So there’s been all this hype and hoopla about 12.12.12. Weddings and deliveries have been planned (despite it being an almost “amavasya”), exclusive sales events announced, special outings organized at ancient Mayan sites in Central America, spiritual meets scheduled across the globe. Not to be left behind, the soap operas too have planned “dramatic episodes” for this unique date.

We too have jumped into the bandwagon. Every 12th registration, purchase and subscription on the INDIAreads website today has been winning free gifts and vouchers. But why? I mean, I know it makes business sense. We love occasions – remember, the ‘Day” phenomenon that started out with a tribute to St Valentine and today encompasses every possible relation and emotion. Seriously, pick up any date, google it and you’ll find some day or the other. So yeah, there’s a business logic to it. Special occasions entail celebrations or gifts and that means fast buck. So I’m in, but darn this curiosity, I just had to know if there was more to this 121212 phenomenon. And so I decided to spend a day with google and yahoo and bing and all the other lovely search engines out there. Here’s what I found out. Btw everything that I put down here, you could find too with a little bit of effort. I am just making your life simpler – consider this as my 121212 gift to you.

1. This combination comes up only comes up once every century (just like 111111-ouch -101010, 090909 etc) and we all love unique! The next unique date is another 88 years away – Jan 1, 2101.

2. According to the ancient Mayan calender our Sun would have completed a revolutionary cycle of (hold your breath) 26,000 years. So yeah, the leaps taken by medical science notwithstanding, you are definitely not experiencing this day again. According to the Mayans this marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new period/cycle of evolution. Being optimists, we’ll ignore doomsday predictions (the claim that the world will end on December 21, 2012) and toast to a new beginning!

3. The Number 12 itself is special. It is one of the most easily divisible numbers and western tradition regards it as the most complete numeral. Hence 12 apostles, 12 days of Christmas, 12 signs of zodiac, 12 Gods of Olympus and 12 as the basis for time related calculations. Consider this: a year has 12 months, a day has 12 hours of day and 12 of night. An hour has 60 minutes (12*5) and minute, 60 seconds. Don’t ask me why the week doesn’t have 12 days though!

4. Numerology considers 3 and 9 to be lucky numbers, especially 3 because it stands for Jupiter which represents wealth. Think money. Now consider 12. 1+2 = 3. Bingo. Good number. Think 12.12.12 and we have 9. Good number again!

5. And now the Chinese angle. One is a yang number ruled by the sun and two a yin number ruled by the moon. Together the two represent perfect harmony – a blend of individualism and symmetry coming from the masculine energies of the sun and the feminine energies of the moon.

6. This is just fyi :In response to Doomsday preparations taking place globally, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has declared 12/12/12 “Anti-Doomsday Day.”

7. And here’s  DYK: 12/12/12 came exactly 6 years, 6 months, 6 days after 06/06/06.

8. Let’s end on a musical note:  a 12.12.12 concert featuring Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stone, The Who and Paul McCartney will take place in New York’s Madison Square Garden tonight and will be witnessed by 2 million people globally.

So, do you still think today is just another day????

The publishing industry is abuzz. Penguin and Random House, two of the big sixes of the publishing world are talking merger and everyone’s waiting with bated breath; the move could be a game changer for an industry that has been struggling with the a number of issues including eb00ks and pressures from large online retailers.

Currently, Penguin which is owned by the UK based Pearson group has 3500 employees and total annual sales to the tune of USD 1.7 billion. It’s repertoire includes authors like Amitav Ghosh (though not exclusively), Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, Fareed Zakaria and Jeff Kinney of the famous Wimpy Kid series.

Random House is currently America’s biggest publishing house. Owned by German media giant Bertelsmann, it has over 5300 employees and an annual revenue of USD 2.2 billion.

A company formed out of the union of two will have in its repertoire doyens like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie and best sellers like Dan Brown, E L James, Christopher Paolini, Patricia Cornwell . It is expected to have a turnover of USD 3 billion and control 27% share of the UK book publishing market and 25% of the US market. Insiders say that should the merger take place, Bertelsman is likely to own over 50% of the new company.

The union makes sense for the two giants simply because it would give them a much bigger market share, cut costs (estimates say the saving would be to the tune of USD 40 million at least) and most importantly, give them greater bargaining power against the big online retailers who have been dictating terms much to the consternation of the companies.

For the authors, however, this is bad news. It reduces their options and the number of bidders for their titles. Also it becomes more difficult for new authors to break through as this means on address less. However, in an era of self publishing, it may really not be so much of a challenge.  The impact on readers remains debatable. Some argue that as long as the separate imprints continue, the reader enjoys the same variety as before. However, a merger of imprints is normally inevitable (it is only the time taken for the merger that varies). This would mean fewer flavours for the readers palette.

Of course, for the Indian market the question is how this merger would impact the nascent publishing industry, especially the crop of newbies who have just come in with Rs 100-150 love stories penned by college students and young professionals? Will it mean that more and more debut authors will mvoe to the newer publishing houses or will the new arrangement also see mergers and consolidations with the market here? One can speculate, but it’s too early and the industry too volatile for any clear cut answers.

The World Book Fair at New Delhi is about to begin, and INDIAreads will be there.

Do visit the INDIAreads stalls – we can’t wait to have you paw our brand new merchandise even as you struggle to manage a cheap sandwich with one hand, and a screaming brat with the other.

It’s always a pleasure to hear you gossip about the authors in hushed tones (“Amartya Sen – isn’t he the guy that invented Amul..?”), and it really makes our day when you ask us 50 painfully mundane questions and end up buying nothing. We live for those moments!

The theme at this year’s fair shall be ‘Indian Cinema’.

Cinema and Literature – Really…?

As long as the cinematic medium has existed, the movie industry has looked to literature for both inspiration and content.

But when turning a literary masterpiece into a movie, do the two mediums share enough commonalities so as to enable a smooth transition…?

The filmwallahs would answer ‘yes’. From ‘About A Boy’ to ‘Wuthering Heights’, the conversion of popular books to big screen pictures has been a recurring theme in film, particularly in recent years with the success of huge franchises like Harry Potter and the Twilight saga.

While much discussion centers around adaptations that aren’t seen as having lived up to the literature on which they are based, there are many adaptations that actually enhance an existing story; or completely supersede it.

Example: Fight Club – a brilliant movie, stemming from an okay novel.

Or Clueless, which takes a novel from 1815 and makes it relevant to the modern day by setting the story of Jane Austen’s Emma in the context of a Beverly Hills high school.

But all faffing aside – the tendency to make film adaptations of books stems largely from the desire for a guaranteed audience, and is not quite the ‘natural progression’ for a book as advocated by some filmmakers.

Flipside? Stories are abridged, scenes are added, movie-only fans (newbies, resented by the hard core lit enthusiasts) are born, and those who followed the series from its inception are often left feeling a little disappointed at the end product.

The greatest difference between movies and novels is that cinemagoers share a much more social, passive experience than bookworms – who enjoy an active, solitary read. This means that while those reading the book have their own visions of characters and events, film audiences are forced to share a single vision of what these aspects of the story look like.

This alienates the book fan further – what was once a personal experience for him/her, is now universal; with the perceptions and prejudices of producers, directors, actors and audiences – all influencing the final product.

All is not lost, though.

In Part II, we shall take a look at some of the more successful experiments to have managed the leap from literature to cinema.

Leddies.

The Velenntyne Day is here, and louve is in the air.

(sniff) Can you smell it?

Annyway.

Let’s celebrate romance by taking a look at some of the more romantic literary characters to have tumbled out of ‘romance novels‘ (and similar works of propaganda that were almost certainly metaphors for the authors’ own failed love lives);

1. Edward Rochester of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre – (Alternately cold, imperious, and withholding; he proposes to Jane without disclosing the much-married madwoman imprisoned in his attic)

2. Richard Sharpe of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series – (“He’ll fall in love with anything in a petticoat”, according to Patrick Harper – Richard’s loyal friend)

3. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – (In 2010, a protein sex pheromone in male mouse urine, that is sexually attractive to female mice, was named Darcin in honour of the character)

4. Heathcliff of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – (A man prone to domestic violence, kidnapping, murder and digging up dead lovers – a fact perhaps unknown to Gordon Brown when he compared himself to “an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff” in 2008.)

5. Rupert Campbell Black of Jilly Cooper’s The Rutshire Chronicles – (Cooper has acknowledged that Rupert’s character is based upon Andrew Parker Bowles, the ex-husband of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Incidentally, she left him for Prince Charles – a man with a face for radio)

That’s just the beginning of my list. I could go on and on, but let me not kill all that love in one go. So more later….Till then

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!

How would one explain the Kindle to Charlie Dickens…?

No wait; that’s a separate blogpost. Let’s get to know Charlie a little better first.

Charles Dickens: The name conjures up visions of plum pudding and Christmas punch, quaint coaching inns and cosy firesides, but also of orphaned and starving children, misers, murderers, and abusive schoolmasters. Dickens was 19th century London personified – he survived its mean streets as a child and, despite being largely self-educated, possessed the genius (that trademark leftie trait) to eventually become the greatest writer of his age.

Charlie was born on February 7, 1812, the son of a clerk at the Navy Pay Office. His father, John Dickens, continually living beyond his means, was imprisoned at the Marshalsea(a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark) in 1824 for failing to pay his debts.

A 12-year-old Charles was subsequently removed from school and sent to work at a boot-blacking factory – earning six shillings a week to help support the family. This experience cast a shadow over the clever, sensitive boy, and became a defining episode in Charlie’s life. (He would later lament, “How I could have been so easily cast away at such an age.”)

This childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would be a heavy influence on Dickens‘ later views on social reform; and not least on the world he would create through his fiction.

Not surprisingly, Dickens’ characters are some of the most memorable in fiction.

Often these characters were based on people that he knew: Wilkins Micawber and William Dorrit (his father), Mrs. Nickleby (his mother). In a few instances Dickens based the character too closely on the original and got into trouble, as in the case of Harold Skimpole in Bleak House, based on Leigh Hunt, and Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield, based on his wife’s dwarf chiropodist.

Their names, too, are funkier than most. Characters such as Sweedlepipe, Honeythunder, Bumble, Pumblechook, and M’Choakumchild are recognizable as Dickensian even by those unfamiliar with the stories.

Charlie’s friend and biographer, John Forster, said that Dickens made “characters real existences, not by describing them but by letting them describe themselves.”  Characters such as Scrooge (miserly) and Pecksniff (hypocritically affecting benevolence) became defining terms in everyday vernacular.

Charlie would go on to write 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles before his death on June 9, 1870.

He wished to be buried, without fanfare, in a small cemetery in Rochester, but the Nation would not allow it. He was laid to rest in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, the flowers from thousands of mourners overflowing the open grave.

Incidentally, among the more beautiful bouquets were many simple clusters of wildflowers, wrapped in rags.

More about him later, though; must get back to my very empowering ‘Five Point Someone’.

In the meantime, please feel free to buy/rent, and academically fondle thereafter, the following Dickensian Classics at INDIAreads;

1. A Christmas Carol: You know the tale, you’ve seen the movies, but if you haven’t read the book you’re missing half the story. Dickens‘ little tale of human redemption has a million versions out there; make sure you get the original at INDIAreads.

2. David Copperfield: Charlie’s eighth novel was a thinly disguised autobiography, with many of the story lines mirroring Dickens‘ own life. ”Dickens never stood so high in reputation as at the completion of Copperfield.” – John Forster, Dickens‘ friend and first biographer.

3. Great Expectations: Strongly autobiographical again; though not as openly as in David Copperfield. Charlie actually reread Copperfield before beginning Great Expectations – to avoid unintentional repetition. Called Dickens‘ darkest work by some, it was very well received by Victorian readers and remains one of his most popular works today. Many consider it his greatest use of plot, characterization, and style – and a masterpiece of literary work.

I say again, lest my last post failed to register with the ‘deaf futtbucker’ demographic hiding amongst you: The Jaipur Literature Festival 2012 is about to get underway.

There are Lit Fests and there are Lit Fests. This one, though, is not your average overdose of book readings and (equally lackluster) panel discussions. The authors will not brood and the audience will not snooze.

For one, it’s a free festival.

So you see..? It is a chance for bottom feeders (like you) to approach Salman Rushdie, sip coffee with Michael Ondaatje, rub shoulders with Amish Tripathi, or admire Fatima Bhutto in toto for her, er, literary excellence.

Choosing what events to attend may be the only stress of the day for your cheap derriere. You’ll pay nothing to get in; then mull difficult session choices over a free lunch.

The atmosphere will be informal, interdisciplinary, and infectious. Actors, directors, fashion designers, economists, travellers, politicians, scientists, students, bloggers and all manner of urban hipsters will congregate in the gardens of an old and intimate Rajasthani palace to spend 5 days “in conversation”.

At night, the wine will flow. Expect the stage to come alive with the Dionysian revelry that typically follows a literary salon.

But there’s a catch.

Thanks to a rise in the number of programmes (and an ever increasing attendance) over the years, the venue is straining to breaking point and the nature of the event is changing. Last year, J.M. Coetzee had to clamber over hundreds of people squeezed next to speakers, crouched next to seats, or sitting on folded newspapers on the churned-up grass.

To reach the stage.

Those who have experienced the intimacy of earlier editions of the JLF lament that it is now impossible to have conversations with their favourite writers. The authors, too, may bemoan the festival’s increasingly unwieldy size.

Junot Diaz, a witty and thoughtful commentator on the lot of migrants in America, used one session to blame capitalism for encouraging writers to pursue their work not because they have something important to say, but for the sake of getting approval from the largest possible audience. “We know that we need less applause and more conversation,” he told a packed room.

Promptly—inevitably—the audience clapped.

One can certainly nitpick, and criticism has always been a blood sport in India. My money, though, is still on Dalrymple (co-Director of the event) to put up a great show. The self-confessed “Indophile” has always had an acute understanding of the way things work (or don’t work) in India (a fact amply demonstrated in his books). Vikram Seth may well buy George Herbert’s house and own an umbrella but he won’t ever really be ‘British’; while one may safely proclaim Dalrymple is more ‘Indian’ now than when he first came here (as a backpacker in 1989), and less of an anglophile than a lot of us.

Ergo: Mister William aage badho, hum tumhaare saath hain.

At the 2010 Lit Fest;

1. Catherine Clement, French intellectual and author of ‘Edwina and Nehru: A Novel’ and Nayantara Sahgal, Jawaharlal Nehru’s niece discussed the roaring affair between Jinnah and Sarojini Naidu. “It is well known in France. Why is it not spoken of in India?” asked Clement. Came the reply, “Because our national leaders are not allowed to have sex organs.” Sahgal and Clement also agreed that Sahgal’s ‘maamu’ was a beautiful man while Edwina was ‘nice’.

2. The toothsome Bangladeshi author Shazia Omar had to be shepherded through crowds of autograph-seeking men. Subsequent to getting her autograph on brand new notebooks came the question, “What is your name, madam?”

3. Hanif Kureishi, irritable about being on a panel called ‘Migrant Words’, snapped, “I have moved a few kilometres within London. That’s the extent of my migration.”

4. At one Litfest venue (the Mughal Tent), speaker Amitava Kumar stopped to salute William Dalrymple, who’d just entered. He went on: “I hear Dalrymple is soon taking over the world. This is how the East India Company began; one Mughal tent at a time.”

5. Hearing a ‘whoosh-whoosh’ sound, Wole Soyinka paused mid-reading to peer down his chin at the mike: “Is my beard doing something?”

Earlier, Soyinka had the pleasure of being introduced by Urvashi Butalia as ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’.

6. Sidin Vadukut (then first-time author of comic novel Dork), on the Jaipur Litfest experience: “It’s like a college fest, except you don’t go home — you just grow older.”

7. During a session titled ‘Bin Laden after Bush’, Javed Akhtar jumped out of the audience to accuse Steve Coll of being part of an American conspiracy to pretend Bin Laden was still alive. This, in January 2010.

At the 2009 Lit Fest;

1. Authors Ira Pande and Namita Gokhale, cousins, began a session by chattering jovially amongst themselves, completely oblivious to the audience, and apologising for the same later: “Sorry about this, when Namita and I get together we turn into a Johar Mahmood show and forget all about the audience.”

2. Bruce Palling, a journalist for over 40 years and well-known travel writer, recalls seeing Colin Thubron being addressed scornfully by a visa officer at the Indian High Commission in London.

Thubron, whose novels and travel books have stopped just short of the Man Booker Prize but earned him the sobriquet of “gentleman traveller”, was apparently trying to assert himself as a delegate for the Jaipur festival but the documents he was presenting, rather than earning him a visa, seemed only fit to draw derision. Bruce, with all his experience of India pulled him gently aside and counselled in a whisper, “Colin. Just go back home and come again tomorrow with an application for a tourist visa.”

3. Amitabh Bachhan, attending the festival to release ‘Bachchanalia’ (a book in his honour) was seen brandishing his trademark native wit. When a crowd gathered on an overhanging terrace came too close to the edge and an announcer requested them to move back, Amitabh translated, “Peeche hat jao nahin toh aap meri godh mein giroge!” (Please get back, lest you fall in my lap)

4. When a young school girl asked Nandan Nilekani, what prompted him to write a book, the Infosys co-founder replied, “I wanted an invitation to the Jaipur Literature Festival.”

5. Vikram Seth revealed that he had to buy a copy of his own book to read in one of the sessions, as he’d arrived at the festival without any copies.

6. Final Night. Writers’ Ball at the Jaipur City Palace. Chetan Bhagat was seen asking Vikram Seth for an autograph.

As India’s young rock-star novelist tried to convince the cranky genius (who sat there fretting with a wrinkled brow) to write something meaningful on a scrap of paper for his sister (or someone), a journalist (standing with Seth) noted that he might consider adapting the kind of line Asimov is reputed to have taken in such situations: “I’ll never forget our marvellous night on the beach.”

Seth guffawed, and Bhagat got his autograph.

Homies!

The Jaipur Literature Festival (20-24 Jan ’12) is about to get underway.

It’s been a bumpy ride - The inaugural event in 2006 drew a crowd of about 100 attendees, including some who “appeared to be tourists who had simply got lost,” according to the event’s co-director William Dalrymple.

And the naysayers feel the festival is all about pretenders and post-colonial sahibs. Like Hartosh Bal; in a caustic piece appearing in Open Magazine in 2011, he wrote the festival  “works not because it is a literary enterprise, but because it ties us to the British literary establishment”—exemplified, first and foremost, by Dalrymple himself (whom he went on to deride as the “pompous arbiter of literary merit in India”). Incidentally, Bal is an Oxbridge-educated Indian who sounds more British than the Queen herself.

Dalrymple hit back immediately, lambasting Bal’s screed as racist cant akin to “pouring shit through an immigrant’s letterbox”.

Sadly, things are less acrimonious now.

Let’s take one final, longing look back at some of the funnier and more candid moments from events of years past. To set the mood for the serious business that follows.

Literary foreplay, if you will.

At the 2011 Jaipur Lit Fest;

1. Orhan Pamuk, that grave purveyor of melancholy, is evidently also a funny man.

During the Q&A session, someone asked Pamuk if the theme of his new novel ‘Museum of Innocence’ was whether philosophical love was deeper than physical love. Without skipping a beat, Pamuk responded, “That depends on the penetration.”

2. Junot Diaz (author of ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao‘), during a session titled ‘Storyteller-in-Chief’, told a packed crowd under the Mughal tent, “I can’t imagine anything more foreign to Indian readers than the Dominican Republic or New Jersey. But white people were looking for YOU when they found US.”

3. During one of the interactive sessions, Gulzar amused the audiences with little anecdotes on the birth of songs in Hindi cinema before Javed Akhtar (who arrived 20 minutes late) could join him. He later apologised to Akhtar saying,” ‘Maaf Kijiyega, main inhe behla raha tha (Forgive me, I was just managing them).

4. During a Q&A session, a school girl asked Gulzar, “There was simplicity in our old songs. The vocabulary was simple and it touched our hearts. Why can’t we have a similar vocabulary in new songs?” Gulzar shot back, “You have used ‘vocabulary’ twice in your question. Can you tell me what it is called in Hindi?

5. An angry Indian editor from a well-known and respected publishing house was heard  describing Dalrymple (who at last year’s festival was reading his own texts while Paban Das Baul sang and swayed, even as certain sections felt as the Director of the Festival he should not have been hogging so much of the limelight) as “that self-promoting ‘White Mughal‘ who has turned down all my authors”.

I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.

- Christopher Hitchens  (13^th April 1949 – 15^th December 2011)

That was Hitchens for you. Writer. Orator. Contrarian.

But just how much of a non-conformist WAS Hitch..?

In his 2007 polemic ‘God is not Great’, he gave short shrift to the “insulting” suggestion that cancer might persuade him to change his position (he was a heavy smoker/drinker) where reason had not, arguing that to ditch principles “held for a lifetime, in the hope of gaining favour at the last minute” would be a “hucksterish choice”, and urging those who had taken it upon themselves to pray for him not to “trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries”.

Writing in his 2010 memoir ‘Hitch-22’, Hitchens said that he hoped and believed his “advancing age has not quite shamed my youth”, disavowing the “’simple’ ordinary propositions” of his younger days in favour of the maxim that “it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties”.

“One reason, then, that I would not relive my life,” he continued, “is that one cannot be born knowing such things, but must find them out, even when they then seem bloody obvious, for oneself.”

A die-hard atheist, Hitchens’ contempt for all things ‘religion’ may be gauged from the following excerpts;

” Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”

“Name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer.”

“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.”

“Religion looks forward to the destruction of the world…. Perhaps half aware that its unsupported arguments are not entirely persuasive, and perhaps uneasy about its own greedy accumulation of temporal power and wealth, religion has never ceased to proclaim the Apocalypse and the day of judgment.”

“The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.”

Buy the following Christopher Hitchens books at INDIAreads;

1. God is Not Great (2007)

“[A] pleasingly intemperate assault on organized religion…”  - Kirkus Reviews

“An intellectual willing to show his teeth in the cause of righteousness.” – The New Yorker

“Thank God for Christopher Hitchens.” - Esquire Magazine

One hell of a religious read.” – New York Post

2. Thomas Paine’S Rights Of Man – A Biography (2009)

“Hitchens is a political descendant of the great pamphleteer, “a Tom Paine for our troubled times.” - The Independent, London

“Christopher Hitchens at his characteristically incisive best” – The Times, London

3. Hitch-22 (2010)

‘If Hitchens didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be able to invent him.’ - Ian McEwan.

‘Christopher Hitchens is one of the great conversationalists of our age and his wit, style and erudition are brilliantly deployed in this glittering autobiography. Hitch-22 sparkles with funny stories, treasurable quotations, witty apercus and deft descriptions.’ - Sunday Times

4. Arguably (2011)

“Anyone who occasionally opens one of our more serious periodicals has learned that the byline of Christopher Hitchens is an opportunity to be delighted or maddened-possibly both-but in any case not to be missed….His range is extraordinary, both in breadth and altitude. He is as self-confident on the politics of Lebanon as on the ontology of the Harry Potter books….I still find Hitchens one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining we have, even when-perhaps especially when-he provokes.” (Bill Keller, New York Times Book Review )

In an article in Reader’s Digest (February 2001) titled ‘Beyond 2001’, Sir Arthur C Clarke outlined a series of predictions for the next 100 years. And asked to be checked for accuracy on 31^st December, 2100; tongue firmly in cheek.

Retrospect is always enlightening. So while some of these predictions may seem far-fetched (even laughable) in 2011, not all of them, incidentally, are entirely inaccurate.

As we approach Clarke’s birthday on December 16, let us take a peek at what (Clarke believes) may lie in store for us…

2001 Cassini space probe (launched 1997) begins exploration of Saturn’s moons and rings. Galileo probe (launched 1989) continues surveying Jupiter and its moons. Life beneath the ice-covered oceans of one moon, Europa, appears likely.

2002 The first commercial device producing clean, safe power by low-temperature nuclear reactions goes on the market, heralding the end of the Fossil Fuel Age.

2003 The motor industry is given five years to replace all fuel-burning engines with the new energy device. The same year, NASA’s robot Mars Surveyor is launched.

2004 First (publicly admitted) human clone.

2005 First sample sent back to Earth by Mars Surveyor.

2006 Last coal mine closed.

2008 A city is devastated by the accidental detonation of an atomic bomb in its country’s own armoury. After a brief debate in the United Nations, all nuclear weapons are destroyed.

2009 The first quantum generators (tapping space energy) are developed. Available in portable and household units, from a few kilowatts upwards, they can produce electricity indefinitely. Central power stations close down: the age of pylons ends.

Electronic monitoring virtually phases out professional criminals.

2011 Largest living animal filmed: a 76-metre octopus in the Mariana Trench. Even larger creatures are discovered when the first robot probes drill through the ice of Europa.

2012 Aerospace-planes enter commercial service.

2013 Prince Harry becomes the first member of the British royal family to fly in space.

2014 Construction of the Hilton Orbiter Hotel begins by converting the giant shuttle tanks previously allowed to fall back to Earth.

2015 An inevitable by-product of the quantum generator is complete control of matter at the atomic level. Within a few years, lead and copper cost twice as much as gold as they become immensely more useful.

2016 Existing currencies are abolished. The “mega-watt-hour” becomes the universal unit of exchange.

2017 December 16, on his hundredth birthday, Sir Arthur C. Clarke is one of the first guests in the Hilton Orbiter.

2019 A major meteor impact occurs on the north polar ice cap. The resulting tsunamis cause considerable damage along the coasts of Greeland and Canada. The long-discussed “Project Spaceguard,” to identify and deflect potentially dangerous comets or asteroids, is finally activated.

2020 Artificial Intelligence reaches human level. Now, there are two ‘intelligent’ species on Earth.

2021 The first humans land on Mars.

2023 Dinosaur facsimiles are cloned from computer-generated DNA.

2024 Infrared signals are detected coming from the centre of the Galaxy, obviously the product of a technologically advanced civilisation. All attempts to decipher them fail.

2025 Neurological research finally leads to an understanding of all the senses, and direct input becomes possible, bypassing ears, eyes, skin, etc. The result is the metal “Braincap.” Anyone wearing this close-fitting helmet can enter a whole universe of experience; real or imaginary.

The Braincap is a boon to doctors, who may now experience their patients’ symptoms (suitably attenuated). It also revolutionises the legal profession, as deliberate lying becomes impossible.

2040 The “Universal Replicator,” based on nanotechnology, is perfected; any object, however complex, may be created – given the necessary raw materials. Diamonds and gourmet meals alike may literally be manufactured from dirt.

Resultantly, agriculture and industry are phased out, taking conventional notions of ‘work’ with them. There is an explosion in spheres of art, entertainment and education. Hunter-gatherer societies are deliberately recreated, and huge swathes of the planet are allowed to revert to their natural state.

2045 The completely self-sustainable mobile home (envisaged almost a century ago by Buckminster Fuller) is perfected. Any additional carbon needed for food synthesis is obtained by extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

2050 Bored in this era, millions decide to use cryonic suspension to emigrate into the future in search of adventure.

2057 On October 4, the centenary of Sputnik 1, the dawn of the space age is celebrated by humans on Earth, the Moon, Mars, Europa, Ganymede and Titan, and in orbit around Venus, Neptune and Pluto.

2061 Halley’s Comet returns. First landing on the comet by humans, and the sensational discovery of both dormant and active life forms; vindicating Wickramasinghe and Hoyle’s century-old hypothesis that life exists through space.

2090 Burning of fossil fuels is resumed to replace carbon dioxide ‘mined’ from the air, and to try to postpone the next Ice Age by promoting global warming.

2095 The development of “Space Drive” – a propulsion system harnessing the structure of space-time itself – makes the rocket obsolete and permits velocities close to that of light. Human explorers set off to nearby star systems.

2100 History begins…

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2001 – A Space Odyssey : Change the way you look at the stars. And at yourself.

“ Dazzling. Wrenching. Eerie. A true mind bender.”  -  TIME

2010 – Odyssey Two : Cosmic in sweep. Filled with the romance of Space. Eloquent in its depiction of Man’s place in the Universe.

“A daring romp through the solar system and a worthy successor to 2001.”  -  Carl Sagan

2061 – Odyssey Three : For Scientists and Metaphysicists alike.

“[Clarke] remains a master at describing the wonders of the material universe in sentences that combine a respect for scientific accuracy with an often startling lyricism.”  -  The New York Times

3001 – The Final Odyssey : Scientifically accurate. Yet startlingly lyrical.

“[Clarke] is . . . the poet laureate of the Space Age.”   -  Los Angeles Times