010 and will be available in a limited edition exclusively via this website. It will not be available in bookstores anywhere. I can’t confirm about overseas orders just yet but they’re highly unlikely. If I’m able to offer them, they will be at a high price, I’m afraid, as the bookstore had serious issues despatching boooks via postal service earlier. The only option would be courier and that would cost far more than the cost of the book itself.
I’m also able to confirm that the Krishna Coriolis will be published in full – all 8 volumes, not just the first two. And that, as planned, it will run in parallel to the Mba series. Ideally, both should be read together since the Krishna Coriolis is actually the Harivamsha section of the Mahabharata, split into a separate series by me because the main Mba was getting too massive already.
And finally, the Mba books offered via AKB Books will be more expensive than regular mass market books that you find in your local bookstore. That’s the price of a limited edition.
So to sum up:
1. AKB Mba will be published after all – but only in a limited edition available directly via this website.
2. There will be no pre-orders or advance bookings and payment. Payment will be accepted only once the book is ready for immediate despatch.
3. The first volume should be printed by November or December 2010.
4. Keep in touch regularly with this website – it’s the only way to be sure you know when the first book of the Mba is out, and the only way you can order a copy.
5. Due to the limited print run, only one copy per order will be despatched and once the print run is sold out, it will not be reprinted – that will be the first and last edition issued by AKB Books, truly Limited Collector’s editions.
I guess you should know that by doing this, I will lose money. A lot of it. The higher price per copy won’t make a great difference – the reason for the higher price is because publishing is economical only when printed in large quantities on offset. This limited AKB Books edition of the Mba will be for you loyal readers, and you alone. Why did I change my mind and decide to do it this way after all? Well, that’s just it. I didn’t change my mind. Something happened that nobody could have expected, and it changed the situation dramatically.
Better an epic read by a few than by none. Keep in touch! Don’t be a stranger, wokay!
Indian media, PR and publishing pros continue cover-up of Davidar sex scandal, attack critics and victims
FINAL UPDATE 7 JULY: DAVIDAR/PENGUIN SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT CASE SETTLED OUT OF COURT, DEFENDANTS MUZZLED. As expected (and as predicted by me), the Davidar case has been settled for an undisclosed but allegedly quite substantial sum of money. So much for all the Davidar apologists who defended him in the face of his predatory sexual behavior and insisted that ‘the truth’ would come out in court. Apparently, the truth has been paid off and silenced. Money speaks louder than truth after all. One thing is clear though: No innocent person settles out of court. An innocent man would want his day in court to clear his name. That says it all.
IMPORTANT (& HOPEFULLY FINAL) UPDATE 21 JUNE: DAVIDAR ADMITS ALL, ATTEMPTS DAMAGE CONTROL BY CALLING RELATIONSHIP ‘CONSENSUAL’. David Davidar has issued a statement via his lawyer admitting that he did indeed enter into an improper relationship with the former employee Lisa Rundle. You can click here to read the statement or right-click to download it. Someone should inform him that when a married man enters into a sexual relationship with a subordinate, gives her gifts, lunches, hotel stays (all on company expense), and even a pay raise and promotion (despite a company wide freeze), it’s called SEXUAL HARASSMENT and INFIDELITY. The latter may not be punishable by law. The former definitely is. I stand vindicated now as one of the few publishing professionals who have known Davidar personally and been well aware of his past history of similar sexual harassment. You can call it ‘Romantic Obsession’ or whatever else you like, it still comes down to the same thing – the dude gets sexually fixated on women co-workers to the point of a sick obsession. He needs help. His victims deserve justice.
Note: 18 June: My posts on the David Davidar sexual assault lawsuit and the subsequent cover-up and media manipulation by his friends in India attracted more hits than my host servers could handle. For only the second time since I started blogging, my blog servers crashed. I had no choice but to temporarily turn the Davidar posts to a private status and wait until the click-frenzy died down. I’m now cautiously making them public again but will watch and see. There’s little point in having a blog if even I can’t access it to update or reply to comments. Speaking of which, I’m not accepting further comments on the Davidar issue – nor am I interested in giving quotes to any media persons, so please don’t ask again.
The media scandal in India continues with the publishing world continuing to reject the testimonies of both victims as well as other women bloggers who have come forward and written about the widespread prevalence of sexual harassment in Canadian publishing – and publishing in general. The Beatification of Davidar continues as former colleagues and present high-ranking editors and publishing professionals express outrage not at Davidar’s alleged misbehavior but at people (like myself, I suppose) who could even think that he’s capable of such misbehavior.
In a telling quote from one of the rare balanced articles about the sex scandal, an online journal named Open Magazine (which I only just discovered existed) had this telling line:
Perspective is hard to come by when the public mood is so completely one of adulation.
My point exactly: The issue isn’t whether or not David was a good publishing professional, a great man, wonderful husband, etc, etc, but why the India media world is maintaing such a tight-lipped silence on this explosive news story. And why those few (like myself) who are daring to speak out and question this media silence are being threatened and vilified in the media through a concerted campaign of lies, half-truths and outright defamation.
Several bloggers and Twitterati have even resorted to a smear campaign against me now – in particular negative-PR expert and frequent abuser of online forums Surekha Pillai has begun making personal attacks on me, while Twitter users @nikhilnarayanan @vrsaju @twilightfairy and numerous commentators on Sepiamutiny.com have begun attacking the messenger with a vengeance. Perhaps someone should tell them not to take the David Davidar case so personally – unless, that is, they have been on the giving or receiving end of such things themselves!
In one case, an anonymous Twitterati calling itself @indiafiles cooked up a fictional ‘news story’ he/she claimed to have read in which I apparently complained about David Davidar rejecting my novel. Lol. People who indulge in character assassination should get their facts right: I have rejected several contracts offered to me by David over the years, and in fact, the contracts signed with David (and Penguin India) out-number those with any other publisher in my entire career. Since I’ve been called out on this yet again, let me mention the number: 37 contracts. That’s right. 37 contracts with a single publisher. The royalties alone run into several tens of lakhs of rupees, by the way. I may be critical of David’s sexual predatory behaviour, but I am not doing so because I didn’t get a book deal with him! I think that tells you how vicious and unfounded these lies are and how low people like this @indiafiles can stoop to divert attention from the real story here. This is how websites like Twitter and Facebook empower trash talking gossip-mongers. I am now considering legal action against the above-mentioned. It will be interesting to see how they prove their lies and bullshit in court. Let me recheck that Twitter handle: Is it @indiafiles or @indialies?
Further tweets from @ravikapoor, a self-described “celebrity gossip blogger”, @shwetakapur “gossip queen”, and @twilightfairy who is in fact Priyanka Sachar, an amateur photographer continue the campaign of vilification against me personally, shrewdly attempting to deflect attention from the real issues here. Self-described PR professional @surekhapillai continues to misuse a public medium to hurl personal insults while calling herself a “victim”, perhaps forgetting that the only victims here are the women sexually harassed and assaulted by Davidar. The fact that authorities at Twitter itself (among other social networking sites) have tagged their tweets as potentially offensive and objectionable on various grounds – @surekhapillai refers to me as “people like Banker”, suggesting a religious and cultural bias – and have been forwarding their tweets to me with the disclaimer that the website is not responsible for the content generated by users only enhances my case of criminal defamation against these individuals and their employers, should I choose to pursue legal action.
This is a predictable tactic online these days – if you don’t like what the person is saying or the point being made, make up a story about the person himself, and smear him using any means available. In addition, one or more persons have been going around websites and leaving incendiary comments claiming to have been made by me. (Someone should tell them that from early 2010 I have been on a strict blog-only policy – I deleted my Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and other social networking accounts and have a strict policy of not commenting on any other blog except this one, my own.)
This pathetic attempt at a personal smear campaign underlines the very issue I’m trying to raise. Need I even point out the fact that if so many people feel the need to attack me personally, it’s clearly their way of deflecting attention from the real issue at hand? Especially when some of those named here are known to blog and Tweet paid messages on behalf of their clients. All they do is prove my point about the cover-up by the media and such celebrity Twitterati in an ongoing campaign to attack all critics of Davidar – including the victims and bloggers like myself – through such intimidation and abuse, perhaps in the hope of scaring away other women who have been similarly abused and assaulted by men like Davidar in publishing.
Meanwhile, the Indian media maintains a stubborn silence, continuing the cover-up of the Davidar’s case and proving yet again that Indian media is bought, controlled, manipulated and managed by the rich and powerful in this country. Is there really any hope for the case itself?
Davidar’s supporters insist that we should all wait for the court case and let the courts decide (although they continue to protest Davidar’s innocence loudly and repeatedly, thereby proving their own bias and attempting to influence public opinion in the aggressor’s favour).
To that I have only one rejoinder: Warren Anderson.
Yes, of course, justice is always done in court and the guilty always booked. (I’m being sarcastic, by the way.)
And no doubt even if Davidar is found guilty, his supporters and the many paid campaigners speaking out against his critics will find some way to spin even that guilty verdict into something akin to martyrdom for the beleaguered Saint of Indian Publishing and Media.
Meanwhile, individual voices continue to emerge commenting on various aspects of the case:
Read this article on Penguin’s mismanagement of the scandal.
Read this view on the issue as well.
And finally this very sensible commentary.
There IS a casting couch in publishing, it just comes AFTER you land the job, that’s all
FINAL UPDATE 7 JULY: DAVIDAR/PENGUIN SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT CASE SETTLED OUT OF COURT, DEFENDANTS MUZZLED. As expected (and as predicted by me), the Davidar case has been settled for an undisclosed but allegedly quite substantial sum of money. So much for all the Davidar apologists who defended him in the face of his predatory sexual behavior and insisted that ‘the truth’ would come out in court. Apparently, the truth has been paid off and silenced. Money speaks louder than truth after all. One thing is clear though: No innocent person settles out of court. An innocent man would want his day in court to clear his name. That says it all.
IMPORTANT (& HOPEFULLY FINAL) UPDATE 21 JUNE: DAVIDAR ADMITS ALL, ATTEMPTS DAMAGE CONTROL BY CALLING RELATIONSHIP ‘CONSENSUAL’. David Davidar has issued a statement via his lawyer admitting that he did indeed enter into an improper relationship with the former employee Lisa Rundle. You can click here to read the statement or right-click to download it. Someone should inform him that when a married man enters into a sexual relationship with a subordinate, gives her gifts, lunches, hotel stays (all on company expense), and even a pay raise and promotion (despite a company wide freeze), it’s called SEXUAL HARASSMENT and INFIDELITY. The latter may not be punishable by law. The former definitely is. I stand vindicated now as one of the few publishing professionals who have known Davidar personally and been well aware of his past history of similar sexual harassment. You can call it ‘Romantic Obsession’ or whatever else you like, it still comes down to the same thing – the dude gets sexually fixated on women co-workers to the point of a sick obsession. He needs help. His victims deserve justice.
Note: My posts on the David Davidar sexual assault lawsuit and the subsequent cover-up and media manipulation by his friends in India attracted more hits than my host servers could handle. For only the second time since I started blogging, my blog servers crashed. I had no choice but to temporarily turn the Davidar posts to a private status and wait until the click-frenzy died down. I’m now cautiously making them public again but will watch and see. There’s little point in having a blog if even I can’t access it to update or reply to comments. Speaking of which, I’m not accepting further comments on the Davidar issue – nor am I interested in giving quotes to any media persons, so please don’t ask again.
In the wake of the David Davidar Penguin Canada sexual harassment lawsuit and the subsequent despicable media manipulation on the part of his friends in the India media, here’s another woman who’s dared to speak out against the powers that be. She tells it like it really is in Canadian publishing – and this was a firm that wasn’t sued for sexual harassment. Now that Davidar has been accused by two former employees, both of whom were asked to shut up by Penguin management, it raises the question: How many women are unable to afford the expense, time, physical and emotional stress of a legal trial? How many stay quiet in order to continue working in publishing? And most of all, how many successful highly placed women in publishing simply accept the situation, make the best they can of it either by gritting their teeth and tolerating some level of daily harassment or sadly, giving in to it and using it to bolster their career prospects? How many more David Davidars are there in publishing?
But most of all, I’m still asking the same question: Why is the Indian media so silent when a rich, powerful, charismatic, exceptionally successful Indian male is accused of such charges? And why are so many people in publishing still defending him even as new and more revealing facts continue to emerge about the prevalence of sexual harassment in publishing?
Here’s an excerpt from the blog post in question:
I worked in an office of all women, save for the two six-month terms the two males lasted. Other than Supervisor, we were all under 30 when we were hired, and for most of us it was our first real job in publishing, after school and internships.
The atmosphere at the office was very casual. We were encouraged to view each other more as friends than co-workers.
Interestingly enough, it sounds exactly like the atmosphere at Penguin India described by Davidar’s defenders! (Although of course, it’s not – this is a Canadian publishing house she’s describing, but it raises the point that sexual harassment and gender bias can occur just as easily in a friendly happy office atmosphere where the majority of the staff are women.)
Then she gets to the nub:
I flirted back, when he’d flirt, and I’m ashamed. But I blame him. I blame the way he manipulated us into thinking it was all part of the job, the “culture” of the office. We were often told to “entertain” people at our parties, like we were geisha. Dress sexy, be the first ones on the dance floor, get drinks. Looking back, I feel like we were supposed to represent not the brains and talent of our office, but the tits and ass. Lucky for him, we were a smart, hard-working bunch of people, and we managed to make that place work. That made him look good too. You know, I’m still not sure really what he does, other than take buyers to lunch. His tales of business trips always involved a lot of drinking, eating, and weed-smoking. At Book Expo, he’d point out all the women he’d slept with.
And most tellingly, she writes this damning sentence:
Some of my old co-workers still defend him. I can’t begin to imagine why.
I do imagine why. It fascinates me. Why would so many women defend a man who’s a sexual predator? Because he’s nice, warm, friendly, likable, attractive, successful – a good professional, a great publisher, a terrific employer? And the sexual harassment part? Just a normal male flaw? Perhaps. I don’t claim to have all the answers. But I’m still asking the questions – because nobody else is.
In a follow-up post,the same blogger writes:
When I wrote yesterday’s post, I linked it on my Twitter account so my friends could read it. Over 500 hits later, I’m humbled and stunned that it has traveled so far. Thank-you, everyone, so many of you, for your kind linking and for your support.
As for me, I believe that the reason why so many publishing professionals are denying that David could ever be capable of such acts and why the Indian media is keeping this whole issue so low key is because sexual harassment, gender bias, intimidation, and even assault is widespread and rampant in Indian publishing and media, and everyone’s scared to tip the lid on this steaming hot can of boiled worms.
UPDATE 18 JUNE: The media scandal in India continues with the publishing world continuing to reject the testimonies of both victims as well as other women bloggers who have come forward and written about the widespread prevalence of sexual harassment in Canadian publishing – and publishing in general. The Beatification of Davidar continues as former colleagues and present high-ranking editors and publishing professionals express outrage not at Davidar’s alleged misbehavior but at people (like myself, I suppose) who could even think that he’s capable of such misbehavior. Several bloggers and Twitterati have even resorted to a smear campaign against me now – in particular negative-PR expert and frequent abuser of online forums Surekha Pillai has begun making personal attacks on me, while Twitter users @nikhilnarayanan and @vrsaju, and numerous commentators on Sepiamutiny.com have begun attacking the messenger with a vengeance. This is a predictable tactic online these days – if you don’t like what the person is saying or the point being made, make up a story about the person himself, and smear him using any means available. In addition, one or more persons have been going around websites and leaving incendiary comments claiming to be made by me. Need I even point out the fact that if so many people feel the need to attack me personally, it’s clearly their way of deflecting attention from the real issue at hand. Especially when some of them, like those named here, are known to blog and Tweet paid messages on behalf of their clients. All they do is prove my point about the cover-up by the media and such celebrity Twitterati in an ongoing campaign to attack all critics of Davidar – including the victims and bloggers like myself – through such intimidation and abuse, perhaps in the hope of scaring away other women who have been similarly abused and assaulted by men like Davidar in publishing.
Meanwhile, the Indian media maintains a stubborn silence, continuing the cover-up of the Davidar’s case and proving yet again that Indian media is bought, controlled, manipulated and managed by the rich and powerful in this country. Is there really any hope for the case itself? Davidar’s supporters insist that we should all wait for the court case and let the courts decide (although they continue to protest Davidar’s innocence loudly and repeatedly, thereby proving their own bias and attempt to influence public opinion in the aggressor’s favour). To that I have only one rejoinder: Warren Anderson. Yes, of course, justice is always done in court and the guilty always booked. And no doubt even if Davidar is found guilty, his supporters and the many paid campaigners speaking out against his critics will find some way to spin even that guilty verdict into something akin to martyrdom for th beleaguered Saint of Indian Publishing and Media.
Meanwhile, individual voices continue to emerge commenting on various aspects of the case:
Read this article on Penguin’s mismanagement of the scandal.
Read this view on the issue as well.
And finally this very sensible commentary.
“He drank a lot and liked to fall in love” – further thoughts (and quotes) on the now twice-accused ex-Penguin CEO David Davidar
FINAL UPDATE 7 JULY: DAVIDAR/PENGUIN SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT CASE SETTLED OUT OF COURT, DEFENDANTS MUZZLED. As expected (and as predicted by me), the Davidar case has been settled for an undisclosed but allegedly quite substantial sum of money. So much for all the Davidar apologists who defended him in the face of his predatory sexual behavior and insisted that ‘the truth’ would come out in court. Apparently, the truth has been paid off and silenced. Money speaks louder than truth after all. One thing is clear though: No innocent person settles out of court. An innocent man would want his day in court to clear his name. That says it all.
IMPORTANT (& HOPEFULLY FINAL) UPDATE 21 JUNE: DAVIDAR ADMITS ALL, ATTEMPTS DAMAGE CONTROL BY CALLING RELATIONSHIP ‘CONSENSUAL’. David Davidar has issued a statement via his lawyer admitting that he did indeed enter into an improper relationship with the former employee Lisa Rundle. You can click here to read the statement or right-click to download it. Someone should inform him that when a married man enters into a sexual relationship with a subordinate, gives her gifts, lunches, hotel stays (all on company expense), and even a pay raise and promotion (despite a company wide freeze), it’s called SEXUAL HARASSMENT and INFIDELITY. The latter may not be punishable by law. The former definitely is. I stand vindicated now as one of the few publishing professionals who have known Davidar personally and been well aware of his past history of similar sexual harassment. You can call it ‘Romantic Obsession’ or whatever else you like, it still comes down to the same thing – the dude gets sexually fixated on women co-workers to the point of a sick obsession. He needs help. His victims deserve justice.
Note: My posts on the David Davidar sexual assault lawsuit and the subsequent cover-up and media manipulation by his friends in India attracted more hits than my host servers could handle. For only the second time since I started blogging, my blog servers crashed. I had no choice but to temporarily turn the Davidar posts to a private status and wait until the click-frenzy died down. I’m now cautiously making them public again but will watch and see. There’s little point in having a blog if even I can’t access it to update or reply to comments. Speaking of which, I’m not accepting further comments on the Davidar issue – nor am I interested in giving quotes to any media persons, so please don’t ask again.
So now it emerges that another woman employee at Penguin Canada had also suffered similar sexual harassment from David Davidar and when attempted to complain about the same, she was strongly discouraged by the company. Shortly after withdrawing her complaint, she received a substantial promotion. A few months after the promotion, she then left the company of her own accord and still continues to work in publishing in a senior position.
From the new facts now emerging, again reported first and covered much more widely by the Canadian media than Indian press, it appears that this was the prevailing atmosphere at Penguin Canada, an atmosphere of sexual predation for the presumably attractive women employees, and one of extreme ‘friendliness’ for Davidar himself. Interestingly, all the former employees and colleagues of Davidar who rushed to speak out in his defense and are quoted in the Indian press happen to be women, all of whom experienced some rise in fortune during their time with him. No, I’m not making any insinuations or allegations – on the contrary, I’m pointing out how misguided they now appear, having defended a man who may not have preyed on them but seems quite clearly to have been responsible of some mischief if not criminal sexual wrongdoing over in Canada. At the very least, it’s odd that every supporter of David points out how “friendly” he was and how “friendly” the working atmosphere at Penguin always used to be when he was running Penguin India. As if the atmosphere is not friendly now and wasn’t before? Are David’s successors such sourpusses then? Or are they trying to say that the atmosphere at Penguin India is now sexist and unfriendly to women employees? Supporting an accused sexual predator can be a double-edged sword.
The abuse and attacks from the “Friends” of David Davidar as well as various anonymous commentators continues unabated in my email inbox and comments feed. I’ll admit that they are largely the reason why I’m now running this third part in my series on the beleagured former publishing CEO. When a powerful corporate head is accused of sexual indiscretions and so many people rear up and start beatifying him, effectively trying to influence public opinion by offering up unsolicited character assessments, it stinks of a cover up and a campaign. Perhaps it’s not; I’ll admit that it could merely be a lot of misguided people who failed to see the dark side of a man who might have been otherwise quite brilliant. I was one of those who did see that dark side but I’ve said that already in my first post (which is now unblocked, by the way, though I’m still not accepting new comments on it), and I’m now going to offer other views.
Consider Dom Moraes for instance. David, Dom and I used to meet for breakfast often in the early 90′s – Penguin had an arrangement with Oberoi Hotels (later Hilton, now Oberoi again) and usually stayed at The Oberoi in Mumbai. We used to meet at the coffee shop at The New Oberoi and discuss books (our own as well as other authors) and from time to time other authors would join us. I was there when David was meeting with and discussing edits for Vikram Chandra’s first novel Red Earth and Pouring Rain as well as on several other occasions – our friendship tended to be more casual and wide. I often hung out with David in his hotel room discussing edits. Once I even brought my 6-year old son Ayush along and David happily ordered a chocolate ice cream from room service for him at Ayush’s request. On another occasion, I joined David and Pinki Virani – they drank Scotch, which David loved to imbibe in large quantities. I had one brush with David and Shobha De, and that was enough for me – I made it a point to avoid meeting him when he was meeting her. I also recall being with him in the lobby of the (old) Oberoi when he handed over the first royalty cheque of Rs 5 lakhs odd to R.M. Lala, the author of a hugely successful biography of Tata. And of course I brushed against all the usual suspects over the years – from Jerry Pinto to Pankaj Mishra (whose Butter Chicken in Ludhiana was a runaway bestseller at the time).
The point I’m trying to make here is that I’m not some outsider sitting on a fence and bitching because of some personal grouse. On the contrary. I’m being brutally honest and saying that sure, David had some excellent qualities. But he had some major vices too. And some were unacceptable. He drank way, way too much. He admitted to me that Frankfurt and London Book Fair were basically excuses for him to get drunk and stay sloshed for days on end, alongwith a group of other equally inebriated editors of major international houses who often pitched one another books and bought and sold one another’s pitches, sometimes for million dollar advances. He exulted in the sheer power he wielded and while he was always a thorough Gentleman in the best old-fashioned sense of the word, he also suffered from the classic Gentlemanly vices – a love for the company of other powerful decision-makers with fat chequebooks and money (not their own) to splurge as they pleased, a bottomless expense account, loads of alcohol…and, in David’s case, women. He loved women. He adored them. That was fine in itself, perhaps. But David had a problem: He fell in love with women at the drop of a spoon. He was always either in love with someone or other or had just been in love with one and was now in love with another…it was quite a mess. Everyone who knew David well knew this and while I can’t speak for the women he worked with, at least two other mutual friends that I know of – Dom Moraes and Jeet Thayil – were quite aware of David’s fondness for romance. He loved wooing women with roses and champagne, chocolates and nightgowns, candlelit dinners and long night drives. He lived for it. He was a man of big appetites and his biggest hunger was always for the romance of romance.
But don’t just take my word for it. Read what Dom Moraes had to say about it back in 2002, not long before he passed away from terminal cancer, bravely refusing chemo and insisting on slipping away naturally:
Here’s the first mention of David’s ‘problem’:
While Dhiren had abstained from most of the pleasures of the world, David was — at least then — very susceptible to them. He drank a lot and liked to fall in love.
And then Dom elaborates (the emphasis is mine):
After this David became an associate editor of Gentleman, together with Harish Mehta. The two young men invented a monthly feature. They took turns every month to interview a beautiful film starlet or model over an expensive, often candlelit dinner, paid for by the office. David’s first such dinner, with a then famous model, caused him to tell me enthusiastically that he loved her. I was not unused to these confessions. I suggested that he should declare his emotions to her, not me, and should start by asking her to a meal that he paid for himself.
Later David came to tell me the lady had accepted his invitation to dinner. He was to pick her up the following evening. I advised him to be particularly careful about the impression he made on her father, and to take her flowers. He said my ideas in these matters were unoriginal. It was Easter. In the patisserie of a hotel, he had seen a life-size Easter bunny made of chocolate. It cost a lot and with a lavish dinner would exhaust his month’s salary, but it was worth it. As to her father, he expected to have a man-to-man talk with him over a drink.
Read the complete essay by Dom Moraes at The Hindu online.
(Link courtesy Outlook blogs.)
In conclusion: Nilanjana S. Roy wrote a comment here the other day that said a very nice thing. She asked me to show some compassion for David. I responded by saying that I felt more compassion for the victim. That remains true. But I have to admit that this isn’t about taking sides, or who’s right or wrong, or even about what the courts decide. To me, it’s the likelihood that there are women everywhere being sexually harassed by powerful men like David who are unfortunately not outright sexual predators but simply overgrown adolescents who can seem very wonderful to most people…until they meet a particular type of woman and then, wham, they just go into full-scale romance-of-the-century mode. In my opinion, that’s what’s happened here. Regardless of what the court finding is – and remember that in a civil lawsuit such as this one, the vast majority of cases are decided out of court – the fact remains that such things happen all the time. And all I ask is the question: Why is David Davidar being shown so much more compassion than other powerful men in a similar position? Why not the victim? Whatever David’s rejoinder – and do note that legal defenses are not concerned with revealing the truth, merely with countering legal charges using legal methods – the fact remains that any other high-ranking corporate CEO, politician, or just about anyone rich, famous and powerful, would have been mercilessly flogged by the media just for being charged with such a complaint. It’s hard to feel compassion for David when he’s already being shown such ‘Gentlemanly’ treatment by so many mediapersons and former friends. It smells of too much team spirit. At the same time, I’m neither speaking for nor against David personally, merely viewing his case as yet another example of how the rich and powerful are regarded as above censure in India.
The Beatification of David Davidar: Or How Media Silence (& some cleverly placed quotes) speak louder than the Truth
FINAL UPDATE 7 JULY: DAVIDAR/PENGUIN SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT CASE SETTLED OUT OF COURT, DEFENDANTS MUZZLED. As expected (and as predicted by me), the Davidar case has been settled for an undisclosed but allegedly quite substantial sum of money. So much for all the Davidar apologists who defended him in the face of his predatory sexual behavior and insisted that ‘the truth’ would come out in court. Apparently, the truth has been paid off and silenced. Money speaks louder than truth after all. One thing is clear though: No innocent person settles out of court. An innocent man would want his day in court to clear his name. That says it all.
IMPORTANT (& HOPEFULLY FINAL) UPDATE 21 JUNE: DAVIDAR ADMITS ALL, ATTEMPTS DAMAGE CONTROL BY CALLING RELATIONSHIP ‘CONSENSUAL’. David Davidar has issued a statement via his lawyer admitting that he did indeed enter into an improper relationship with the former employee Lisa Rundle. You can click here to read the statement or right-click to download it. Someone should inform him that when a married man enters into a sexual relationship with a subordinate, gives her gifts, lunches, hotel stays (all on company expense), and even a pay raise and promotion (despite a company wide freeze), it’s called SEXUAL HARASSMENT and INFIDELITY. The latter may not be punishable by law. The former definitely is. I stand vindicated now as one of the few publishing professionals who have known Davidar personally and been well aware of his past history of similar sexual harassment. You can call it ‘Romantic Obsession’ or whatever else you like, it still comes down to the same thing – the dude gets sexually fixated on women co-workers to the point of a sick obsession. He needs help. His victims deserve justice.
Note: My posts on the David Davidar sexual assault lawsuit and the subsequent cover-up and media manipulation by his friends in India attracted more hits than my host servers could handle. For only the second time since I started blogging, my blog servers crashed. I had no choice but to temporarily turn the Davidar posts to a private status and wait until the click-frenzy died down. I’m now cautiously making them public again but will watch and see. There’s little point in having a blog if even I can’t access it to update or reply to comments. Speaking of which, I’m not accepting further comments on the Davidar issue – nor am I interested in giving quotes to any media persons, so please don’t ask again.
Imagine a famous politician, charismatic, relatively young, handsome, happily married, fairly well off, celebrated and universally loved. He’s even the spokesperson for his political party and its Chairman. One day, he’s asked to resign from his party, the administration divests him of his Cabinet post, and his career in politics is effectively ended. Why? Because a woman employee working under him for three years files a lawsuit with copious evidence of sexual harassment – emails, text messages, and detailed reports of numerous incidents culminating in an all-out sexual assault in a hotel room on a foreign trip.
Would the Indian media report this incident? Would they write anything at all about the fact that this prominent politician has been abruptly ousted from the party, the Cabinet and all ties and associations with him severed permanently? Would they write about the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him – in a public court of law, and therefore part of the public record? Would the news channels cover the story?
What do you think?
Or, if you prefer, think of the man as a corporate CEO in any field. Same qualities: Handsome, rich, famous, popular, powerful, head of a major corporation, in fact one of the only Indians to rise so high in the global hierarchy in that industry. Again, same case: A woman employee files a lawsuit alleging repeated and prolonged sexual harassment. Considerable evidence is made available to the court and to the media. The MNC responds by sacking the man unceremoniously, severing all ties, and issuing a public statement that strongly suggests that they believe the man is definitely guilty of some wrongdoing, perhaps even all the charges against him.
Again, the same question: Would the Indian media cover the story? Would they run it on the hourly news, conduct interviews with the parties concerned, would newspaper columnists write about their opinion of the story, would editors write editorials weighing the pros and cons of such cases…in short, would the India media not be obliged to at least feature the story prominently and look at the issue in some depth?
Apparently not.
Last week, David Davidar, CEO of Penguin International, a division of Penguin Books based in Toronto which comprises Penguin Canada, Penguin India, Penguin South Africa and Penguin Arabia was sacked from his post over a sexual harassment and assault lawsuit filed against him by a former employee at Penguin Canada where he was based. The lawsuit is against Davidar in part, for his sexual harassment and assault of the victim, and also against Penguin, for failing to concede to the victim’s request that she be allocated to work under another superior as she could not work under Davidar. Penguin refused, and, the lawsuit strongly suggests, was implicitly or overtly aware of the sexual advances and predatory behavior of Davidar, but preferred to let the woman employee leave the company. Her suit against Penguin is for wrongful termination.
Now, I’m not going to get into the right and wrong of the situation. I’m not going to bash or praise either Davidar or the victim, or try to provide any other view of the alleged incidents.
I’m only asking this one question (again): Why is the Indian media not covering this story widely? As I asked above, if this were a famous charismatic politician or corporate CEO in some other industry, wouldn’t this be widely reported?
I think it would. I think it would be splashed all over the front pages and would be running 24/7 on the news channels. It would be the sensation of the week, if not the year. Davidar, after all, is not just a famous publishing figure, he’s probably the most famous Indian in publishing worldwide. Only Sonny Mehta comes close, and Sonny Mehta has been around for decades; Davidar is still relatively fresh and still continuing to rise through the ranks. It’s likely he would have been No. 1 at Penguin International in a few years.
Yet the India media is oddly silent.
Sure, there’s a mention of it here and there, mostly on the websites of publications, but no widespread coverage. Not even on the blogs and social networking sites (at first).
In fact, it would appear that I was the first Indian blogger to write about the sexual harassment case last week. And other bloggers picked up the story from me and passed it on.
But then a funny thing happened.
People began attacking me, attacking the victim, and at the same time other people (many prominent editors, publishing professionals, mediapersons, etc), began beatifying Davidar.
There’s no other word for it: Beatifying. A spontaneous outrushing of praise for the man. Extolling his best qualities. Praising his every aspect. One solitary feature story that spent more than a hundred words on the issue managed to find three or four of these Davidar fans and quoted them, all singing Davidar’s praises and insisting that he could not have done what the woman filing the lawsuit says he did.
At least three of these same Davidar fans even left comments on my blog asking why I was being critical of Davidar ‘at a time like this’. Other bloggers and commentators on other websites (not these three women whom I just referred to, I add) were far more vocal in their opinions: One lone commentator on a social networking site happened to make the mistake of asking the same question that I did, why is the media not reporting this story? He also mentioned my name as the solitary person who was not singing Davidar’s praises. Instantly, a horde descended to attack him. Another commentator insisted that this person was ‘Ashok Banker’. That was enough to set off a flaming frenzy: A third person started addressing that commentator as ‘Ashok’, heaping abuses on him, and criticizing ‘Ashok’ for everything from his clothes to his family background. Others began citing reasons why ‘Ashok Banker’ had for criticizing Davidar – obviously I had a grouse because Davidar hadn’t signed book deals with me. (In fact, Davidar has signed more book deals with me than any other editor in my career!)
These and many other abusive, inflammatory, personally offensive, racist, bigotted, and threatening comments and emails poured in on that website as well as here on this blog. It culminated with veiled warnings and threats from publishing professionals, some of whom are powerful editors and publishing executives in their own right, as well as a celebrity columnist and author and a TV show host: “You’ll lose respect,” one warned. “Don’t hit a man when he’s down,” another wrote. “Don’t you want to continue publishing books? Think of your future,” said one particularly ominous email sent by a very well-known media figure who shall remain unnamed.
Of course, all this was couched in language that suggested they were merely giving me good advice. Don’t beat the drum. Don’t ask the questions. Don’t upset the apple cart. Don’t speak your mind, even if it is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Don’t be an egoist. Don’t judge a good, wonderful, brilliant, magnificent publishing genius said one person – the fact that she had just judged him seemed to evade her completely!
Now, I can understand standing up for a friend in his time of need, even speaking on his behalf.
But these aren’t just friends we’re talking about. These are media professionals, reporters, journalists, columnists, editors, authors, publishing staffers… In short, the people who are the media.
What were they really saying, I wondered? What did they want me to do?
To shut up, of course! To not speak my mind. To stop posting links to foreign media websites and blogs that were reporting the truth about Davidar’s sexual assault lawsuit – and by ‘truth’ I mean that those websites and blogs are simply reporting the facts, not editorializing or filling column space with eulogies.
Now, it’s one thing to wait until a court judgement to decide whether a man is guilty or innocent. But it’s quite another thing to try the case in the media.
By controlling the coverage of David Davidar’s sexual assault lawsuit, the Indian media is manipulating the facts. By giving space to friends of Davidar – interestingly, all the friends quoted are powerful women in publishing, not a man among them – the media is manipulating the reportage, skewing the perspective in Davidar’s favour. By quoting statements that question the validity of the lawsuit itself, that patronize the victim and by mouthing cliches such as ‘only the courts can decide right or wrong’, the Indian media and publishing world is in fact influencing public opinion in favour of David Davidar, and saying quite openly and firmly that he must be innocent.
This is a blatant misuse of media power and of the positions which each of those women quoted occupy. As I said before, I can understand their supporting Davidar as his friends, but to speak to the media on record and provide such a biased view of the whole situation is gross misuse of power. Their friendship would have been better served had they waited for the truth in the case to come out, and let the courts decide whether or not a man apparently as wonderful as Davidar is (or was) did or did not do the things he’s alleged to have done to that woman.
And let’s face it, what do his shining qualities have to do with the case at hand? Are they saying that because he didn’t assault them, therefore he could not have assaulted any woman? What gives them the right to judge Davidar innocent before he has been tried – and by implication, to judge the woman filing the lawsuit guilty?
Because that is the real question here. Whom to believe. The rich, handsome, powerful, charismatic corporate CEO who, rumours say, is likely to seek a job in a media house, either in a newspaper or a television channel, once this present crisis blows over, or this unknown Canadian woman who is making these claims?
If David is innocent, as his supporters fiercely insist, then it naturally follows that his accuser is guilty of perjury and possibly much worse.
So that means it’s all right now to disbelieve a solitary powerless woman who has hard evidence of repeated wrongdoing, because that rich, powerful, charismatic, brilliant Indian publishing CEO (and the Indian is important too, in a racially divided field like publishing) couldn’t possibly have done all those awful things?
Or maybe even, as some commentators suggested quite strongly, maybe they weren’t such awful things after all? Even Davidar has admitted the woman and he were “friends” which is such a loaded word in this context. Even his wife is “standing by him” (which recalls another wife in a similar context, Shiney Ahuja’s wife, who stood by him, remember her?) and both husband and wife are now saying the truth will come out in court.
Well, the truth may or may not come out in court. As even the Union Carbide/Warren Anderson fiasco recently proved, justice is not always done, nor is it seen to be done, especially when powerful, rich, charismatic male CEOs are responsible for wrongdoing. So I’m more skeptical about the legal outcome of the case than the friends of Davidar.
But that’s not really the point here. If these friends were really willing to wait until the court pronounced its judgement, I could understand that. But by speaking out so vociferously, and by being so partisan in their own judgements and pronouncements, and by not acknowledging, accepting and in fact openly attacking anyone who doesn’t fall in with their ‘praise the lord’ hosanna chorus, they are already proving Davidar guilty of one thing at least: Managing and manipulating the Indian media into either not reporting what is clearly a major scandal, and a major news story with important and far-reaching implications for Indians everywhere, and Indian publishing and media in particular – not to mention the manner in which sexual harassment cases are reported and treated in this country – and worse, of attempting to bias public opinion in his favour in a case which substantially hinges on a ‘He Said, She Said’ choice. By beatifying David Davidar thus, his supporters are by implication demonizing his accuser. And by doing so, they are participating in a willing and wilful subversion of the power of the media, as well as misusing their own individual positions in their profession as well as in society as influential citizens.
And somewhere at the heart of this whole horrific cover up is a solitary woman who has allegedly suffered sustained and repeated abuse, harassment, and assault. What about her point of view? What about the possibility that she is telling the truth? What about the simple fact that she has filed a lawsuit, and Penguin has sacked their most charismatic CEO (beyond doubt)? Are these not important enough to report?
UPDATE 16 JUNE: And now it appears that the complainant is not so solitary after all. Another former employee of Davidar has come forward to say that she too suffered similar sexual harassment at the hands of Davidar and her attempt at a complaint was similarly rebuffed with the excuse that he was simply being ‘friendly’. What is even more ominous about the second complaint is that this woman too (who has permitted the media to mention her by name) received a substantial promotion soon after she withdrew the complaint and was then able to move to another publishing firm a few months later at a higher post and salary. In the first case too, the woman attempted to complain to Penguin management, was discouraged from complaining and given a substantial promotion before subsequently resigning from the company. The other similarity between the two women is that both had mothers suffering from cancer at the time of the harassment and that Davidar and Penguin’s HR department claimed that the gifts and flowers and overtures of ‘friendship’ were done by him out of commiseration and sympathy.
What I’d now like to ask is whether Davidar had this same ‘friendly’ approach with other female staff as well over the years? Especially the more attractive ones? It’s already emerged that he managed to cover up at least one prior case; how many more did he cover up over his 25 years in publishing? Or will Davidar’s support from the Indian media, publishing and corporate world be powerful enough to silence any other former victims as well?
This case reminds me of a very sad and true case of a small town doctor hauled up on charges of child sexual abuse. Apparently, he had been abusing the children sent to him for treatment for decades and by the time parents worked up the courage to finally file a suit against him and by the time the suit finally came to trial and judgement, the small town judge basically said that the doctor was an old man now, had lived his life serving the community, was a respected and honourable member of society, and no good would be served by punishing him now – and dismissed the case. As for the hundreds of children he had abused over the years? Well, most of them were too small to speak for themselves – and even when they had spoken up, they were after all children, and how much could they be believed?
In another case recently in Mumbai, a taxi driver was arrested and charged with raping a stray dog. In court, his lawyer raised the point that since the victim was incapable of speaking and identifying her attacker, the case should be dismissed forthright.
Now, I’m not saying Davidar is guilty. All I’m saying is that the story of his being sued for these offenses, dishonourably sacked, and subsequently beatified by people who should know better than to misuse their power thus is a story that deserves and demands to be given the widest coverage possible. We may never know whether or not the woman is telling the truth. But if we are to assume cynically that every rich, famous powerful man is automatically innocent and that a powerless nameless woman who accuses him of rape or sexual assault or harassment is automatically not to be relied on, we are sending out a powerful and tragic message:
HERE BE TYGERS: Beware, all you who dare to accuse powerful rich handsome Indian men in high-ranking corporate positions! Even if you are telling the truth, you have no right to destroy this good man’s life and career. Shut up and get lost. This is a great man, a wonderful man, a man we all respect and honour and love. You are nobody. You are nothing. You are just a woman, and not even a famous or powerful woman at that.
Falling Down: A Goliath Named David
FINAL UPDATE 7 JULY: DAVIDAR/PENGUIN SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT CASE SETTLED OUT OF COURT, DEFENDANTS MUZZLED. As expected (and as predicted by me), the Davidar case has been settled for an undisclosed but allegedly quite substantial sum of money. So much for all the Davidar apologists who defended him in the face of his predatory sexual behavior and insisted that ‘the truth’ would come out in court. Apparently, the truth has been paid off and silenced. Money speaks louder than truth after all. One thing is clear though: No innocent person settles out of court. An innocent man would want his day in court to clear his name. That says it all.
IMPORTANT (& HOPEFULLY FINAL) UPDATE 21 JUNE: DAVIDAR ADMITS ALL, ATTEMPTS DAMAGE CONTROL BY CALLING RELATIONSHIP ‘CONSENSUAL’. David Davidar has issued a statement via his lawyer admitting that he did indeed enter into an improper relationship with the former employee Lisa Rundle. You can click here to read the statement or right-click to download it. Someone should inform him that when a married man enters into a sexual relationship with a subordinate, gives her gifts, lunches, hotel stays (all on company expense), and even a pay raise and promotion (despite a company wide freeze), it’s called SEXUAL HARASSMENT and INFIDELITY. The latter may not be punishable by law. The former definitely is. I stand vindicated now as one of the few publishing professionals who have known Davidar personally and been well aware of his past history of similar sexual harassment. You can call it ‘Romantic Obsession’ or whatever else you like, it still comes down to the same thing – the dude gets sexually fixated on women co-workers to the point of a sick obsession. He needs help. His victims deserve justice.
Note: My posts on the David Davidar sexual assault lawsuit and the subsequent cover-up and media manipulation by his friends in India attracted more hits than my host servers could handle. For only the second time since I started blogging, my blog servers crashed. I had no choice but to temporarily turn the Davidar posts to a private status and wait until the click-frenzy died down. I’m now cautiously making them public again but will watch and see. There’s little point in having a blog if even I can’t access it to update or reply to comments. Speaking of which, I’m not accepting further comments on the Davidar issue – nor am I interested in giving quotes to any media persons, so please don’t ask again.
UPDATED 14 JUNE: In the interests of full disclosure, I wish to clarify that I was first signed by David Davidar when he started Penguin India, subsequently signed several contracts with him, and continued to sign book deals with Penguin while he remained a key decision-maker on the Penguin India board (which position he lost recently along with his Penguin International and Penguin Canada titles). Not only have I earned substantially and gained substantially from my association with Penguin India and David Davidar over the past 18 years, I have a total of 37 active book contracts with Penguin India, and have earned royalties that have run into the tens of lakhs of rupees – and continue to earn. I mention these things to counter any assumptions of bias or grouse against Davidar or Penguin India. In fact, having done so, I would also wish all those sycophants and ‘friends’ of Davidar to openly clarify any professional or personal gain they achieve by supporting him despite these allegations. I would also like to politely but firmly refuse to comment on these issues on any forum, website, blog, social networking site, publication, TV channel, etc. They are simply my own views and intended only for readers of my personal blog, not for publication or dissemination.
UPDATED: 13 JUNE: Perhaps not quite as surprising is the emergence of Davidar friends and colleagues to champion his cause and defend him online, while making nasty attacks on the victim, even to the extent of getting personal and vilifying her. But then again, publishing is an incestuous world and those associated with it have an unspoken pact never to admit that any of their number can ever be at fault. Regardless of the truth of the allegations, this sort of victim-bashing is in really bad taste and as for the Friends of David Davidar springing up to defend his masculine right to abuse female employees, well, it only underlines the misogyny in publishing and suggests that such behavior in a top ranking powerful, wealthy and famous executive is not merely taken for granted, it is even condoned and defended fiercely. (Even to the extent of attacking me personally for having written this blog post and hurling angry and bitchy accusations at me – one character even claiming that I might lose the respect of my colleagues for attacking Davidar thus, while another has begun slinging lies about me out of sheer frustration at being unable to counter my personal experience of David’s womanizing ways). It’s quite evident that a well-orchestrated campaign is already in progress with India mediapersons going around leaving comments on various fora loudly shouting down his victim and accuser, even vilifying her under clever pseudonyms. God forbid one should speak against the God of Blue Mangoes! Or is the Saint of Penguin Eternal?
Indian publishing’s golden boy (or blue-eyed boy) has fallen from grace, it seems. It took its time and it took a lawsuit to bring him down, but fall he did, and quite hard.
David Davidar, recently promoted to Head of Penguin International, which includes India, has been sacked in disgrace following a sexual harassment suit by a former employee of Penguin Canada where he was last employed. Penguin is also being sued for disregarding her complaints about Davidar and his treatment of her, which says a great deal about the kind of working atmosphere at Penguin, the corporate attitude to women in publishing, and about publishing in general. This isn’t a grope at a Christmas party – it’s a three-year campaign of harassment on the part of Davidar, culminating in an all-out assault.
As someone who knew Davidar quite well in his early years at Penguin, I have to admit this doesn’t come as a surprise – I have actually been invited for an editorial meeting with Davidar once in his bedroom where his then-girlfriend was present, in bed, partly clad, and in a state of great distress. He kept trying to pacify her but I have no idea what she was upset about, or why we had to have a business meeting in that particular setting. I’m not going to blow up that tiny incident into a mountain because that’s all there was to it. Except maybe the fact the I kept seeing or hearing of David with different women over the years, almost all employed in publishing or the book trade. And I was always intrigued by his five star lifestyle, apparently being able to live lavishly on company account – while offering authors advances of Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000, which were probably less than the cost of his weekend visit to Mumbai, always with a woman around. And now this.
Davidar, by the way, also happens to be the same man who dumped my submission of Prince of Ayodhya back in the year 2000 and in 2001 (when I sent him the complete manuscript) into the waste basket unread – presumably because he had no desire to publish what he saw as a “Hindu” text. (Yes, he had issues with that, despite the fact that I’m not a Hindu myself.) By doing so, he delayed publication of my Ramayana Series in India by a full five years – it was 2005 before Penguin agreed to publish the Indian edition, and only because by then another Publisher and Editor were in charge.
Of course, he might also have been pissed off with me for refusing several contracts he offered me. I recall Shobha De, his close friend and confidante, calling me up and haranguing me for not signing on the dotted line of at least two contracts David had faxed me, and reminding me how most authors would give an arm and a leg to be offered such contracts by Penguin. I tried to explain to her (and David later) that I wasn’t interested in simply signing contracts and I wasn’t interested in doing commissioned books, but I still didn’t sign those two and other contracts he later offered me – one of which was actually offered to me during that ‘bedroom’ meeting, by the way.
Coming back to the sexual harassment case, here are some excerpts from the article in the Canadian Globe and Mail:
The accusations are accompanied by quotations from several e-mail messages Mr. Davidar allegedly sent to Ms. Rundle during the period in question. Last year, he is said to have written that he “could do very little except think of [Ms. Rundle],” that she was “utterly gorgeous,” “a vision in pink sipping a champagne cocktail,” and that she should not be “stubborn” or “fight” him.
“Davidar over time became more and more intense with his persistent protestations of lust and desire for Lisa,” according to the claim, “and in return she became increasingly disturbed and afraid.”
The harassment allegedly culminated in an outright assault at the Frankfurt Book Fair last October when, according to the claim, Mr. Davidar appeared at Ms. Rundle’s hotel room door, “wearing excessive cologne, with buttons on his shirt undone down his waist.”
“Lisa stood in her hotel room into which Davidar had bullied his way, with her arms crossed, still near the door, and asked what he needed to discuss,” it said. “He told her to relax and just let him come in. She refused and said she wanted to go to sleep.”
Ms. Rundle claims she climbed on a windowsill to avoid her boss and again asked him to leave. “He forcibly pulled her off the ledge and grabbed her by the wrists, forcing his tongue into her mouth,” it said.
Incidentally, in that bedroom meeting where his then-girlfriend was present, David was in fact wearing excessive cologne (the room stank of it), and his shirt was unbuttoned almost all the way down. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Click here to read the complete article at The Globe and Mail.
Also do read this blatantly partisan article at Times of India which somehow manages to completely ‘skirt’ the real story and makes it seem as though Penguin’s No. 2 CEO worldwide simply decided to take a sabbatical! There’s also a stunning silence on the part of the Indian media.
UPDATE 2: 14 JUNE: The situation changed with the Indian media starting to report the real story, albeit only after Davidar himself was caught out lying and admitted he hadn’t revealed the truth about his being sacked from Penguin, as reported in the western press. Times of India itself ran a very brief front page piece (one of the briefest it’s ever run, in fact) blaming Davidar himself for lying initially about his having resigned to take up writing – and Davidar in turn blamed Penguin for having sacked him unfairly. Apart from that, no major Indian publication is taking up the story in a major way. Meanwhile, mediapersons and publishing professionals continue to vilify the victim online and sigh high praises of David Davidar on various forums. This appears to be their way of shouting down the victim and implying strongly that she is either lying or of improper character – a common tactic in such cases.
What is shocking is the way so many of Davidar’s self-appointed “friends” are shouting down anyone who has anything not-positive to say about him. By doing so, they are displaying the naked arrogance and power that Davidar wields and that his position represented. Why are they not willing to let the case play out and let the truth come out? Why is freedom of expression and the right to one’s opinion only restricted to those who praise the aggressor and those who vilify the victim? Why this one-sided bias? Is there a widespread campaign on by Penguin India to suppress the truth – starting with the clever spin put on the reason for Davidar’s expulsion initially, later proved to be a blatant lie and a sad attempt to conceal the truth? If he is innocent, why lie in the first place? If he is innocent, why would a senior employee of eight years risk her reputation and career to wage an expensive legal battle? If he is innocent, why are so many “friends” vociferously posting character testimonials which are utterly meaningless? After all, just because a man has not sexually assaulted every woman he worked with does not mean he did not sexually assault this particular woman.
Perhaps the key lies in the fact that Davidar’s wife is standing by him, as are his friends. When you’re as rich, powerful, famous and successful as David Davidar, you will find many friends to speak on your behalf and do so loudly and clamorously – in the process hoping to deflect attention from the accusations being leveled by this solitary victim with only a single voice. It’s a common legal defense tactic used in such cases: It was the same at first in the Shiney Ahuja case as well. There is another man, the head of a private television channel, who is notorious for sexually harassing his employees. Yet none have dared to speak out against him or file a suit until now – because this is the kind of mob denial they would have to fight against. In this age of internet mobs and gangs, it’s evident that partisan groups have found a new forum from which to yell their opinions – and to shout down all those who don’t fall in with their thinking. It’s a fascist approach and a very successful one, judging by the sheer number of “friends” of Davidar springing up and shouting in his defense.
The overall refrain they yell appears to be: “We protect our own, and damn you all!” as they close ranks against all those people who are not in publishing and not admirers of David Davidar.
COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED ON THIS POST AS THE UNENDING STREAM OF ABUSE AGAINST ME AS WELL AS THE VICTIM (AND NO, I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE ABUSED WOMAN) FROM THE “FRIENDS” OF DAVID DAVIDAR ARE NON-STOP, RACIST, BIGOTTED, AND OFFENSIVE IN THE EXTREME. THIS IS YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF INDIAN PUBLISHING AND MEDIA’S INABILITY TO REPORT THE FACTS AND THEIR REPEATED ATTEMPT TO COVER UP WRONGDOING BY THEIR OWN. IF NOT FOR THE CANADIAN MEDIA, THIS STORY MIGHT NEVER HAVE BEEN REPORTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. BY ATTACKING ME PERSONALLY THROUGH REPEATED COMMENTS (I MEAN THE DELETED ONES, NOT THE ONES APPEARING BELOW), YOU ARE ONLY PROVING MY POINT – THE FACT THAT YOU FEEL THE NEED TO ATTACK THE VICTIM AND THOSE REPORTING OR COMMENTING ON THE STORY ONLY DEMONSTRATES YOUR OWN SYCOPHANTIC NEAR-FANATICAL DEVOTION TO THE MEN AT THE TOP OF THE CORPORATE LADDER, AS WELL AS THE FASCIST INABILITY TO ACCEPT POINTS OF VIEW THAT CONTRADICT YOUR OWN.
News & Updates: The Latest from the Bankerverse
Those of you who’ve been keeping tabs on the right-hand News & Updates column may not find many surprises here. But I thought it was time to round up the most recent happenings and developments in the Bankerverse for those who haven’t.
THE VALMIKI SYNDROME
Next in line for publication is THE VALMIKI SYNDROME, my first major non-fiction book being published by Random House India in a few months. As mentioned earlier, I have chosen not to offer any sneak peeks, previews or sample chapters from this book, unlike all my earlier titles. In fact, I’m not saying a word about this book until it’s released! You’ll just have to wait and see what it’s about.
SLAYER OF KAMSA
Close on its heels comes Book 1 of The Krishna Coriolis, SLAYER OF KAMSA, published by HarperCollins India. The series is an action-packed retelling of the life and adventures of Lord Krishna from before his birth until after his death on the mortal plane, written in a narrative style suitable for Young Adult readers. The Krishna books will be much shorter than the Ramayana Series books and written in a far more compact and thrilling narrative style. SLAYER OF KAMSA will be followed soon after by DANCE OF GOVINDA. These first two books in the series will follow Krishna’s story from before his birth until the day he confronts and kills Kamsa. I’ll post excerpts as well as the cover design here sometime in August. So don’t forget to check back!
SONS OF SITA
Delayed but not forgotten! My seemingly interminable revisions are finally approaching an end. As I’ve mentioned earlier, after considerable thought, I decided to cancel mass market publication of Vengeance of Ravana, extract a substantial portion of that book (VoR) and add it to the manuscript of SoS. That required a fair amount of revision and rewriting, hence the delay. Many of you have pre-ordered copies of SoS and have been waiting eagerly for them. Once again, apologies for the delay and thanks for your patience. I can now confirm that SONS OF SITA, the 7th (not 8th, since VoR now stands cancelled) and final Book in the Ramayana Series, will be available in its signed limited AKB Books Edition in August.
PRINCE OF AYODHYA, the Graphic Novel
The first volume of my long-awaited graphic novel adaptation of my Ramayana Series, written by me and illustrated by Argentinian artist Enrique (Quique) Alcatena is ready to enter the publication pipeline. Those of you who have seen sample artwork from this comic or have been following its development for the past several years will be aware how much work and patience has gone into its creation. I will confirm publication dates in a month or two, once I know for sure.
TEN KINGS
My first historical battle epic, TEN KINGS based on the Dasarajna incident in the Rig Veda, has been bought by new imprint Amaryllis Books in a very good deal. Thanks to Jay and Priya of Jacaranda, and Sanjana Roy Choudhury, Chief Editor of Amaryllis! TEN KINGS will also be my first book published in Hindi and other Indian languages. The book is currently scheduled for mass market publication in January 2011. If you thought my Ramayana Series was good, and if you think my Krishna books are action-packed and fast-paced, then just wait until you read TEN KINGS. It’s by far my best book ever. A great story, a magnificent battle epic, and a historic saga of the founding of the Bharata nation.
More news and updates every month from now on…
Banker takes on Ten Kings!
Great news. Epic news in fact! Jacaranda Press, my new agents, have sealed our first deal. My first historical battle epic, TEN KINGS based on the Dasarajna incident in the Rig Veda, has been bought by new imprint Amaryllis Books in a very good deal. Thanks to Jay and Priya of Jacaranda, and Sanjana Roy Choudhury of Amaryllis! TEN KINGS will also be my first book published in Hindi and other Indian languages.
For those of you who have been following my career for a while, and/or were members of my old Epic India online discussion group, you may recall this as being the first book of my long-proposed historical fiction series retelling the entire history of India from the earliest known times to the present day. I referred to this book as either Dasarajna or Ten Kings (both mean the same thing) and it tells the story of the epic battle fought by King Sudas, an early chief of the Bharata tribe (descended from Bharata, son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala, daughter of Vishwamitra) when ten of his neighbouring kingdoms invaded his territory and sought to wipe out the Bharata tribe in order to steal their land, which was located at a particularly fine site.
That site was the confluence of two of the five rivers of the region now known as the Punjab, and also the very location where the Indus Valley Civilization sprang up shortly afterwards, according to historians and archaeologists. How a single kingdom (tribe really) fought against a force more than ten times its size and withstood a shock attack such as the one described in the Rig Veda was a tale legendary enough to seem incredible even today. Yet, this being a historical incident, there are no ‘fantasy’ or ‘speculative’ elements in this story at all. Just historical detail as accurate as is possible given the paucity of information on that period, and a rousing battle epic.
A film director friend of mine heard the story when I mentioned it to him and instantly connected it with the story of the Spartans defending their land against the invading Persian hordes. I’m always uncomfortable with comparisons but yes, if a film were ever to be made of TEN KINGS it would probably be marketed as ‘the Indian 300′.
Except of course, as we all know, it’s much, much more than that. It’s the story of the valiant struggle of a lone king, betrayed by friends, allies, besought by enemies on all fronts, struggling to hold his own kingdom together in the face of certain destruction, fighting for survival against impossible odds – and triumphing. The victory of King Sudas against those Ten Kings was not merely a success for him. It was the reason why the Bharata tribe itself survived and continued to occupy the place we now know as India. The Ten Kings he fought against included people which would today be called Afghanis, Iranians, Assyrians, etc. So in a sense, it was not just the story of the Bharata tribe (of which we are all descendants) but also the story of the founding of India.
TEN KINGS will stand alone as a story and a book, and can be read on its own. But if it does well, which I’m very optimistic about, then I shall certainly continue writing the story of India through books set in the Indus Valley age, the time of Mahavira, Buddha, Ashoka, and so on. It’s a story to rival even the greatest epic of all, the Mahabharata, because this is the Bharata epic and it is a story very much still in progress!
I’ve been working on the book on and off for years. It’s almost complete now and Amaryllis Books expects to publish it in early 2011, perhaps even as early as January or February! I’ll update more info and details as that date approaches. Amaryllis plans to translate the book and issue Hindi and other Indian language editions, and my diligent agents will be seeking to sell foreign edition rights once I turn in the final manuscript as well. And this being a battle epic, it’s not impossible to expect that perhaps it may find its way to the big screen as well someday – even more likely than my Ramayana or Mahabharata series, since a single great story is more easily adaptable than a long series. Either way, expect great things from TEN KINGS!
Want to read the AKB Mba? Vote for it now!
UPDATE: 16 JUNE – The poll remains active but I’ve now decided to go ahead and print my own limited AKB BOOKS edition of the Mba Series on a not-for-profit basis. Details will be posted on this blog in time. Meanwhile, you can still continue voting and showing your support for the series, as well as visit the Request A Book Page and place a request without having to pay a rupee in advance!
My long-awaited Mahabharata retelling is facing cancellation. Support it by voting in this online poll! Please be honest. There is no ‘right’ answer! To know what voting for these four options would achieve, read the explanation below…
UPDATED: I shall be printing the Mba regardless of the votes now. However, this means that there will be NO bookstore edition as yet of the series, and perhaps no such edition in future as well. The only way to get a copy of my Mahabharata retelling (Mba) is to visit the Request A Book Page and place a request without having to pay a rupee in advance!
NOTE: Since some of you have asked, I’ll explain briefly what these options mean:
Option#1: If I get 1,000 readers willing to pre-order (and pay) in advance, I can print and sell the whole series myself.
Option#2: If I get 2,500 readers interested in buying it, I can offer copies of the first book via this website – but if much less than 2,500 actually buy, there will be no further books in the series.
Option#3: If 25,000 readers are willing to buy the first book soon after it reaches bookstores, it will be possible to release a mass market edition.
Option#4: The series stays cancelled. No publisher can issue such large print runs of ten massive volumes and keep them in stock nor will bookstores keep the books on shelves for years (until the full series is published) in hopes of readers coming in someday and buying copies.
Delhi Metro: Driven by the spirit of that age-old management text, Bhagavad-Gita. Say what?
In this post-New Age Age, there are no religious texts anymore. They’re all management and self-help manuals. That’s why experts in mythology and religion are designated Belief Officers and used as motivational speakers in multinational companies, and copies of the Bhagavad-Gita are handed out as “management texts” in lieu of procedural manuals to executives running the Delhi Metro. As an illuminating quote from this fine news article in The New York Times reveals:
Instead of dry procedural manuals, senior managers are given a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita, one of Hinduism’s most important texts. But its significance is not religious, said Anuj Dayal, a spokesman for the Metro.
“It is a management text,” he said of the book, which is taken from the Mahabharata, an epic poem at the heart of Hindu philosophy. “It is the story of how to motivate an unmotivated person.”
I can buy the part about using the Gita as a motivational text to some extent, although I have grave misgivings about his misapplication of ancient texts to completely irrelevant modern contexts – Krishna’s speech to Arjun used as a guideline to running the Delhi Metro? Don’t you find that a little incongruous, if not outright absurd? But what I don’t follow is the part where the spokesman says that the Gita’s “significance is not religious”, and is only “management” related. Yeah, sure. A management text written by Krishna Dweipayana-Drucker, right? At times like this I can’t help feeling we’re dragging the past into the present to justify anything and everything. Not as idiotically as right-wing Christians who feel killing pregnant women is justified if those pregnant women are going in for abortions, or Islamic fundamentalists who use Jihad to mean something other than what it originally meant in the Quran, but still not right. So not right.
7 not 8: Vor+SoS = Sons of Sita: Book 7 of The Ramayana Series
As those of you who have been in touch with me over the years know, I always share my works in progress online with readers and take into account their views and suggestions.
After considering reader feedback to the limited signed AKB BOOKS edition of Vengeance of Ravana I felt it was best to cancel mass market publication of the book and have requested my editors at Penguin accordingly. They have been supportive as always, and I’m very grateful for that.
I’ve taken a part of the text of Vengeance of Ravana and added it to the text of Sons of Sita, merging them into one final book, which I plan to submit to Penguin for publication.
This will be the 7th and final book of the Ramayana Series (R), and will most likely be called Sons of Sita: Book 7 of The Ramayana Series.
PS: Those of you who have ordered the AKB Books Limited Signed edition of Sons of Sita will receive this version, and this is the reason for its long delay. In my opinion, the book now rocks big-time and is a truly fitting end to the series…thanks to your input!
This is just to let you know what’s happening. I’ll post a longer explanation here once I’m done with the revisions, which, let me add, will not be for another month.
This also means that those of you who bought the AKB BOOKS limited signed editions, hardcover as well as paperback, of Vengeance of Ravana, now have the only copies of that version of the text in existence. That version will never be published and distributed in stores now, so hold on to your copies and who knows, they might actually be worth something someday!
Why I write – Journalist Susannah Breslin gives a young wannabe some brass-knuckleduster advice on being a journalist
This is good stuff. Veteran writer, editor and photographer Susannah Breslin whose work has appeared in a whole bunch of prestigious places ranging from Newsweek to Harper’s Bazaar, Salon, Playboy, et al, answers one of the many emails from wannabe journalists on her blog with this searing response. Damn. She talks the talk. They should start journalism courses with this essay. Here’s a taste:
In the past, I’ve written my response to aspiring writers: Don’t. It’s just that simple. Pick something else. Don’t do it. Go become a rug cleaner like your mother suggested. Writing is a hideous, torturous art fit for expert masochists and idealist losers. Learn a trade. Marry a cougar. Go away and leave me the few jobs that remain. You little shit.
Read the full glorious post here.
Check out Breslin’s blog here.
The Valmiki Syndrome – coming to a bookstore near you in October 2010
A couple of days ago, Chiki Sarkar, my editor at Random House India sent me the semi-final roughs of the cover design for The Valmiki Syndrome. They were really good, perfect almost, and just what I’d always pictured for the book. I was amazed at how seriously she had taken my simple suggestion – given only after she had asked me for my thoughts – and how well her design team had carried the idea forward. I’m very pleased with the semi-final result and even more pleased that Chiki, her team and I all seemed to like the same option out of the three given choices. It’s always nice to know you’re on the same page.
As for the book, it’s shaped up really well too. I’ve never worked so closely with an editor, received such encouragement, support and understanding throughout the process of creating a published work. Now, I like all my (Indian) editors and publishers very much, and get along very well with Ravi Singh and Paromita Mohanchandra at Penguin, Saugata Mukherjee at HarperCollins, and now Chiki Sarkar of Random House, but somehow Chiki and this particular book seemed to just click from Day 1. She ‘got’ the concept straight off the bat, and was the quickest to respond to my enquiry – the first time in my life, I’ve actually called up publishers and asked if they’d be interested in considering a submission from me, she was uber-patient when I was late with the book, partly because I was writing four different, completely unrelated versions of the same text because I wasn’t happy with the three previous versions. When I sent her material for feedback, she read it in two days, and called me to talk about it for almost an hour, which totally resolved any pending issues I might have had with the material. She’s also involved me at every stage from taking my views or at least being open to my inputs on every aspect. The cover design is one fruition of this ‘joint task force’ approach.
Before I became a published author, I used to think all authors and editors worked this way: Talking about the book, discussing cover ideas, looking at cover designs, discussing the style, the content, the format, working on line-edits together, discussing overall structure and theme, basically working hands-on on a book from start to finish.
After I became a published author, and particularly with foreign editors, I was in for a very rude shock. For one thing, editors in the US (and now in the UK as well, sadly) rarely do any actual editing. They act as coordinators for the whole publishing process, like executives representing your book at the publishing firm and negotiating with various departments to get you a better cover design, more shelf space at the bookstore, better distribution, more marketing, quicker editing, etc. You simply cannot talk to an American editor about several things to do with the book, especially line-edits on a daily basis. They go crazy about it because copy-editing (or line-by-line editing) is done by a separate person, quite often a freelancer or relatively junior person in the publishing firm. There are exceptions, but they are rare, and they are mostly senior editors (or even V-Ps) who have started their career with a few senior authors and want to keep old habits going.
In India, it’s not like that at all. Some editors are hands-on editors, working with you everyday on a book. Some are commissioning editors whose job is mainly to buy books and negotiate contracts and see the books through the process, but who also involved themselves in the actual editorial process to whatever extent they feel is needed. Others, the rare exceptions nowadays, are hands-on editor-publishers who handle everything and have a finger in every pie all at the same time. That’s the Chiki Sarkar model of publishing, and frankly, I’ve yet to meet or hear of any editor so completely involved and, dare I say it, this good!
Sure, I’m brown-nosing. But I really don’t give a rat’s ass if Chiki’s reading this, or not. Or who else may be reading it or not. For one thing, I have nothing to gain from praising her working methodology: I already have an excellent two-book contract with Random House India! That contract isn’t likely to get improved unless the book sells fabulously better than expected, so these compliments aren’t intended to sweeten my prospects. I’m just writing this because I’m so pleased that there’s one editor who works this way and I got the chance to work with her. And I believe that because she’s so happy with the work, and I’m so happy with the book and the process itself, that this will be a much better book because of it. I know for sure that the only reason this book will be completed and published in the form in which you will see it in a few months is thanks to this working method.
I guess I’m also trying to make up for the occasional grumbling and bitching I’ve done over the years about publishing relationships that didn’t work out, turned sour, or were just plain lousy to begin with (like the US editor who was all sugary sweet when she bought my manuscript, right upto the point where we signed contracts, then vanished, and was never heard from again, leaving me and the manuscript floundering in a vast MNC ocean of American editorial and publishing staff going: “Huh?” all the time because they had no clue what conversation or promise I was referring to with the original editor, and which effectively killed the book and that entire series forever) and similar tales of terror from the publishing trenches. I’m just so damn kicked that the book turned out well and that for the first time in my lifelong career as a writer and author, I got to experience a fully functional, all-systems-go, Check-A-Ok, Houston-We-Are-Ready-For-Launch, editor-publisher-author working relationship.
So excuse me if I do a little tap dance and tell you that I think The Valmiki Syndrome is going to be my best book ever. Enough said.
An epic ends even before it begins – AKB MBA shelved indefinitely
Well, here’s the news straight up. I’m shelving my Mba – my massively ambitious multi-volume Mahabharata retelling – indefinitely, probably permanently. At some point, I’ll post a longer explanation of the how and why, but for the moment, I just wanted to share the news. I’m actually pretty relaxed about it, because I’ve seen this looming for the past three years. Since 2004, when I finished writing my Ramayana Series and began writing the Mba, it’s been an uphill task. This year I finally reached the top of the mountain only to see…nothingness.
Apparently, a series of 10 volumes of over 450,000 words each is nearly impossible to publish in today’s market. For one thing, each book would be well over 1,000 pages in a large hardcover edition, and the paper and printing cost would mean that each hardcover volume would have to be priced anywhere from Rs 800 to Rs 1200, depending on how many copies the publisher expected to sell. Even a paperback edition would be around 1200 to 1500 pages and would have to be priced at anywhere from Rs 450 to Rs 700. And with such high prices per volume, the sales would be difficult to predict. Especially in a market where most bestsellers are around 200 pages each printed on cheap paper with cheap binding and printing, and sold at Rs 99 or less. Splitting the series into more volumes doesn’t help – to give you an example, the 5 million word Mba series would easily fill 45 to 50 books of the length of the average bestelling paperback, and even if priced at Rs 99, the total cost would still be more or less the same.
Any way you look at it, it’s going to be an expensive series to pay for in total, and that’s something publishers don’t believe readers would have the budget for today.
There’s also the problem of the sheer length of the series. Ten volumes would require anywhere from 5 years to 15 years to publish. Publishers prefer a longer gap between volumes as it gives them a chance to sell more copies of each volume, but that irks readers who would be waiting a very long time for each new book. What pleases one, displeases the other.
These are the major reasons and because of them, it seems near impossible that my Mba will ever see the light of day now. The last three years have been devoted to trying to find a solution. Most recently, my new literary agents Jay and Priya of Jacaranda have been working overtime to try and figure out a way. I’ve also been speaking to publishing professionals, book trade professionals and retailers across the board for the past few months.
The overall consensus is that this kind of series – 10 massive volumes 1,000+ pages each – is just not publishable in today’s cheap-bestseller market.
As I said, I’ll post a longer explanation at some point – and also share a few excerpts from the abandoned series, but as of now, this is the end of the road. Six years of writing, over a decade of research and study, all come to naught. Well, not entirely naught, because I learned a great deal and loved the process itself. For me, the research and writing is the really enjoyable part and I was able to enjoy that thoroughly. The publication part is for you, the reader, and I’ve tried everything possible to make that happen. But in the end, I just couldn’t find a way. C’est la vie. Already moved on, working on new books.
3RD UPDATE: COMMENTS ARE CLOSED BELOW.
SLAYER OF KAMSA submitted to HCI
Lol. That heading can be misread to mean something else entirely. Not to worry. It doesn’t mean that Lord Krishna has surrendered to High Court of India or something equally ludicrous. It’s just author-speak for Yay! I turned in the final draft of Book 1 of The Krishna Coriolis to HarperCollins India today. That’s the first book in my new series retelling the story of Krishna, titled SLAYER OF KAMSA. It’s an awesome book, even if I say so myself. And finally, I’m thrilled to report that it’s complete (after having begun it years ago, sometime in the mid-2000′s in its current form, and put it through many redrafts until I got it just the way I wanted it), I’ve submitted it for publication to my editor Saugata Mukherjee at HCI.
To sum up briefly: SLAYER OF KAMSA starts off The Krishna Coriolis, an 8-book series that retells the story of Krishna from before his birth until just after his death. It overlaps and covers several incidents that feature in my other series, the Mba, but whereas the Mba will cover those incidents and events on a much grander, more epic scale, from multiple viewpoints and at far greater length, The Krishna Coriolis only focusses on those incidents that are relevant to Krishna’s story and features points of view that are relevant to his story, but are not included in the main Mba series.
It’s also written in a different style from my Ramayana Series as well as the Mba, Gods of War, Vortal Codex, Vertigo, and other books. If you’ve read a variety of my books, you’ll know that I employ different styles depending on the characters and the story. In this vein, The Krishna Coriolis consists of much shorter books (some, like SLAYER OF KAMSA, almost half the length of the Ramayana Series books), faster paced storytelling, shorter chapters, simpler narration and a more youth-friendly literary style. While the story itself contains a fair amount of gruesome deaths and violence (an uncle who swings his newborn nephews and nieces around by their legs and smashes their brains out is not exactly child-friendly), making the content somewhat difficult to digest for sensitive readers of all ages, I consider the writing style to be more accessible to young readers. So yes, you could say that The Krishna Coriolis is my first full-length YA (Young Adult) series. Since I began my career with the publication of two YA novels, both contemporary stories (The Missing Parents Mystery and Amazing Adventure At Chotta Sheher), it feels nice to be back in the teen playpen, so to speak. :~)
I’ll post excerpts from SLAYER OF KAMSA here soon. As well as publication dates, cover images, etc, as and when I get those details. I’m not sure if HCI will be amenable to my offering a limited signed edition through AKB Books, and will post here about that as well.
Meanwhile, The Krishna Coriolis actually marks the start of my (presumably) long-awaited Mahabharata retelling. As I’ve mentioned often over the past several years, when I completed my Ramayana Series in 2004 and began work on the Mahabharata, I soon realized that it was impossible to fit that great story into 9 volumes as I’d originally intended. I later decided to split it into two interlinked series: The Mba in ten massive volumes (nine main volumes plus one ‘shunya’ volume retelling the pre-story of the great feud and the history of the Kuru race). And The Krishna Coriolis in eight volumes as I’ve just mentioned. In the original Mahabharata by Krishna-Dweipayana (better known today as just ‘Vyasa’), Krishna’s story appears in a section called Harivamsa, as well as his inclusion in the main text. So in a way, I’ve done exactly the same thing: The Mba is my retelling of the main text and The Krishna Coriolis is my retelling of Harivamsa.
As always, I’ve done my own thing with the story and characters. If you’ve read my Ramayana Series, you’ll know what to expect – but might still be very surprised by the switch in style, pace and approach. Pleasantly surprised, I’m sure! If you haven’t read my Ramayana Series, or anything else by me, then I heartily recommend starting with SLAYER OF KAMSA. It’s an action-packed fast-paced easy-to-read mytho that has all the ingredients of any bestselling western fantasy novel with a HUGE added plus: It’s desi!
PS: The illustrations above are Raja Ravi Varma paintings depicting incidents from the Krishna story featured in the book. Neither the style nor the content reflect my retelling in detail and approach. They’re all I could find to use here until my cover illustrations arrive!
Sons of Sita will be out in June
SONS OF SITA: Book 8 of The Ramayana Series, the long-awaited final volume, has been postponed again. The AKB Books edition will now be available in mid-June. If you’re one of those who were able to book a copy and have paid for it as well, thank you for your support and I hope you’ll be patient another two months. Because this is the phinal-phinal book in this long series, I really want it to be as perfect as I can make it, and perfection takes a little longer.
SoS pre-orders open again on popular demand! Note the special pre-order price for the SoS hardback: offer open till stocks last. SOLD OUT!
Ten years have passed since Rama did the unthinkable and banished Sita. Now, she spends her days in quiet tapasya in the remote forest ashram of Maharishi Valmiki, even as her sons Luv and Kush grow ever more proficient at the arts of war. To the sorrow of many, they seem unlikely to ever cross paths with their estranged father. Yet destiny works in unexpected ways. Rama’s growing ambitions and his war-mongering advisors motivate him to launch the Ashwamedha yojana. The mightiest Ayodhyan army ever assembled follows the sacred stallion in a campaign of conquest that seems unstoppable…until a pair of improbable obstacles arise. Defying the military might of Ayodhya and the emperorship of Rama himself, two young striplings capture the Ashwamedha horse and challenge the great army in an extraordinary battle. To Rama’s chagrin the challengers turn out to be none other than his own estranged offspring: the sons of Sita! Don’t miss the epic conclusion to the internationally acclaimed and bestselling Ramayana Series!
SONS OF SITA: Book 8 of The Ramayana Series
300 Pages/Limited Signed Hardback Edition/Rs 500 SOLD OUT!
300 Pages/2nd Limited Signed Trade Paperback Edition/Rs 400 SOLD OUT!
Click here to read excerpts from Sons of Sita.
Click here to pre-order Sons of Sita within India. SOLD OUT
(AKB Books are currently unavailable to order outside India.)
How to Pay
IMPORTANT: AKB BOOKS are currently sold out. If you have Ashok’s bank account details, please DO NOT deposit any payment towards future orders. The payment system is being revised and new details on How to Pay will be posted here on this page by mid-August, when the new AKB Books are ready for order.
IMPORTANT: Those who pre-ordered Sons of Sita in January-February 2010, please note that due to continued delays, your copies are now scheduled for delivery in the first week of September. If you do not wish to wait and desire a refund, please leave a comment below asking for the refund and it shall be sent to you within a week. Those who have ordered and received AKB Books without paying for them, please don’t worry: once the new payment system is in place, you can make the payment at your leisure. As always, this service is to offer you, my most loyal and supportive readers, a chance to get exclusive limited signed editions – it’s not about me making money!
SLAYER OF KAMSA: Book 1 of The Krishna Coriolis will be out next month (October). Written in a pacier style than my Ramayana Series, this short impactful book details the rise to power of the monstrous Kamsa and his brutal campaign to thwart the birth of the prophesied 8th Child. 