Friday, July 28, 2006

Burning Book Method

First it was Salman Rushdie with Satanic Verses, then it was Taslima Nasreen with Lajja and now its the turn of Monica Ali with Bricklane...The Bricklane Association here in London, the people at the helm of upholding the culture of Bengalis, have decided to burn copies of Bricklane this Sunday....why? well...no wonder its summer time here in London any ways, the folks don't need any extra heat by burning those letters written on paper...they think the author has written something insulting to the curry businesses and to the Bengali-British community as a whole...and since the author had her freedom of expression....so they also have freedom 'to burn books'.....wonderful i'nit?I really don't have much to say...if this is what they represent after living in this country for decades....their view of the world have remained the same...myopic...i am sad to say....even narrower than Bricklane itself...or than any remote alley in their 'fele asha desh'....I wonder how many of them have actually read the book in the first place...I have always wondered why don't they write something called 'Quranic Verses'..in reply to Rushdie...something called 'Gorbo' (Pride) in reply to Taslima's 'Lajja'...or write up something in reply to..as a retort to Monica's Bricklane....but they chose to do the easier act...prepare a rally...preach some shit..or hate..burn the books...and go home happy...understandably writing a novel is tougher...and requires brain...more than brawn. Nevertheless all this 'burning book' syndrome has made the authors of those controversial books...very famous overnight...they didn't have to do anything much...I think Rushdie, Taslima and Monica can very well fire their personal agents...as the folks in Iran, Bangladesh and Bricklane are doing their job pretty well...bringing them to limelight by creating a fuss over something probably which is not worth in the first place...anyways...inspired by the activities of the activists...I have finally decided to write a novel....hoping that very soon it will be able to create a controversy strong enough that they will try to burn my book too....making me famous in the process...what do you think? atleast I am trying to apply my brain here...come on!All these years of studies and all..what for? I am nobody still....if there are freelancers there who are willing to make me famous by burning a few copies of books...what's wrong in that?

 

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