I will admit that until I had read William Dalrymple, I knew little of the history of Delhi, which is inextricable from the history of India.Although I lived in New Delhi for eight years, all I ever knew about the history of India—my country—was what was taught to me by middle school history teachers. They regurgitated dry passages from textbooks.There was no romance in the way we were taught history.So when I lived in Delhi—right in the heart of visible history with crumbling moments and all—I couldn’t get past those apathetic and uncurious history text books.And then I left Delhi to move to Bangalore.And then Dalrymple happened. In the decades that he unravelled Delhi for me, it morphed from a city that I only knew as too expensive for my modest salary, to a city that hell, had djinns in it. Djinns with a D.The more I listened to William Dalrymple as I interviewed him today, the more I appreciated his sentient feel for history. A feeling that makes humans out of historical personalities.For this reason probably, when I first read City of Djinns, I will confess to an inexplicable sense of envy—as if I should and could have  written that book…an “I wish I had said that” feeling.But I had no such flights of fancy reading everything else he has written, most recently, Anarchy, an account of the East India Company and what happens when there is no separation between…er…merch and state.Dalrymple’s prose is compelling and direct and that makes his books that much more engaging.Let’s find out what else makes him one of the most respected writers of the history of India and the entire region of its historical influence.So it my privilege to welcome William Dalrymple to The Literary City.REFERENCES:William Dalrymple: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dalrymple_(historian)Bruce Chatwin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_ChatwinBuy The Company Quartet: https://amzn.to/3K2Z7AVBuy William Dalrymple (all books): https://amzn.to/3OwfbyoBuy Hobson Jobson: https://amzn.to/3rHupa7Buy In Patagonia: https://amzn.to/3KcEkL4Shengdu: Xanadu"Gone to Shengdu": This is to paraphrase the note that Bruce Chatwin allegedly left for his boss that read, "Gone to Patagonia".WHAT'S THAT WORD?! - HOBSON JOBSONCo-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", where they discuss the the book Hobson-Jobson and how it came to be.WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?If you have a word, expression or phrase you would like to know more about, we would love to have you join us live on the show. You can reach out to us by mail: [email protected] or simply, [email protected], you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysociety.Or you can go to our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/.If your word or phrase is selected, we will call you.Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.

Almost every famous author—Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Marquez and many before and after them—has written memorable short stories.The short story has long been celebrated as an important part of  literature, and in my view any effort to defend it as such is unnecessary.My guest today is Indira Chandrasekhar—a writer of short stories. She is also a scientist and the editor of Out Of Print, a literary magazine.I have known Indira for many years. We were in college in Bangalore, at about the same time. But the similarity ends there.Indira made something of college. She went on to a doctorate in science and became a bio-physicist, like Jagdish Chandra Bose or James Watson.But evidently, she likes what I do, more.So she quit messing with membranes and macromolecules and about 12 years ago, she started a literary magazine called Out Of Print.Out Of Print is published once in three months, online. Each issue carries fewer than 10 short stories, with a focus on writing from the Indian sub-continent.Carefully curated, every one of the short stories in each issue is a tribute to craft, skill and style.A 10th anniversary anthology of Out Of Print is available in bookstores and was a delight to sink into. As was her book of short stories, Polymorphism—that passage you heard in the beginning was Indira reading from this book.To discuss science, literature and the polymath nature of old Bangalore, it is my pleasure to introduce my friend, Indira Chandrasekhar, to The Literary City With Ramjee Chandran.ABOUT INDIRA CHANDRASEKHARDr. Indira Chandrasekhar is a scientist, a writer, a literary curator and the founder and principal editor of Out of Print, one of the primary platforms for short fiction bearing a connection to the South Asian subcontinent. Indira’s short stories have won awards and appeared in literary journals published in different parts of the world. Her publications include, Out of Print : Ten Years – An Anthology of Stories (ed.), Context Books, the literary imprint of Westland Publishing, 2020; Polymorphism, HarperCollins, 2017; Pangea: An Anthology of Stories from Around the World (ed.), Thames River Publishing, 2012. She serves on the councils of the Bangalore International Centre, the International Music and Arts Society Bangalore, the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival Mumbai and the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture Mumbai.Out of Print: Ten Years : An Anthology of Stories: https://amzn.to/37vgqgxPolymorphism: Stories: https://amzn.to/3xxvWmVOut Of Print magazine: http://outofprintmagazine.co.in WHAT'S THAT WORD?! - THE SHORT STORYCo-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", where they discuss the history of the short story, and present a trivia section of the shortest stories ever written, such as Hemingway's 6-word novel.WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?If you have a word, expression or phrase you would like to know more about, we would love to have you join us live on the show. You can reach out to us by mail: [email protected] or simply, [email protected], you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysociety.Or you can go to our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/.If your word or phrase is selected, we will call you.Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.

The reason I use the word fortuitous in the title of this episode of The Literary City is because Sanjoy K Roy, one of the founders of the Jaipur Literature Festival…let’s call it JLF, like everyone else…told me that its success was an accident.Some say there are no accidents. You know, you dinged your dad’s car because you were careless…and not because the fates conspired to override your otherwise cautious and attentive demeanour.Typically, people become successful because of their efforts—not despite them. Usually you will find that what we ascribe to luck included a great deal of knowledge, foresight and a gust of planning. As a wise man once ought to have said, the harder you work, the luckier you get  yadda...yadda...Now, JLF has editions all over the world, and—as a foot note to the flagship—its parent company Teamworks Arts handles several more events every year.But Sanjoy Roy is my guest on The Literary City today because I want to establish that someone who turned what he calls an accident into the largest festival of literature in the world, is himself, by nature, literary.There is one simple way to find out—and that’s to ask him.And so, I am privileged to present today, someone who speaks for all of literature, Sanjoy Roy.   ABOUT SANJOY ROYSanjoy K Roy, an entrepreneur of the arts, is the Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces over 33 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals in 40 cities across the world including the iconic annual Jaipur Literature Festival, international editions of JLF and the launched-during-lockdown digital JLF Brave New World series. He is a founder trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust, providing support services for street and working children in Delhi. He is also the founder Trustee of the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust. Roy works closely with various industry bodies and the government on policy issues in the cultural sector in India, and has lectured and collaborated with leading international universities. He established Teamwork in 1989, a highly versatile production house with wide ranging interests in the performing and visual arts, social sector and films and television.The upcoming bespoke edition of JLF—according to the publicity—will be a 10-day festival held from 13-22 May, 2022 and will celebrate the theme of SLOW LIFE including topics of food, art, wellness, fiction, climate change and environment. Elif Shafak and Huma Abedin are among the speakers. The location is the Soneva Fushi resort in the Maldives.WHAT'S THAT WORD?! - "DIDACTIC".Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", where they discuss the etymology and pretentious nature  of the word "didactic".WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?If you have a word, expression or phrase you would like to know more about, we would love to have you join us live on the show. You can reach out to us by mail: [email protected] or simply, [email protected], you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysociety.Or you can go to our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/.If your word or phrase is selected, we will call you.Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.

In old Bangalore, when you drove past the airport on the largely deserted road towards the suburb of Whitefield, was a farm, with trees and chickens and stuff that farms have.It was owned by a couple whose voices were instantly recognizable as the principal voices of the English language stage in Bangalore—Arundhati and Jagdish Raja. Their farm was called Jagriti. Today, the road is far from deserted and in the place of the farm, stands a theatre. A beautiful auditorium, in what should be described as a centre for all things cultural and literary.The theatre retains the name of the old farm, Jagriti, but if there are any chickens there, I dare say, they aren’t running free on the range.I call Arundhati and Jagdish Raja the Last Shakespeareans of Bangalore.But now, who is a Shakespearean? Some people ask.I mean who among us doesn’t know what ‘Platonic’ and ‘Aristotelian’ and ‘Einsteinean’ mean, but what's Shakespearean?To me, anyone who has read a few plays of Shakespeare, has acted in a play even in school, bristles at the mention of Francis Bacon, and never finds the need to refer to him as the Bard of Avon, is a Shakespearean. One wag described being Shakespearean as, "A modern sonnet with three quatrains and a punchy couplet."Well, replace "punchy couplet" with "punchy couple" and it makes me proud to be able to present on my show, Bangalore’s last Shakespeareans.ABOUT THE RAJASArundhati RajaArundhati Raja, co-founded the Artistes’ Repertory Theatre in 1982. The company and its productions are now an integral part of Bangalore’s cultural history. While directing and acting, she also taught French, Biology and Drama for several years and considers her life as a teacher to be instrumental to her deep desire to encourage and support new talent. Arundhati Raja has now directed over 30 productions and continues to perform, teach and motivate a new generation of theatre makers.Jagdish RajaJagdish was Principal of Pan Communications in London, England with clients in the UK, USA and Europe before returning to India with Arundhati, his wife, in 1972. He was an advertising consultant to companies and agencies and Advisor Communications at ActionAid.Jagdish is a Graduate Member of the Communications Advertising & Marketing Society (M.CAM) London and an Associate of Trinity College London (ATCL). He is Founder Trustee of The ART Foundation, a registered Charitable Trust, which administers JAGRITI.TO CONTRIBUTE TO OR GET IN TOUCH WITH JAGRITIStart at their website jagrititheatre.com. Questions:  [email protected]. Social: Facebook and Instagram — [@jagrititheatre].WHAT'S THAT WORD?! - "AMATEUR".Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", where they discuss the origins of the word, "amateur" and a limerick on love.

About two decades ago I offered Aakar Patel a job as editor of Explocity. And just when we were all set, the famous and reputable newspaper in Mumbai, Mid-Day, offered Aakar a job as Editor and…well, of course I understood. If he had not accepted that job I would have forced him to. But you know what they say… when one editorial door closes and another…oh the hell with the analogies… I heard that Tushita Patel, Aakar’s partner, was leaving her job as Editor of The Asian Age. I called her and she hopped a flight to Bangalore and joined Explocity as Editor and totally killed. Twenty years later, I am fortunate to count them both as friends. And not principally because they make fried fish with that mustard thang. Now, anyone with even a peripheral interest in Indian politics ought to know Aakar Patel.And even though newspapers around the country have recently developed new and deeper shades of funk by not continuing to publish Aakar’s anti-injustice polemic, he remains India’s most prolific columnist. The context of Aakar's prose is serious, the tone often calling question to judgment, but you can sense a suppressed smile under every description.Here’s an example of what I call the suppressed smile.In a socio-political comment about the inability or at least, unwillingness of the Indian to be gracious in defeat, he uses cricket. In an article titled The Banality Of The Indian Cricket Fan he wrote and I quote, “It’s about nationalism, which in India is narrow and zero-sum. If they score even a little victory, a boundary, our tumescence droops.”That writing is not magic realism—whatever manner of contrivance the phrase magic realism is—but maybe I’ll call this one… Cialis In Wonderland...?The reason humour lurks beneath even the most serious of Aakar’s writing is because he sees the foibles of the hoi polloi as absurd theatre.  In a recent event promoting the launch of his latest book, The Price Of The Modi Years, someone in the audience asked him if saw hope in the political scenario in India, when viewed from the depressed side of the divide.“Yes,” he replied, “but maybe it will take a couple of election cycles.”“Thank you, Aakar!” The audience member cried irrationally, “thank you for saying there’s hope!!!”I smiled and tried to catch Aakar’s eye but I could tell that he was busy trying to figure out how not to become a prophet—although in India pundit and prophet somehow become synonymous. Today Aakar is my guest as neither prophet nor rationalist, but as a writer and I got to ask him a bunch of questions about what makes him, above all, one of the country’s most compelling writers.ABOUT AAKAR PATELAakar Patel is a syndicated columnist who has edited English and Gujarati newspapers. His books include 'Why I Write', a translation of Saadat Hasan Manto’s Urdu non-fiction (Tranquebar, 2014), 'Our Hindu Rashtra: What It Is. How We Got Here', a study of majoritarianism in India and Pakistan (Westland, 2020), 'Price of the Modi Years', a history of India after 2014 (Westland, 2021) and 'The Anarchist Cookbook', a guide on why and how to protest (HarperCollins, 2022). He is Chair of Amnesty International India.Buy The Price Of The Modi Years here: https://amzn.to/3DiXsVUWHAT'S THAT WORD?! - "HOI POLLOI".Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", where they discuss the origins of the phrase hoi polloi with asides on cunning linguists.

Even a mildly curious glance at any of the millions of communities of migrant people the world over will yield something interesting.The Goans of India, are one such. They are a fun and likeable lot as far as most of us can tell. We know them by their state, Goa—a dream vacation destination for many—and their seeming love of life, which is synonymous with a state of bliss—they even have a word for that.And don’t get me started on their feni. I fondly remember  commencing my descent into bottles of Goa’s finest but, for some reason, not what happened after.Those were my happy drinking days. I haven’t touched a drop to drink for over 20 years now as I stew, in abstemious contemplation of my navel.Goans have been an adventurous people. Sea-faring and peripatetic, while they migrated to every continent, mainly in search of better livelihoods.All tales of migrant people always have some surprises.A Goan becoming an accountant in Muscat, Oman might not be much of a story. But how a musician, a Mr de Souza, came to be the bandleader of the Sultan’s band in Zanzibar is a matter of lasting curiosity.My guest today is she who tells such tales. Selma Carvalho—a Goan who grew up in Dubai and now lives in London. By all evidence, not only is she the most visible chronicler of Goan migrants, but also the most compelling. Selma’s record of this history is as entertaining as it is scholarly.I started by researching her for this podcast. Very quickly, I disappeared into its maw of her prose to its—I use her rather digestive word—centripetal location.After much non-fiction, her debut novel Sisterhood Of Swans is available everywhere.And now I am privileged to be the one of many to bring this witty and incisive scholar to you. Selma Carvalho.ABOUT SELMA CARVALHOCarvalho is a British-Asian writer whose work explores themes of migration, memory and belonging. She is the author of three non-fiction books documenting the Goan presence in colonial East Africa. She led the Oral Histories of British-Goans Project (2011-2014) funded by the UK Heritage Lottery Fund. Her short fiction, in English and in Portuguese translation, has been published in journals like Litro and Lighthouse and anthologies published by Comma Press and Kingston University Press. She is also the editor of two volumes of The Brave New World of Goan Writing & Art (2018 and 2020). Her work has been shortlisted for several literary prizes, notably the London Short Story Prize, the Dinesh Allirajah Prize and the New Asian Writing Prize. She is the winner of the Leicester Writes Prize 2018 and her collection of short stories was a finalist for the prestigious SI Leeds Literary Prize 2018. Sisterhood of Swans is her debut novel and was shortlisted for the Mslexia Novella Prize 2018 in the UK. Selma lives in London.Here are links to a selection of Carvalho's articles:https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/Inquisition-horror-or-error/162157https://thebombayreview.com/our-american-guest-selma-carvalho/https://www.joaoroqueliteraryjournal.com/nonfiction-1/2017/10/7/of-crioulos-and-poskimhttps://www.joaoroqueliteraryjournal.com/nonfiction-1/2022/3/4/zanzibars-goan-bandsmenBuy Sisterhood Of Swans: https://amzn.to/3udmp0UWHAT'S THAT WORD?! - "CONTEMPLATING YOUR NAVEL".Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", to find the meaning of many words. But they finalise on discussing the phrase "contemplating your navel."

The most difficult prose to write is the prose that is easiest to read.Writing on weighty matters is easy, if you are well-informed on those weighty matters. But any honest writer will admit—in a cloud of envy laced with a silver lining of admiration—that supermarket paperbacks such as whodunits and stories for kids are exceptionally difficult to write.Even more difficult are potboiler romances. My guest today is Milan Vohra—a writer, to be admired for this reason.About 10 years ago, she was the author of the first Mills & Boon romance to be authored by an Indian. This was no easy achievement. For years, Mills & Boon has had its principally female-readership in its thrall. Several women have described these romances as a rite of passage sort of thing. It starts around the coming of age. And does not stop.Of course, curious men have immersed themselves discreetly in these romantic novels…and sadly, learned nothing.Milan’s writing is not fluffy and sugary. Her writing often pulls to the darker side of emotions and her novels lurk in the murky junction of sex, infatuation and other human emotion.When you add her quick and underlying humour, the mix is something which regular humans understand.Now that I have laid bare her soul, let’s meet the person.Milan Vohra has written five books, ‘The Love Asana’ (with Harlequin,2010), which made her the first Indian Mills & Boon author, ‘Tick-tock we’re 30’, (with Westland 2013, and soon to be seen on the screen), ‘Our Song’ (with HarperCollins, 2019). ‘Head over heels’ and ‘Mates, Dates & Double Takes’ a collection of contemporary short stories about first love (2021). Milan is also a TEDx speaker, a short story writer and an award winning advertising professional. WHAT'S THAT WORD?! - CARPE DIEMCo-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment titled "What's That Word?"—or maybe Ramjee  forgets to mention its title—to discuss the phrase, its meaning, and of course, its etymology. A delightfully funny segment.If you have a word or phrase you would like to explore, join us live on the show. Reach us by mail: [email protected] or simply, [email protected], Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysocietyOr Instagram https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/If your word or phrase is selected, we'll call you.Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.HELP EDUCATE A NEEDY CHILDThe Literary City encourages you to give to those children who struggle to get an education.  We ask you to contribute whatever you can to The Association of People with Disability. The link to donate is: https://www.apd-india.org/donations. Visit their site and take a look at the wonderful work they do and find it in your heart to, well, teach a child to fish.

The largely unspoken reason why so many people believe good grammar is a thing to diss, is because speaking English well is associated with privilege—the better you speak it, the more likely from privilege you must be.Shaw's Pygmalion was vitally devoted to illustrating class distinctions by language; My Fair Lady, its pithy, entertaining adaptation.To excuse the incorrect  use of grammar, some others say that language is a mutable thing and the rules of grammar should, and did, change with time.  If this were true, it would not explain why there is zero tolerance for bad grammar and syntax in writing and reportage in most languages other than English.Politics—and excuses for one's shoddiness aside—there is the celebration of expression.Literary writing uses nuance and the subtlety of words and phrases to celebrate thoughts and ideas. In the culinary analogy, literary writers might choose one word over another for a soupçon of meaning—in the same way that a good chef might use a brief hint of thyme, to delight the diner with a discerning palate.You might accuse my guest Suresh Menon of a discerning literary palate.He is a well-known cricket writer. Not only in India but anywhere. I know this to be true. I checked.His newly-minted book is Why Don’t You Write Something I Might Read, the title of which, he explained, is because his wife—presumably fatigued by his volumes on cricket—asked him that question.It probably caused Suresh to skip a beat… because his book is subtitled, Reading, Writing and… Arrhythmia.Suresh Menon points out that the world has seen a number of literary writers writing on their favourite sport: Vladimir Nabokov on chess, Joyce Carol Oates on boxing, John Updike on golf and Ramachandra Guha on cricket.But Suresh drove opposite to rush hour traffic. He is a sportswriter who wrote a book on literature.His delightful book is available everywhere that books are available and it is the sort of book that makes you want to meet the author. So dive into this episode and allow me introduce you to the author, Suresh Menon.You can buy the book here: https://amzn.to/3I7ZB7XWHAT'S THAT WORD?! - TO THE MANNER BORN....or is it "TO THE MANOR BORN?"Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment titled "What's That Word?"—or maybe Ramjee  forgets to mention its title—to discuss the phrase, its meaning, and of course, its etymology. A delightfully funny segment.If you have a word or phrase you would like to explore, join us live on the show. Reach us by mail: [email protected] or simply, [email protected]. Or, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysocietyOr Instagram https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/If your word or phrase is selected, we'll call you.Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.HELP EDUCATE A NEEDY CHILDThe Literary City encourages you to give to those children who struggle to get an education.  We ask you to contribute whatever you can to The Association of People with Disability. The link to donate is: https://www.apd-india.org/donations. Visit their site and take a look at the wonderful work they do and find it in your heart to, well, teach a child to fish.

In this episode we spend quite a bit of time examining the comma.This, the smallest of literary squiggles, is also the most important of all squiggles.Not using a comma correctly could have serious implications - it could change the meaning of a sentence. It's one thing when that happens in daily life. Quite another in courts; a misplaced or missing comma could have serious legal implications.In 2006, a dispute in Canada over a comma in a 14 page long contract in a telecom case resulted in a cost of 1 million Canadian dollars.In another case, in the state of Maine in the United States, delivery drivers of the Oakhurst Dairy, were in a legal spat with their employers for overtime. The U.S. Court of Appeals determined that Maine’s overtime law was grammatically ambiguous, and for that reason, the drivers won the appeal.The offending sentence was this: "The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: <...their products>"The rules of the Oxford Comma—which Pea and I discuss at length in our segment "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!"—state that there should be a comma even before the last item on a list—even with the presence of "and".By this rule, the sentence should have sported a comma between “shipment” and “or”. Such as this: "...packing for shipment, comma, or distribution"Therefore, the court ruled that the absence of the comma meant the phrase “packing for shipment or distribution” was one action.So, grammar is important in law.And if lawyers must be grammatical, then there is a good chance that some of them will be literary. (For the same reason I suppose that many architects are also good designers.)And proof of that is my guest today, Aditya Sondhi. A senior advocate with a Masters in Political Science and he a PhD, by a thesis on the army and democracy.He is an  author of two books, published by Penguin, and he has written two one-act plays—one of which was shortlisted for a prestigious award. Sondhi was also the winner of the Deccan Herald (a Bangalore-based newspaper) short story contest.Who better than he with whom to discuss good grammar?WHAT'S THAT WORD?! - THE OXFORD COMMA.Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment titled "What's That Word?"—or titled in whichever way Ramjee  mangles the title—to discover the origins of the most important of squiggles, the humble comma.If you have a word or phrase you would like to explore, join us live on the show. Reach us by mail: [email protected] or simply, [email protected]. Or, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysocietyOr Instagram https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/If your word or phrase is selected, we'll call you.Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.HELP EDUCATE A NEEDY CHILDThe Literary City encourages you to give to those children who struggle to get an education.  We ask you to contribute whatever you can to The Association of People with Disability. The link to donate is: https://www.apd-india.org/donations. Visit their site and take a look at the wonderful work they do and find it in your heart to, well, teach a child to fish.

We pause in our interviews and other segments in this episode, to pay tribute to a brilliant mind of our times—writer, satirist and brilliant wit, PJ O'Rourke.In this episode, Ramjee Chandran talks about how PJ O'Rourke influenced his writing more than any other literary figure has. And rues that he missed the opportunity to meet and interview him.There would be no need to explain why anyone would emulate PJ O'Rourke—man, author and analyst.From being a gonzo journalist in National Lampoon, the wackiest publication of all time (it even out-wacky'd MAD magazine) to becoming a respected political analyst, O'Rourke's career took interesting turns.Only the most capable among us would be able to fashion a life and earn a living from what we want to do, and not what we have to do.Only O'Rourke's unusual approach to analytical reportage and his extremely popular wit, could have given him the leeway to get editor to allow him—and fund him—to do the stories he wanted to do. This included travelling to terrible places in which to live, or even visit. To give you a sense of what that means, a present day sequel to Holidays In Hell would have included Aleppo in Syria.A committed conservative, he was apologetic for much his hippie years and became a believer in free market economics. His conservative side seemed more about the economy than about politics, and to prove it, O'Rourke savaged both sides of the aisle equally.In his book, "Don't Vote, It Only Encourages The Bastards", he made the case that to vote for a politician is to provide that individual with your licence to do whatever it is they do.PJ O'Rourke died from lung cancer. He leaves behind a rich legacy—of descriptions of a time in which we currently live.The audio passages of O'Rourke are from him reading from the introduction to his book, "A Cry From The Far Middle - Despatches From A Divided Land" (Grove Atlantic). The extract is from a YouTube video, accessible here.You can buy the book here. Or wherever you buy books, of course.In this episode we have. not included the popular segment, WHAT'S THAT WORD?! but if you have a word or phrase you would like to explore, join us live on the show. Reach us by mail: [email protected] or simply, [email protected], Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysocietyOr Instagram https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/If your word or phrase is selected, we'll call you.Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.HELP EDUCATE A NEEDY CHILDThe Literary City encourages you to give to those children who struggle to get an education.  We ask you to contribute whatever you can to The Association of People with Disability. The link to donate is: https://www.apd-india.org/donations. Visit their site and take a look at the wonderful work they do and find it in your heart to, well, teach a child to fish.