Amitabh Manu's Blog

A scathing review has prompted me to post an addendum to the description of The Blogging Affair - not in defence, but in correcting my mistake of not setting the right expectations - an error I intend to rectify now.

This book is not for serious readers. It does not have characters one can relate to, the plot of the murder mystery is restricted to almost being an accessory, and it has no objective grander than to be a lighweight read. A large part of the book is devoted to elements other than furthering the plot. The writing style is patchy - from being all too-casual in depicting the incoherent, rambling thoughts, to almost too-formal for some of the 'asides'. All this is intentional. Editing errors are not and I can only regret about them. There is no defence for poor writing, and I will not attempt it.

At the least what I have attempted to do, is to be 'different'.

Excerpt from the blog in the book...

I was inspired by the book of quotations and decided to collate my favourite ones. Here’s the first edition of recent, and decent, ones.

‘The car’s at the cleaners. The clothes are in the washing machine. The dishes are being fondled by the maid. Lather, lather, everywhere...’
- Mr. Bhattacharya, in the play ‘Madam’s Day Out’. The play was staged for a record 17 continuous weeks. Its promoters surmised that its audience was largely the housewives enjoying their day out.

‘Television directors shoot their serials in episodes--one at a time--just like serial killers. And just like serial killers, they end up murdering them. Unless of course, if the serial is good. In which case it is a killer serial.’
- Bishnu Bhatt, movie director, commenting on his foraying into small screen

‘...what kind of a human are you being?’
- Prahlad R N, eminent environmentalist, challenging the morality of climate change disbelievers. Evidently, human being is opposite of being human. Or to cite another example, mankind is opposite of kind man.

‘We should introduce sex education as an inter course.’
- P P Patel, the ho’rable education minister of our most populated state, not realizing that sex as intercourse would hardly need any introduction.

‘Country mouse: I don’t like the hustle and the bustle. I don’t like the hurried life. I don’t like to rush about all the time, meeting deadlines, achieving results, scaling success. I don’t like this rat race.
City mouse: We don’t have a choice. We are the rat race.’
- excerpt from The Rat Race, latest animation flick

‘Your works are like your private parts. You may grudgingly accept that others’ are better but your own remain infinitely more precious to you.’
- Chaitanya Bhagwat (real name something more sedate like Mohan Lal), in a television interview while promoting his latest book ‘Nine Novel Notions’.

‘Our eminent nation has to learn to sit back straight with its legs crossed if it wants to regain its lost glory.’
- Swami Gajendranathji Baba, renowned expert on Patanjali’s yoga system, on the importance of yoga in revitalizing the health of its citizens and rebuilding the nation

‘Will nature evolve to compete with what man has managed to create?’
- The topic of a talk show debate that aired a short time ago. The underlying premise was that with the advent of high technology in animation, man’s creations are sufficiently creative to be called truly original. That is, man is no longer merely copying nature. The tide has turned in man’s favour. Will nature rise to the challenge?

‘Marriages used to be made in heaven. Now any ordinary chatroom would do.’
- A PJ doing the rounds on internet. A sign of things to come. A prophecy.

‘The fact that saying cheese brings a smile on our faces proves that man descended from mice. That, or monkeys once loved cheese.’
- Banta Sardar, generally wise and well-informed otherwise, in his e-published work titled ‘On the Principles of Natural Selection in the Evolution of Wit, alternatively, Survival of the Wittiest’

Current Mood: Laughing my heart out
Current Music: Oh Doctor, I’m in Trouble (sung by movie stars, this song is absolutely adorable)

It helps if you already have a blog. It doesn't if the blog is inside a book that recently got published.

The Blogging Affair

Stripped off everything else, the book is a murder mystery. But its presentation is far from that of a classic whodunnit.

Three distinct narratives run in parallel throughout the book. First one is that of the inner voice of the guy who was having an extramarital affair with the dead girl, and thus naturally forms the main suspect of the crime. Reflecting on steamy scenes of his past misdemeanours, he is oblivious of the tightening noose around his neck. I've tried to depict him as a guy who's got sex on his mind, and that gave me an opportunity for word plays - in saucy ways. Second narrative is in the form of a blog. The reader will encounter it in reverse chronological order - latest entry coming first. In it the anonymous author claims to have murdered a woman, and the details suggest it is the same case. The blog show a gradual breakdown of an otherwise intelligent, witty individual commenting on a wide range of topics. This is where I brought in the 'asides' - PoVs on religion, education, politics and the like. The third narrative has the two police detectives trying to solve the crime, while also engaged in a battle of oneupmanship, one busy breaking down the prime suspect, the other trying to reconcile the well-organized mind behind the blog with the seemingly muddle-headed suspect. Are the two the same? Who killed? And how? That's what it's all about.