confessions of an epic indian

Currently featured on the AKB Newsletter:

*The first five chapters of Vengeance of Ravana the 7th book in the Ramayana Series, which I will be submitting for publication alongwith the 8th and final book, Sons of Sita soon, and which should be published sometime in 2009.

*The first three chapters of Mba, my Mahabharata retelling which will be completed in 2010, and published from 2011 onwards.

*The first pages from the in-progress Ramayana graphic novel series, written by me and illustrated by Argentinian artist Enrique Alcatena. No publication date until the first graphic novel is complete, but it could be in stores by 2009.

*The complete novel Iron Gods, which goes for submission to my publisher soon and will probably be published early 2009.

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Hi.

Most people today are dominated and manipulated by the mass media, and they like it that way. A few people, myself included, are not, and don’t.

Specifically, what i don’t like is aggressive promotion. In the western models of marketing and advertising, even management generally, even the terminology is inherited from war. Campaigns. Strengths. Weaknesses. Competition. Brand building. Banners. Logos. All these are concepts inherited from centuries of western warmongering.

It’s not that we in Asia, India in particular, never waged war or committed violent acts. Of course we did. But we also birthed and nurtured some of the greatest pacificists in human history. India is perhaps the only nation where more religions have originated and flourished than any other place on the planet. And despite modern perversions and politicizations, the essense of all these religions when they began was peace and harmony.

Still, each to his or her own way of thinking. If the west chooses to promote its brands, products, services, companies, even individuals today, as aggressively as it once promoted its kings, wars, territorial acquisitions, empires…well, that’s one way of doing things. I personally think it’s an unnecessarily violent, aggressive and futile way.

So what’s my way?

Well, it isn’t original to me. Nothing really is, as any intelligent student of history knows.

I don’t claim to have created or devised anything new, merely to have come up with something that I personally can live with and work with.

A creed to live by.

In some ways I’ve tried to implement it all my life, but never been clear enough in my thinking to set it down just so, in so many words.

Now I believe I can.

I believe in non-aggressive self-promotion.

What does that mean?

Simply this, in one sentence:

The song belongs to they who listen.

If that sounds more like a line from a song lyric than a marketing philosophy, well, let me explain a bit.

It means that I don’t believe in promoting myself or my work to anybody who hasn’t already expressed an interest.

No forced conversions. No reaching out through mass media to people who aren’t aware of me, or my books. No book launches and media interviews. No public events. No advertising. No book promotions of any kind.

It’s upto the reader to discover me and my work on their own, over time, in their own way. It’s not upto me to choose how that will happen, nor is it my place to get out there and get in the faces of those potential readers.

In fact, I take the view that I only have so many readers at present. If that number increases, so be it. I’m content with whatever number reads my work already. I do not seek out anymore.

The song belongs to they who listen.

In other words, I’m like a guy sitting in my house, strumming my sitar, and singing the classical blues. If you happen to know me and my work and want to listen in, then I’ll welcome you. But I will not come out there on the street, into the marketplace and start rocking to rouse the neighbourhood.

You have to already want to listen to my ’songs’, so to speak, in order to hear them.

Once you do enjoy listening to my ’songs’, so to speak, I will communicate openly and freely with you. I’m accessible 24/7 to my readers, via this website, via my Facebook page, via the Epic India Group and AKB Newsletter, via Shelfari and Goodreads and Myspace. I even update those who wish to follow my mundane daily routine as often as once every hour or so via Twitter.

I doubt there are many authors who are as forthcoming with their readers and as accessible as I am.

Because, let’s face it, they are my readers, and therefore we’re already in a professional relationship, by their choice.

They’re not ‘target audiences’ or ‘potential customers’ or any of that marketing BS. They’re just people who happen to have discovered my work, read it, and like it enough to want to stay in touch with me.

And there are only a few of them.

Let’s face it. I don’t believe that the whole world is my ‘market’ or ‘audience’ or all those outdated terms.

I believe that good books find their way into good hands, even if it takes a while.

I believe that an author can only have so many readers, no more, and those readers are readers who genuinely enjoy the work, and don’t care about the public profile, or lack of it, of the author.

For that matter, some of the best authors are dead and unable for interviews permanently. That doesn’t detract from their books and their book sales.

In contrast, some of the so-called great authors of the world shamelessly promote themselves and their books and that has nothing to do with the quality of their books, it’s an ego massage they probably want and they’re welcome to it.

I don’t get my kicks through publicity or seeing my name in print. I cringe when I see my name in print and if I could, I’d not publish my books in my name either–I’d just leave my name off them.

Yes, I go to extremes. That’s me.

But this is what I believe. And the philosophy I espouse.

Over the years, I’ve refused interviews with some of the most prominent publications in the world, and always been proud of the fact.

I’ll continue to do so.

And now, I know what to call it.

Non-aggressive communication.

Because, ultimately, I don’t want people coming to listen to my ‘music’ so to speak because they read about me in some newspaper or magazine. I want them to come in because they happened to be listening at the right time in the right place and because their hearts were still innocent and open to new experiences.

And finally, I want them to stay and listen because they love my ‘music’.

The song belongs to those who listen.

And admission is always free.

Reader Jitendra Rathod from Pune writes:

I happened to visit “Crosswords” (Pune - Shivajinagar) last week. I first found the Ramayana Series in the “Indian Authors” Section and so I headed straight to that section to see if BoR was available. I was surprised to see that not a single book of the series was present there. so i asked the store in-charge where the series was. and he beemed at me and said, “We have just put all the books in order. you will find the Ramayana Series in the Psychology Section!” and i did find BoR and KoA in the Psychology section with other Psychological works including that by Sigmund Freud. Congratulations, Ashok!!”

Hmm. I’ve seen the books filed under Religion, Spirituality, Sci-Fi, Indian Authors (which made the most sense, frankly, and is my preferred shelving choice), Mythology, History, Non-fiction (in Hyderabad, they made all the Non-Fiction bestseller lists), and various other categories.

But Psychology?

Could it be that I’ve inadvertently created a treatise on ‘The Ramafication of Dharma’ without even realizing it?

And it’s so good to be rubbing shoulders with my esteemed colleague, Sigmund Freud.

Hi, Siggy. Good to be here. How’s it hanging?

:~)

Anyway, I’ve just been informed that thanks to this shelving, I am now eligible for the Freudian Slip Ignoble Prize for Psychos.

I fully expect to win!

The awards ceremony will be at PGL Khana, Agra. Do attend to cheer me on, but remember, all audience members will be expected to wear formal straitjackets and ties.

Jabberwock: Ekta Ki Mahabharat

Click on the link above to read a Delhi blogger’s hilarious send-up of Ekta Kapoor’s forthcoming Mahabharata serial.

It’s a must-read.

At times it almost reads like something I’d have written myself. And I even started to write a spoof, titled ‘Serial Motherers’. The problem is that since I’m also a ‘Mahabharata-wallah’, so to speak, it could be misconstrued.

So it’s a pleasure and a relief to be able to read someone else doing it so well, probably better than I’d ever have done.

Which also makes me think: We desperately need something like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in India, or even an SNL. Arguably, we do have shows similar to SNL, but not at the level that the US show does, not with such marquee talent doing guest spots week after week.

A desi Daily Show would be great. As it is, most of our news channels are already dangerously veering over into self-mockery. It’s time someone took the hawaa out of their inflated condom-balloons and made them go tai-tai-phiss!

(Whooeeeeeeep-pah???? Loud trumpeting sound of surprise)

Iron Gods.

That’s right.

Not Mba (my Mahabharata retelling).

Not Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita, although they’ll follow very soon.

Not Vortal, although that will also follow very soon.

Not the sequel to Vertigo, my long-languishing crime novel, my autobiographical Beautiful Ugly, not the revised and restored edition of Byculla Boy, not my epic novel of growing up in Bombay called Pasha of Pedder Road, my untitled collection of short stories, or any of a dozen other complete, almost-complete and unfinished manuscripts.

I’m almost at the end of Iron Gods.

I’ll tell you more about it soon. In a few weeks.

Those of you who are subscribed to The AKB Newsletter have already been reading the first several chapters–about one-third of the full book.

Those of you on the Epic India Group have already shared in discussions on the novel and various aspects.

Next month, July 2008, I intend to submit the finished manuscript of Iron Gods to Penguin India, my publishers, who have already contracted the book and have been waiting patiently for it for over a year.

I’ll let you know what they say about it. About publication schedules, etc.

As for my Mba, don’t worry. I’m in the fifth year of writing (not counting earlier years of research and a lifetime of reading and preparation) and I figure I have about three years, maybe four, left to complete the whole story.

That’s nine volumes of over 1,000 pages each.

As I’ve said before, I intend to finish the full Mba before starting to submit manuscripts to my publishers. How fast they then decide to publish the nine volumes will be upto them.

I expect to start submitting the manuscripts of my Mba sometime in 2010. And the first volumes should start appearing in bookstores sometime in 2011.

So now you know. Curse me or kiss me, that’s how long it’s taking, and needs to take. I won’t apologize because I think it’s much more important to write the book as well as it should be written rather than bring it out quick, quick, quick.

And I think you’ll find the waiting might well be worth it. For one thing, I’ve learned a great deal since finishing my Ramayana series. And that learning shows quite substantially in my Mba. I’d say very bluntly that it’s far, far better written than my Ramayana series. And you already know that the Mahabharata itself is a far richer story to begin with.

So I think you’ll find 2011 a date worth marking in your Reading Calendar.

And Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita will be published long before that. I expect them to be published sometime in 2009. But keep in touch with me via this blog, my Facebook page, or the AKB Newsletter or Epic India Group, and you’ll have the publication details several months in advance.

For now, back to Iron Gods. It’s the best thing I’ve ever written, so different from my Ramayana series or anything else I’ve written before–my novel Vertigo, for example–that you will probably not believe at first that it’s written by the same writer.

That’s why I love it. And have chosen to publish it during the years left before my Mba is ready to be published.

I have a feeling you’ll love it too. And be surprised, possibly dazzled, definitely entertained and carried along, and yes, stunned at times.

You’ll understand why once you read the book.

For now, I just thought I’d tell you the news. I hope you’ll agree it’s good news. Not the news you might have been expecting but good all the same.

I think so. To me, over two years after my last book was published, it’s great news. I’m thrilled to bits!

Even though, it’ll still be almost another year before you finally get the book in your hands to read–much sooner, if you’re subscribed to The AKB Newsletter–at least I’m finally able to point to it now and say, “My next book? That’s it. It’s called Iron Gods. Comes out 2009.”

Details will follow. Watch this space. And oh yes, watch the skies too. (It’s an inside joke, you’ll have to read the book to understand why!)

:~)

Posted by reader Amit Das on his blog

Background –
Couple of weeks back, I was seen walking around with “King of Ayodhya – Book 6 of Ramayana Series by Ashok Banker “:. My fetish with the book was so strong that I would keep it at my desk, in the car, near the pillow, to steal those 3-5-10-15 minutes where I would read a few pages from the book. People were wondering – Why? Whats so special? After all , its Ramayana!! A story that we already know inside out. And I used to just smile at them and pass on a very friendly suggestion – If you are not averse to printed words, read the first 50 pages of Prince of Ayodhya – Book 1. We can discuss these questions at that time. One of my colleagues Sulabh tried it and he curses me even today – He had to spend 1800 bucks or so to get all the six books (he could not wait a month for me to give him all the six books for a read)! For the records , Sulabh is my eighth direct marketing success story (all for the same book)!
King of Ayodhya
A story that starts on the shores of lanka, and ends at Ayodhya, KoA is an excellent example of what a magnificent storyteller can do to a story you have already heard so often. What Banker does , incrementally, is to add his imagination, wisdom, and perspective to a story that every Indian lives and breathes! End Result – a book that you can just not put down!
The book is fascinating, the storytelling is spellbinding, and the events – quite unlike my imagination (largely inspired by Ramanand Sagar’s Television Series).
Its about war, war strategies, mind-games, Rama’s mortal life (and not-the demi god life where he smiles at even problems of huge magnitude). The only thing that has always confused me about the book is that after you have completed reading all the six books , you wonder if Hanuman is the GOD in the book, and Rama the mortal. Gods descend to help Mortals (as part of all Heavenly gameplans!) in Indian mythology. And Rama, though a higher mortal with his (seemingly) infallible poise and adherence to Dharma , he needed more than just inspiration from Hanuman to win this battle.
There are several interesting facets about this book-
The war is fought at a level which is not heavenly. Not a lot of fancy arrows in multiple colors and doing funny stuff. Vanars do get massacred. They have to retaliate not in anger , but with wisdom to win the battle.
Ravan has some strategic gems too, up his sleeve. And some esoteric powers.
Kumbhakarna gets killed by Hanuman, and not Rama.
Most of the seemingly important stories of Ravana’s warriors (such as Atikaya, Akampana , Kumbh, Nikumbh, Trishala, etc.) which we have heard of in good detail, as they got killed by various Rama warriors and not just Rama/ Lakshmana/ Hanuman, have been discounted to give us a view of what the war being fought at a mental level.
Ravana finally kills Supanakha. And more importantly, Supanakha, in many ways, is Ravana’s source of power
Questions that still remained unanswered –
Ravana, with all that he achieved in one night before the war started, did not chose to demolish the Vanar Army at one go. Despite the fact that he had the powers to do so!
What happened to the Amrit Kalash story and of Ravana being immortal?
Hanuman, with all his might, could have changed the course of the war at any given minute? Why did he
While Ashok explains why he is not writing Book 7 (Uttar Ramayana), I would still want to read his explanation of Ram banishing Sita.
The more I think about this book, the more questions I will have. But, for the time being, let me tell you guys – READ THIS BOOK. AND THE ENTIRE SERIES. Its not just good storytelling, but a fresh insight into a story that you “think” you know!
Rating - 10 on 10

As many of you know already, I’m online round the clock. My work requires me to sit in front of a computer most of the day, and I actually enjoy taking tiny breaks throughout the day to respond to work-related email, Reader mail, or just keep in touch with friends and colleagues online.

I’ve always believed that the mass media is increasingly irrelevant in a connected world. Why use a newspaper, magazine, or TV interview to communicate with my readers when I can just stay in touch directly? This way, there’s no ‘filter’ or middleman between us, and we can both speak directly, individually, and as much or as little as we please.

I reply to every single reader email, over 15,000 to date, and some of my most insightful feedback has come from individual readers, rather than professional literary critics. I’ve learned, changed, improved, and have even revised parts of my books thanks to the excellent, supportive, and constructive advice and suggestions of my readers.

At times, I often think that my books are largely edited by my readers–especially those readers with whom I share early drafts of my manuscripts. It beats having over-worked editors in publishing houses who are often more concerned about sales, marketing and promotion than actual editing–particularly in the US, where an editor spends more time liaising with those departments than actual hands-on editing work.

India, of course, is the sole exception, with editors actually caring about the books they edit, and treating the authors as human beings, rather than fiction factories as they are in the US. That also probably has something to do with the fact that the kind of books I write largely make sense only to Indian readers, and Indian editors.

So it’s only natural that I should increase my communication front with my readers.

I’m now on these social networking sites:

Facebook: Where you can keep in touch with me, share my links to interesting sites, and otherwise interact with me. Click here to keep in touch with me on Facebook.

MySpace: More of the same, though I personally find prefer the Facebook interface and software anyday. But I’m here too. Or on Click here to keep in touch with me on MySpace

Shelfari: Where you can share your favourite books, see what I’ve read, am reading, or am planning to read. Click here to share your book choices with me on Shelfari.

Goodreads: The same as Shelfari. Click here to share your book choices with me on Shelfari.

Twitter: A micro-blogging site where you can keep in touch with what I’m upto throughout the day through short, pithy updates by me (140 characters or less, a couple of sentences) which you can choose to receive via sms on your cellphone or online. And yes, I update often, about half a dozen times a day at least. You can always find my last 20 Tweets in the right-hand sidebar on this page. Click here to follow me 24/7 on Twitter.

There will be more added as time goes by.

And of course, this blogsite will always remain up and accessible to you, especially the Readerswrite Page.

So keep in touch with me, follow my Twitters, share my reading pleasures, or just network with me.

It doesn’t make me any more or less of a writer, just more of a person than you knew, and after all, a writer is a person too! I have a life! And most of it happens to be online, so I’m happy to include you in it as well.

I’m now serializing the first one-third of my first major hard SF novel, Iron Gods, on The AKB Newsletter.

This is the only way you will get to read these chapters–the equivalent of around 175 published book pages–of this particular book for a long while. There are no plans to publish it outside India anytime, and even the Indian publication date is not set, since I haven’t submitted it yet.

Iron Gods is the working title of the book earlier titled Palimpsest: Book 1 of The Ganesa Palindrome. I no longer know for sure if it will be complete in itself or part of a series, but what I can confirm is that it is genuine hard Science Fiction set in contemporary times.

Various synopsis of the plot have circulated–on Wikipedia, on Amazon (which apparently also lists the book’s publication date and publisher, incorrectly), and elsewhere. They are all incorrect.

The premise of IRON GODS is quite simple:

The gods of various faiths are at war. Because their believers are at war.

A small select group of individuals from all the major faiths on Earth (on multiple Earths, in point of fact) are selected by a being that appears to be the Hindu God Ganesa, and put aboard a quantum bullet, headed directly for…the Creator.

The mission: To appeal to the Creator to stop the War before all Creation is destroyed.

But there are saboteurs in the ranks. And intolerance is a powerful weapon. And even Ganesa, Remover of Obstacles, can’t force people to accept one another’s faith and Gods, especially when each religion insists that it is the only true path to God.

As they hurtle through time and space towards the Creator, can they stop the ultimate War of Wars, or will they only help fuel and fan it until all Creation is destroyed?

Only Ganesa knows.

Those of you who always knew I was a twit won’t be surprised.

I’m on Twitter now.

What’s Twitter?

It’s the new rage in social networking, an sms-or-email update service whereby you can subscribe to all your friends, colleagues, and favourite celebs Twitter accounts, and receive regular updates of no more than 140 characters each (a line or two) telling you what they’re currently doing.

So if you want to know the trivial details of my everyday routine–or those trivial details that I find the time to post on Twitter–go ahead and subcribe to my Twitter feed.

Don’t go ‘Eu!’ if I Twitter from the loo (I promise to try not to) or similarly unglamorous locations. I’m a writer, I have a really boring life. Don’t expect much.

In fact, come to think of it, why on earth would anyone want to know what I’ve been doing today, or anyday?

Haven’t a clue.

But I’ve gone and signed up.

So you might as well take a look.

The Twitter box is in the permanent sidebar of this blogsite–look at the right-hand column of this page, and scroll down till you find it. Clicking on my name will take you to a page where you can subscribe to my Twitter feed.

Until the next Twit, then.

I TOT I SAW A BANKER-TAT!

Review of the first three Ramayana series books in French translation, posted on the French website Elbakin.net by a reader named Gilossen. Thanks to three years of French in school and college (I wanted Sanskrit, couldn’t get it), I can follow it reasonably well, but translating is not my cup of chai. And while Google auto-translation is amusing at times, in this case, it leaves too many key words untranslated and too much grammatical wrangling to be coherent. So here’s the review in French. For what it’s worth, it’s an 8.5 (out of 10) review on the reviewer’s sliding ’sword’ scale at the bottom of the page. –AKB

La Fantasy épique est sans aucun doute la branche la plus balisée du genre, mais il arrive encore que nous soyons surpris ! Quel plus bel exemple que le cycle d’Ea pourrions-nous citer ici ?

Eh bien, Ashok K. Banker se pose là en candidat déclaré au titre de nouvelle sensation fantasy ! Se basant sur l’une des plus célèbres légendes indiennes, vieille de trois millénaires, l’auteur revisite et réactualise le mythe, par le biais d’une prose “moderne”.

Et nous voilà donc embarqués dans une lutte entre le Bien et le Mal qui, bien que
classique, se révèle tout simplement palpitante, et ce, en partie grâce à son univers si dépaysant. Du moins, pour la plupart d’entre nous. Qu’il est bon donc de se retrouver plongés dans la moiteur et la splendeur de cette Inde de merveilles, au lieu de supporter une énième décalcomanie moyenâgeuse !
Mais les points positifs ne s’arrêtent pas au cadre et à l’atmosphère qui s’en dégage. Les personnages sont loin d’être négligés, évitent pour la plupart les clichés, et le lecteur s’y attache très rapidement. On retiendra par exemple la figure du vieux maharaja Dasaratha; et Rama lui-même, le héros de ce cycle, possède un réel charisme et ne tombe pas dans le piège du “Pourquoi moi ?” lorsque vient le temps pour lui de s’engager.

De plus, l’auteur voit les choses en grand, et le mot épique prend indéniablement tout son sens avec le Ramayana, dès le premier tome. Une ambiance d’épopée flamboyante qui n’étouffe pas des moments plus intimistes, traités avec le même talent. La plume de Banker est faconde et poétique, douce ou plus dure. Par la suite, si cela semblait impossible, l’auteur parvient à repousser toujours plus loin ses limites et celles de ses personnages et des épreuves qu’ils doivent endurer.

Et le tout sans en faire pour autant des super-héros totalement insensibles et devenus comme inhumains tant ils sont différents du commun des mortels. Un petit tour de force supplémentaire, notamment lorsque l’on songe au nombre de scènes tout simplement stupéfiantes qui parcourent les différents tomes. Banker croit à fond en son histoire, sans retenue, et nous aussi ! Le saut de 13 ans à l’orée du quatrième tome ne pertube d’ailleurs en rien ce rythme et ces envolées.

On pourra seulement regretter quelques rebondissements assez prévisibles - encore que… - mais il ne faut pas oublier après tout que l’auteur reste dans les pas du vénérable sage Valmiki, même s’il propose aussi quelques interprétations et modifications de son cru. Le rythme aussi se fait parfois quelque peu indolent, mais ce n’est pas sans charme, et cela ne remet pas en cause pour autant la structure et la mélodie des romans. La noirceur elle-même peut se faire éclatante… Il n’y a pour cela qu’à se pencher sur ce que nous réserve l’ultime tome de cette grande saga, peut-être le meilleur jusqu’à présent, quand bien même certaines réactions de tel ou tel personnage pourrait surprendre.

A noter pour conclure la présence d’un très pratique glossaire, traduisant les termes sanskrits que l’on retrouve au fil des pages, ajoutant ainsi au parfum d’inédit. Bonne idée reprise d’ailleurs par le Pré aux Clercs dans son édition française du cycle, qui compte actuellement trois tomes.