Author: Ruchir Joshi
Several Contributors/
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Mukul Kesvan/Kai Friese/Achal Prabhala
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 248
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9789350290989
Description
Civil Lines went to bed in 2001 and rose nearly a decade later in an unrecognizable world. Rip Van Winkle slept twice as long but woke up less disoriented: time moves faster in Google world than it did in the Catskills in the late eighteenth century.
The best explanation for the elephantine gestation of Civil Lines 6 is the truth, in the words of the editors themselves: unsure of their editorial judgment, they waited for the submissions to pass the test of time. And this is a collection of the pieces that survived.
For us at Civil Lines, the advent of the world Wide Web is rather less significant than the deaths of two people who were responsible for Civil Lines' intermittent existence. Dharma Kumar whose idea was Civil Lines was, died in 2001, that the year that the last issue before this one appeared. Then Ravi Dayal, who published the first four issues, died in 2006. Dharma and Ravi would have approved , we think, of the contents of Civil Lines 6. This issue is dedicated to their memory.
COMMENTS:
“Written with elegance and freshness.”
--- The Hindu
“All eyes are now set on the elusive sixth volume of civil lines.”
--- Mail Today
“Is civil Lines becoming respectably regular at last.”
--- Outlook
“Editorial lethargy… is worn as a badge of honour.”
--- The Caravan
“Before their novels poured out into the ever-widening stream of Indian-English writing, every writer worth his pen sent his prose, poetry, essays to Civil Lines.”
--- The Indian Express
Contents
Editor’s Note
1. Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
2. Flight by Itu Chaudhuri
3. Scheherazade by Itu Chaudhuri
4. Erazex by Achal Prabhala
5. The Remembered Village by U.R. Ananthamurthy
6. The Archivist by Ananya Vajpeyi
7. Exit The Gulf by Shougat Dasgupta
8. Skeletons by Naresh Fernandes
9. Building Bridges by Manu Herbstein
10. The Muse of Failure by Anand Balakrishnan
11. The Adventures of IDI Amin Dada by Binyavanga Wainaina
12. Mobius by Ramli Sengupta
13. Sugarcane by Nilanjana Roy
14. Raagtime by Benjamin Siegel
15. Nizamuddin At Night by Gauri Gill
16. Contributors