Thursday, May 27, 2010

On The Ganga Mail. Destination: Salvation

It turns out that my previous post, on the moon, was the 400th on Ganga Mail. A nice way to touch the four-century mark, considering that I quite like the moon post. It could have been better -- but that's always the case.

By now, after four and a half years and four hundred posts, I realise there is enough on Ganga Mail to make for a voluminous, autobiographical book. Alas, publishers don't touch blogs, unless you are a 'name'. About two years ago, during one of those moments of high when I felt Ganga Mail could be a book, I wrote to a publisher. The reply, surprisingly, was prompt: "Unfortunately we do not publish blogs. Please get in touch with us when you have written a novel."

Well, you can't really publish a blog. A blog is something already published. How can you publish the published? But there are people who are either allergic to or ignorant about the internet, and people who derive the pleasure of reading only from printed pages and not with the help of the scroll-down key. When you hold a book in your hands, the author belongs to you, at least for the moment; but when you read him on the internet, he is just one of the many people out there: if you don't like a particular piece, you hop over into the arms of others who are eagerly waiting for your attention.

So yes, it would be nice to see Ganga Mail in the form of a book, especially because it encapsulates the journey of a man who was still a boy even at 35 -- at times petulant, at times lonely, at times adventurous -- and who is now trying to grow up as he nears 40. And strangely, for me, it was during these five years that life-changing moments chose to visit me, one after the other, after having ignored me for three and a half decades: I got a wife, I lost my mother, I had a book published.

Ganga Mail effectively captures -- or so I think -- the various rollercoaster rides that I've had in recent years. It is, basically, an account of my life. It would be extremely gratifying to see readers carrying the account, in the form of a book, in their hands. Not because of vanity, but because my story is their story too -- only the circumstances and the timings might be different. Nothing can be more satisfying for a writer than finding readers discovering themselves in the sentences written by him. Someday, someday soon -- when many of the posts I've written are altered and expanded to be accommodated in a new book!

But irrespective of that, Ganga Mail continues to be the evidence of my existence. It is the most authentic bio-data that I can ever boast of, provided you take the trouble of wading through the archives. What I may appear to you in person might just be make-believe, but what I am in Ganga Mail is real, very real. Ganga Mail is my secret diary which I have left open for all to see.

10 comments:

janani sampath said...

i would love to see Ganga Mail in print.

Two reasons: it is an account straight from you heart.
It touches upon so many aspects of life and living..

All the best :)

sreelatha said...

More to Come...:)

Paresh Palicha said...

I feel privileged to be able to read your diary (not in a voyeuristic way)because you lead a life I always dreamed of; being brutally honest in words, journalist in early 20s, having your name on the spine of a book before hitting 40. And, having a female fan following that is envy of the world. :P

Don't really care if Ganga Mail becomes a book or not, as long as I can read what you write, be it this blog, a newspaper column, a book or even a scrap of paper.

PS: just a thought, you wouldn't have been so carefree if you'd started writing about your life with the intent of turning it intent of turning it into a book.

Deepika Munot said...

The published can be re-published - one example is the Reader's Digest!! So the publisher was being a jack ass!! And yes once you are famous, and you are already en-route, the blogs will become a book and you will sign my copy so that i can brag about it!!

margee said...

....true ! your blogs are mirrors to oneself in words.

Lakshmi said...

congrats - 400th post..that calls for a lot of patience to write and read :)

Karthik Krishnaswamy said...

I've only recently discovered your blog, and have been reading your old posts at random, and I'll say that it would be great in print - you could pick your best posts, maybe rearrange them to form an interesting non-chronological narrative structure, add bits in between, basically do a whole lot with the immense material you've already generated.
And if publishers aren't interested, you could always self-publish, at someplace like Lulu.com, for instance.
I'd love to read this book.

Anonymous said...

Great idea to get your blog published, but then time does play an imp role in the success of a book. 5 books down the line, your blog will be gulped down by readers, me thinks..

SoulSpace said...

well said
publish it!

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