At age twenty-one, I was given a copy of my grandfather’s poems. It was a blue book, with flames dancing on the cover. Those flames stood for aatish, fire in Urdu. The book’s title – and the origin of my name – was aatish kada, fire temple.

The picture of the flames was all I could make sense of at the time – the poems were in Urdu script, of which I knew too little to read even my name. How was it that I, having grown up in Delhi, could not read my paternal grandfather’s poems? ‘They stole it! And we also let it go,’ Zafar Moradabadi said mournfully, speaking of Pakistan and Urdu respectively.

Zafar was the man with whom I sat down to conquer the book’s mysteries. I said I didn’t want to learn to write, only to read. His face bloomed with concern. ‘You know you have a responsibility. You’re a poet’s grandson; what’s been done is there, for you to read and know. You say you want just to read; even that will only come when you can write.’ He was the first to admit that Urdu in India hadn’t really sunk as a language; it dominated television and cinema. He confessed that it was a question of script: what stood between me and my grandfather’s poetry. Using the word mizaaj, which is disposition, temperament and taste, he confessed ‘one’s mizaaj is contained in one’s script’.

Six months into my lessons with Zafar, I’d mastered the script’s meaningful single and double dots and mysterious elisions and I read my first Manto story about Bombay. Manto could evoke his world with a single detail. I was reading to see how he engaged his material so that a narrative seemed to spring naturally from it, a narrative that not only didn’t rely on ornate writing and description, but would have been obscured by it. So affecting was the experience that I wondered why I hadn’t grown up reading Manto. The answer was that he wasn’t taught widely in schools; he was locked into Urdu curriculum; Devanagari editions of his stories were hard to come by and English translations of his writing dense and bland – he had either been forgotten in India, or disowned. Feeling that India had too few writers of his caliber – either with the richness and breadth of his material or the simplicity of his prose – I sat down to do the first translation.

The challenges of translating Manto are considerable. What is rich, fluent prose in Urdu can appear florid in English. Translations are often criticized for being too literal, but in the case of Manto’s translators, I feel they haven’t been literal enough, that they have tried to rewrite the stories. My translations became a way for me to limit the effects of the intellectual partition Manto feared. Partition had left the subcontinent’s intellectual past fenced up with no-go zones. It has to be sorted through, excavated and reclaimed.

Manto: Selected Stories, translated by Aatish Taseer; 136 pp; Random House India; MRP 295. Buy or Rent books by Manto or Aatish Taseer now!!!!

Read an excerpt from the book at Aatish Taseer’s website

Dr Suess once said that “Adults are just obsolete children.” So how do you judge people? Duh Uh, obviously by checking out their reading habits as kids.

Were they the nerdy textbooks kinda people or were they the dreamy eyed romantics? Did racy mysteries catch their imagination or did they prefer to keep company with pirates, werewolves and wizards? Were they reading about the country- past, present and future or did they choose to let the fairies take over? Confession time!!! INDIAreads caught up with a bunch of very grown up authors – their book, She Writes has just been published by Random House India – and asked them to take a trip down memory lane so that we could meet the child in them….Here’s what we found out!!!

Favourite children’s book – the one that got you hooked?

Amrita Saikia: The Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton. The characters in them seemed absolutely real to me. As a little girl, I secretly prayed that I would be sent to a boarding school where I could have fun like those characters. Alas, this wish of mine was never fulfilled. (All you boarding school kids out there, stop gloating!!! Tell us, is life in a hostel just like Blyton told us it would be????)

Jyotsna Jha: Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson. The story revolves around a young boy who finds a secret map to a lost treasure. A gang of pirates know about the map too and our young hero must beat them in getting there first. Can he do it? Read this thrilling adventure novel to find out.

(And you thought little girls just enjoyed fairytales!!! We are as adventurous as any of you out there, maybe more )

Chitralekha Sarkar: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. It was the ultimate adventure, full of pirate ships and mermaids in lagoons and other exotic situations. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson came a close second. Unfortunately Walt Disney never made a cartoon feature on Treasure Island like his wonderful “Peter Pan”. (Uh oh…Disney Studios, are you listening???)

Geeta Sundar: I love Alice in wonderland—everything about it, and still go back to it. It has the kind of imagination that catches a child’s fancy, a lovely story, wonderful characters and outstanding poetry-‘You are old father William’, Tweedledum and Tweedledee’ being my favourites. (oh Gee!!!)

The Character you identify yourself with???  (Now this one had us listening very very carefully!!! So, no smart quips here)

Geeta: Alice of course, from Alice in Wonderland!!!

Chitralekha: Peter Pan, the boy who never had to grow up, who went on fantastic adventures with a band of friends and always won!

Anisha Bhaduri: Apu from Bibhutibhushan Banyopadhyay’s Pather Panchali

Jyotsna: Huck in Huckleberry Finn. I could at once identify with the vagrant boy going through the joys and pains of growing up and coming to terms with the complications of the adult world.

Amrita: I always envisioned myself as the intelligent and brave-hearted Nancy Drew and imagined myself intelligently defeating the villains and solving all those mysteries.

MMM…MMM. That was interesting! Now you know why we insisted on children’s books!!! And here comes the final one…Your Bookscapade – the book adventure that got you into trouble Come on, ‘fess up!!!!

Sheela Jaywant: I was in trouble for reading all the time. I didn’t like studying text books, but story-books… i lived them at mealtimes, loo-times, all the time. I day-dreamed my teenage away!

Geeta: Well this is a confession that I am not going to enjoy. When we were in tenth standard, there was a small library besides the big one, that was right in front of our class, and it had a small gap in the glass through which a girl with thin hands could take out a book. Since I had the thinnest hands, I was elected to put my hands in and take out books. We read them and put them back but were found out. When asked, I confessed, but the other girls sportingly joined me and we had to kneel for an hour outside the mother principal’s office as a punishment! (Ouch ouch!!!)

Anisha: A Harold Robbins novel at age 12/13, deemed a most inappropriate read at that age. (Boy, were you asking for trouble!!!) Fortunately, I grew up in a household where reading was encouraged and the children were expected to be responsible for what they read and how they developed their reading habits. (Talk of Luck!!!)

Amrita: It was one of the Sweet Valley High books that got me into trouble when I was in the tenth standard, a few months away from my board exams. I got hold of this book from one of my friends and hid it in between my textbooks. One night, after dinner, when I was sure that everyone had slept, I took out the book and began reading, pretending to study one of my textbooks. But I was a terrible actor and my mother, a strict parent. I was caught red-handed. A few stern words and glares ensured that I stayed away from all books apart from my course books till exams were over.

HA ha…now did you enjoy that one??? We asked them a bunch of other questions too. Check out their answers in our Children’s Special Newsletter this month. To get a copy, write to literathon@indiareads.com

And a big thank you to these special authors for being so sporty and sharing their naughty and not-so-naughty moments with us.

For those of you who are curious to meet the wonderful women these girls have turned into, here’s a brief about them…

If you’re in Lanka on business, pleasure or cricket, chances are you’ll be served arrack, an amber coloured intoxicant, favoured by the gentle and not-so-gentle islanders next door. Here are 10 things you didn’t know about it.

1.     Arrack predates Scotch and Vodka by centuries. Marco Polo apparently had a tipple in the 13^th century.

2.     It is not the same as raki from the Middle East, which tastes like liquorice. Or arkhi from Mongolia, which smells like fermented milk.

3.     It’s made from the juice of the coconut flower, plucked by crazy men in loin cloths, walking on 40 foot high tightropes.

4.     Arrack is consumed at Sri Lankan cricket matches, dodgy bars, nightclubs, office parties by everyone from hipsters to hip replacement patients.

5.     It’s best enjoyed with Ginger Ale and a plate of devilled meat. Some have it with coke. No one we know has tried it with tofu.

6.    Everyone agrees that frog tastes like chicken. And that arrack isn’t as bitter as whisky, or as sweet as rum. Everyone.

7.     There are 791 references to arrack in the novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. You can count them.

8.    The 1771 recipe for Swedish Punch includes half a pint of arrack. A classic Arrack Sour contains lime juice, ice cubes and a ton of sugar.

9.    There are many types of arrack: Double Distilled, VSOA, Old Reserve, Blue and Pol. But the strongest and meanest is Extra Special Gal, a cross between paint thinner and cough syrup.

10.  After 2 drinks, you will be eloquent on the subjects of cricket and politics. After 5, you will develop an ear for baila music and will laugh at everything. If still awake after 10, you are most likely get beaten up.

Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka is the author of the Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, which won the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize.

(To buy this interesting read that gives you a flavour of cricket, Sri Lanka and arrack, log on to www.indiareads.com)

So here’s what’s on offer this week. The winner of the Treasure hunt gets to chose a book from these free:

Secret of the Nagas by Amish Tripathi

Beautiful Country: Stories from Another India by Gunjan Veda & Syeda Hameed

Poor Little Rich Slum by Rashmi Bansal & Deepak Gandhi

Just Married, Please Excuse by Yashodhara Lal

Somanatha: The Many Voices of History by Romila Thapar

Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson

Sinners by Jackie Collins

Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Zeigesar

Along came a spider by James Patterson.

SO hurry! Send in the answer to the Thursday Treasure Hunt @ INDIAreads Online Library and Bookstore and get ready to win your favourite book.

Psst!!! Still not figured out the name of the book??? Well, here’s the final clue…

Among the dallies
I often dally
I left a lily in the valley

But now and then I ponder
And wonder as I wander
Among the fields and shrub
Perhaps the trouble is
Who knows
That I never met a rose

I can’t tell you more than this! So go for it. Remember to post your answers here on the INDIAreads Online Library cum Bookstore blog or on our facebook page before midnight on Sept 26, 2012. Check out this space tomorrow to see which best selling books are hidden inside our Treasure Chest this week. Happy Reading and Bonne Chance!

Still haven’t figured me out? Gosh! You are slow. Think books, think best sellers, think classics.

And here’s your clue number 3.

My creator was an aviator!

Now you should definitely know who I am. So hurry up and send in your entries to INDIAReads Online Library and Bookstore and win fabulous prizes!!!

So, still racking your brains over yesterday’s clues???

Hmm never mind, here’s another one.

I was dedicated to a grown up, or rather the child he was before he grew up

Courtesy: http://www.keota.lib.ia.us

Yeppp, another new feature Beginning today, we are going to play Treasure Hunt every Thursday

It’s simple really….

We will give you 4 clues over four days….Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Guess the correct answer (it can be the name of a book, author or publisher!!!)  and send in your entries before midnight on the following Wednesday. The correct answer and the winner will be announced every Thursday along with the next Treasure Hunt.

A lucky winner gets to select a book from our Treasure Chest (The Contents of the Treasure Chest will be revealed every Monday!!!!)

The rules: Post your answer on the Treasure Hunt post or on our facebook page. You can also mail your entries to literathon@indiareads.com with teh subject line Thursday Treasures.

Winners are selected through a draw of lots.

Contest only open to people residing in India. We do not send books out of the country. Sorry Folks!!!!

So let the game begin…..

Here’s Clue 1:

First published in 1943, I have been translated into 250 different languages, one of them being English. Oh watch the mighty Brits cringe!!! My creator, after all, was from a nation they have seldom liked (and that’s putting it politely).

Oh and before I bid adieu, there’s another prize I need to announce. Every month, the person who gets the maximum right answers at the earliest (that is after the first clue, or second clue etc etc), gets a special prize!!!!

So think hard and if you know the book that I am talking about, send in your entries now. Bonne Chance!!!

I love books, but at times, I wonder if I love bookshops and libraries more. Oh I enjoy reading all right but if I was to choose between reading a book and going through racks of titles, I would choose the later. What does that say about me, I wonder! The fact is that I can spend day after day just browsing through books. Finding new authors, discovering new, off the beaten track books, coming across a weird looking book cover – it gives me such a thrill. Even as a child, my Mom would dread taking me to a bookshop. As I grew up, my friends were ready to accompany me anywhere but to the local library. That’s why I feel I am in the perfect job. I spend hours looking at books – checking out the cover, reading the blurb at the back, opening random pages and reading short excerpts – and such gems I have discovered. The temptation to share my treasures is strong and finally I have succumbed. So beginning today, I’ll share a few finds from my forays into the world of books, every Tuesday. Why Tuesday, you might ask? Because it gives you ample time to find out about the books and get them delivered before the weekend comes a knocking.

But  before I begin, I have another admission to make. These books are not recos and the snippets I offer will not be book reviews. I haven’t read these books, remember. They simply tempted me and they are now on my reading list. So if you have read them, share the reviews and if you have other such gems to share, do that too….let’s give everyone food for thought and a bunch of exciting options for the weekend….

I know, I know it seems like an absurd book title but don’t always judge a book by its title people. And no, we aren’t talking about cooking here. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (quite a mouthful, isn’t it!) celebrates the written word and I must say that I loved the snippets that I read while picking it up. And though I haven’t managed to get to it yet, my friend did and she loved it. So this one comes highly recommended.

The title and the subtitle say it all. And this one I have begun reading. It is really interesting. Have always taken dictionaries for granted but had never stopped to think about how one was created. Now I know

The Last song of the Dusk by Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi. This book was hiding in a corner of the bookshelf and I would have missed it but for the bright red cover. Set in 1920s India, it seems like a powerful read. Have you read it? If yes, share your reviews.

That’s it for this week. Wait for next Tuesday for the next tranche of Tuesday Temptations and do not forget to share yours.

Pooh gets stuck…

Goodbye Testicles…

Everyone Poops….

Bombproof your Horse

We haven’t lost it….these are all book titles and now we are on the search for absurd book titles by Indian authors or publications. Share the most bizarre title you have come across (english or hindi) by an Indian author or for a book published in India and win a six month library membership from INDIAreads*. Hurry, contest ends midnight, September 28, 2012. The top 3 absurd titles will be put on poll (On September 30 for 5 days) and the one with the maximum votes declared the winner.

And you can send in as many entries as you wish. Just make sure, the books exist. Post your entries here or dash an email to literathon@indiareads.com with the subject: INDIAreads “Ouch, Really???” Contest

*Prize refers to subscription amount for 2 books per month plan. In cities where only self return plans operate, it refers to self return services and in cities where library membership cannot be offered, it will be converted into a gift voucher for Rs 800.