The Tenth Rasa - A Blog of Indian Nonsense

The Alleged Second Printing and other mews

2011-05-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

It's 2011 and you're not sure where you left the can of whatsit. Don't worry, though, because Indian nonsense will always be there for you--and now with added whatsit!

It has certainly been a long slime since my last update, and while I won't bore you with pulling out every item stuck in my slime, I should inform you of two flings:

Fling One:

I am hoping to create a children's nonsense anthology that will include material from The Tenth Rasa but also (hopefully) a few new things (depending on whether the folks whom I've commissioned will actually write something--you know who you are!!), including a guide for children on how to write nonsense. It will be fully illustrated and sanctified by the Nine Vestal Vultures. I'm currently talking to the folks at Scholastic about this... and I shall certainly keep you informed on developments.

Fling Two:

I recently had to replenish my stock of The Tenth Rasa (aside from providing "pure reading pleasure,"™they also serve as analgesics, fodder, and bituminous bumf), and so yesterday I received a brimming boxfull. When I inspected the included volumes, I immediately noticed a change on the back cover. The ISBN patch is all tricked out now, and lo and behold, the price has gone up from Rs 295 to Rs 399! This in itself is not so extraordinary (for the volume is worth its weight in bumf), but what IS extraordinary is that it seems we are now into a second printing!

The new printing (left) and the old (right). Also, for sake of scale, a ruler and a lollipop.

Upon closer inspection, I also discovered that the volume is now printed in Navi Mumbai, rather than Noida (where it was originally done)--also now noted on the page that notes such things in the beginning. Of course, you are witnessing my clever deduction from the presented evidence. I have heard no word from Penguin about such printerly activities. Regardless, though, I'd say it's high time that all of you fans out there order an edition from the alleged second printing, because even though the content is exactly the same, there is that highly collectible new ISBN patch on the back. Also, when do you ever get a chance to buy an "alleged reprinting"? It's worth every paise of that extra 104 rupees! Don't miss out!

Vinda Karandikar's passing

2010-03-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

A sad note today in the Authoritative Annals of Nonsensifaction: Vinda Karandikar, a celebrated Marathi poet, critic, translator, and, of course, occasional nonsense writer, passed away yesterday. I met him years ago when I was doing research for The Tenth Rasa, when he was kind enough to receive me and Anushka Ravishankar to talk about his work. I recall one amusing and telling moment from our visit... After being seated in his parlor, we told him we were there to discuss the nonsense verse he had written. He immediately made a face and told us, to our surprise, that he didn't write any. When he left the room briefly his wife leaned in, conspiratorily, and told us that of course he wrote nonsense verse. That day, we learned a thing or two not just about him, but about how nonsense literature is perceived, even by practitioners of it. When he returned he became much more cheerful, and he even waved to us from the balcony as we walked away from his building--something I learned later was not a common occurrence. He was happy to have several of his pieces translated (masterfully, by Anita Vaccharajani) and included in our anthology.

Tonight, the Nuppiter Pifkins will murble in mouring...

Storytelling Night in New Delhi

2010-02-17T00:34:00.000-08:00

Hello all in Nonsensabad! I write to you from the bosom of Gurgaon, where I have been ensconced for nigh two plus weeks. I've been checking the nonsense gauges and baubles here, twiddling and tweaking the twoddlemeters...strictly procedural, you understand. I can safely report that the underground reserves of nonsense are still burbling blatantly, and that there will indeed be a gusher coming soon to a well near you. As long as you live near New Delhi. That is to say, I will be participating in the Scholastic India Storytelling Night this coming Friday, to read from "The Moustache Maharishi" and other nonsensical nodes. If anyone is around, please do stop by! Info below!

Scholastic India is happy to announce that Storytelling night will now be held in ten cities every quarter!

The ten cities where these fantastic sessions will be organised are New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad, Pune, Jaipur and Chandigarh.

Schedule for the first storytelling night in your city!

New Delhi - Friday, February 19, 2010
Storytellers: Samina Mishra, Anita Roy, Bubbles Sabharwal, Michael Heyman & Devika Rangachari
Venue: The HUB, DLF Promenade, 3 Vasant Kunj Malls, Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi - 70

The Further Travels of Nonsense...

2009-07-19T01:37:00.001-07:00

Hello to all!

I write to you from a wee hotel on top of a restaurant in Ljubljana, Slovenia, a city with a nonsensical name and a heart of hamhock. As you all should know by now, I have for some time been working on the next anthology of nonsense--the Anthology of World Nonsense, which will of course include India (both some texts from the Tenth Rasa, but also some new developments in the world of Indian nonsense!). Right now I'm traveling with my co-editor, Kevin Shortsleeve (with whom I work not solely because of his last name), combing Eastern and Northern Europe for nonsense... including Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, and Holland. Whew!

We are keeping a blog of our adventures in nonsense hunting... which you can follow here:
http://jabberwokabout.blogspot.com

Meanwhile, much of my blogging energy will be directed thataways... please forgive this poor sinner!

Yours in Nonsensical Everitude,
M

Bollywood nonsense video: Anthony Gonsalves struts it!

2009-06-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

Namaste, nomoshkar, and nomoarigato Mr. Roboto to all out there in Nonsensibad!

Over the last donkey's ears, I have been asked for the real live link to Amitabh Bachchan's performance in Amar, Akbar, Anthony--the song "My Name is Anthony Gonsalves"--where he burbles beatific nonsense, tellingly in English, to the mesmerized crowd of Indian Easter revelers. In The Tenth Rasa, this song is described, and his nonsense transcribed (and, I believe accurately, as opposed to the random lyrics websites that mangle his nonsense horribly). Is he poking fun at the English? At the Englishified Indians sporting their ties and bellbottoms? Is this class warriorism or crass furrierism? We report, you decide! Here's the link--enjoy!

Click HERE!

Dr. T's bold and saucy review

2009-02-17T08:32:00.000-08:00

My delightful denizens of Dorp, I bring you good tidings. As promised, the second International Research in Children's Literature (IRSCL) review, put out through Edinburgh University Press, has reared its resplendent head, and can be found HERE.

In other news, the highly secretive and secretional splinter group of the SFPS (ye Ancient and Honourable Society for the Prevention of Sense) has been working away at the Anthology of World Nonsense. Like cows flung from siege engines at our unsuspecting nonsense citadel, we've received submissions of nonsense texts (poems, stories, songs, etc.) from India, Sweden, Japan, Finland, Denmark, Turkey, Russia, France, Germany, South Africa, Nicaragua, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Tuva, and others. That's a lot of cows. But we want more. More cows, we say. Fling them ourwaywardly, and your reward shall be here as in the great ethereal Eggnoggery in the sky. In other words, please do feel free to continue to submit texts to us for consideration... See the old blog entry for more details HERE.

New Zoo Reviews

2008-11-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

A heartly jell-o to all in Upper Nonsensabad (and even those in Outer Nonsensisthan, even though they have stopped returning my calls). As I promised, I would let you know about the most recent reviews.

The IRSCL has put out TWO reviews, the first of which is available online: HERE. If any of the mellifluous (and melinquent) language in this one sounds familiar, then you have obviously read my introduction!

The ever-bedecktacled Dr. Joseph Thomas Jr. wrote a lovely review that appears in the IRSCL journal. Wanted dead or alive!

Lastly, Dr. Kevin "Bring me a Spigot" Shortsleeve wrote a lovely piece of pumice for the Children's Literature Association Quarterly. This is available through Project Muse (which you need to subscribe to or get through your library). Get to the article through this link, or in the ChLA Quarterly, Volume 33, Number 3, Fall 2008.

Work for the Anthology of World Nonsense is ramping up... more soon!

Blogger review USA

2008-06-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

The US blogostemic blogiferator has turned its eyes to the Book, and Sepia Mutiny (yes) has given us a lovely review. Good to see that the book is actually on some shelves over here in the US, too. Check it out here.

Also, we doff our hats, spats, and polyunsaturated fats to Language Hat, who also gave us a splurb, referring to the above blog. Click here.

And here.

In other news, a few more reviews should be appearing in the near future... And, as the doctor said to the botfly-infested patient, I'll let you know when they emerge.

Winnipeg Wunnerful Wumplings

2008-06-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ahh, Winnipeg in the spring! Last March, I visited the University of Winnipeg as an Overt Agent of Indian Nonsense. Through the kindness of the English department, and the Center for Research in Young People's Texts and Culture, meaning the munificent Mavis Reimer and cartesian Kevin Shortsleeve, I was able to lecture on Indian nonsense to the general community and visit Professor Shortsleeve's class devoted to nonsense. He beat me to the all-nonsense class, alas! Thanks to everyone involved--A foll-jolly time was had by all, and Indian nonsense continues to spread across the globe in a pandimensional pandemic of pandemonium.

Brief info on the lecture...

The USA Launch and more reviews

2008-04-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

The USA launch of The Tenth Rasa achieved dizzying heights of Hogsbreathean Hopulence , with a crowd that included not only a few nonsense newbies but also some of the Boston area Indians. I was hoping Sarita Padki might make it, but I never heard back from the Padki camp. Hope all is well! During the proceedings, "The Bathing Hymn" intoned itself once again across the reverberating chambers of the Harvard COOP, and all was as it should be! Thanks to the Friends of Nonsense in attendance (established and incorporated unwittingly, on This Day, February Thirteenth, Two Thousand Eight, of all in attendance and even some in anelevendance).

Other news on the Indian nonsense front: two more reviews are due out soon. One from the Children's Literature Association Quarterly, and one from the International Research Society for Children's Literature. Stay tuned...

The Official Official Launch in the USA:13 February, 2008, Harvard COOP

2007-12-16T05:57:00.000-08:00

And from the Aristophalian Ashes, nonsense shall rise again! REPENT! THE USA LAUNCH is NIGH!

Like the phoenix from the ashes, like the peanuts from Natchez; like paneer from the curd, like Subir the Goatherd (whose fear of paneer is absurd), The Tenth Rasa rises again! The official (really, official, this time) launch of The Tenth Rasa in the USA will take place in the new year!

Wednesday, 13 February, 2008
7:00pm
The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense, edited by Michael Heyman, with Sumanyu Satpathy and Anushka Ravishankar (Penguin Global, 2008)
The Harvard COOP
1400 Massachusetts Ave at Harvard Square
Cambridge, MA

Click HERE for the link to the Harvard Coop schedule.

Rantings, ravings, chantings, shavings, signings, pinings, and tea.

Nonsense rumblings from blogosphere

2007-11-27T15:58:00.000-08:00

I wanted to point you to some recent Indian nonsense rumblings and discussions on the blogosaxoscoposphere. The link takes you to the beginning of a discussion... be sure to click on the further links from there for the different contributions.

Click here to be transported...

Here's another, from Nandan Newlander:Click Here

The Tenth Rasa--Coming to a country near you!

2007-10-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

Hello, dear Nonsensophites! This is just a note to note that The Tenth Rasa has been picked up by Penguin Global. While I have little conception of the machinations within the giant machine that is Penguin, and while nobody has bothered to let me know what, exactly, this shift means, I still am certain that Penguin Global means a much larger distribution around the world. Unfortunately, the book will not be available (outside of India and the Indian distributors) until early January 2008--but then The Tenth Rasa will begin its assured domination of the world! Mmuah ha haa! Stay tuned, pre-order if you dare, and dig the scene. Promotion shall follow...

The Tenth Rasa Takes Over the World! --Seeking help and submissions

2007-07-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

Though it may be hamboneheaded and bongusbrained, the next nonsense project that I am working on, with a colleague, and in conjunction with the Society for the Prevention of Sense (SFPS), is the World Anthology of Nonsense. Yes, indeed, and I would like YOUR help. As you might imagine, India is fairly well-covered (I hope, at least!), but we are looking for nonsense texts from other non-Western countries for possible inclusion in the world anthology. See the Nonsense Call into the Wild, below for details... and please do write if you can provide any help, translations, leads, or tips.

The World Anthology of Nonsense

We seek submissions, skillful translations, suggestions and any clues that will aid us in our search for nonsense literature from cultures outside the Anglo-American tradition, to be compiled in a large single volume anthology. We seek both folk nonsense of the "High Diddle Diddle" type and literary nonsense of the "Walrus and the Carpenter" type. We seek both verse and prose.

What Nonsense Is Not:

Nonsense is not riddles
Nonsense is not jokes
Nonsense is not light verse
Nonsense is not fantasy
Nonsense is not puns
Not all nursery rhymes are nonsense
Not all limericks are nonsense
A text that contains all of these could still be nonsense, butdespite them rather than because of them...

What Nonsense Is:

Nonsense texts usually exist somewhere between perfect sense, on one hand, and absolute gibberish on the other. They achieve this by maintaining a balance between elements that seem to make sense and elements that do not. Nonsense texts often revel in topsy-turvyness and inversions of natural laws or hierarchical laws of order and place. They are chimerical constructions typified by excessive randomness, often celebrating the impossible and playing with temporal and spatial confusion. Nonsense can be poetry or prose, and it can appear in the guise of any genre or form, including but not limited to short story, novel, travel writing, ballad, sonnet, limerick, song, folk rhymes and tales, lullaby, recipe, and alphabet.

~ How To Spot Nonsense from a Long Way Away ~

The following examples from English tradition point to the styles and genres for which we are looking. We seek similarly styled poems and prose nonsense from continental Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania and Central and South America.

Examples...

Folk Nonsense

Certain nursery rhymes like "Hey Diddle Diddle" or "Sing a Song of Six Pence", which paint inconsequential, unlikely and seemingly meaningless scenarios.

Examples from children's oral folklore like "One Bright Day in the Middle of the Night", which posits a list of impossible juxtapositions.

Examples from prose folklore like The Brother's Grimm "Clever Elsie", in which Elsie cannot remember whether she is she, or whether someone else is she.

Passages from mummers' plays and other carnivalesque traditions in which the world is turned upside down and absurdity reigns supreme.

Literary Nonsense

Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" or "Hunting of the Snark," Edward Lear's "Owl and the Pussycat" or "The Dong With the Luminous Nose,", Edward Gorey's, "The Iron Tonic" or 'The Epiplectic Bicycle," John Ciardi's "Sylvester," Laura Richards' "Eletelephony", Shel Silverstein's "If the World Was Crazy."

Some Authors We Are Considering:

(Germany) Christian Morganstern, "The Picket Fence"
(India) Sukumar Ray, "Glibberish-Gibberish"
(South Africa) Philip de Vos, The Cinderella of Worcester and other Lusty Limericks
(Portugal) Fernando Pessoa, "Poema Pial"
(Poland) Jerzy Harasymowicz, "A Green Lowland of Pianos"
(France) Guillaume Apollinaire, "Hat-tomb"

The Editors are Michael Heyman (Berklee College of Music, and of course the head editor of The Tenth Rasa) and Kevin Shortsleeve (University of Winnipeg)

If you can help us in any way, by providing a text or a tip, please write to me! All help will be fully acknowledged in the book. Many thanks!

The Making of The Tenth Rasa--Oxford Bookstore essay

2007-04-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

A brief essay on the making of The Tenth Rasa is now available on the Oxford Bookstore website. This essay discusses some of my motivation for heading the project and a few other bits and bobs and fobs and gobs related to the book, the concept of the tenth rasa, and the non-linear weight of a Mephistophelian mugwump. Also, be sure to look at the side-bar to get my favorite nonsense book recommendations!

Click here to see the essay and book recommendations

The Tenth Rasa -- excerpt from the Introduction

2007-04-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

Many readers may wonder what the "tenth rasa" is... I include, below, an "enhanced" excerpt from the introduction to the book, by way of explanation. I have also added some new, unpublished, translation-related information that enhances our understand of the Bengali word kheyaal.

from Michael Heyman, "A Nonsense Naissance", the first introduction to The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense New Delhi: Penguin, 2007, with some revisions.

THE TENTH RASA

In Sukumar Ray's Preface to Abol Tabol (1923), his famous collection of nonsense, he included an apologia: “This book was conceived in the spirit of whimsy. It is not meant for those who do not enjoy that spirit.” Part of the function of this was to warn the more serious-minded public and critics away from such a strange literary product. But there is far more meaning to this simple statement, owing to the Bengali words that cannot be directly translated. The “spirit of whimsy” in this passage is, in Bengali, “kheyaal rawsh” and refers to a fundamental classification of Indian aesthetic theory, that of the rawsh, or rasa, as they are more commonly known. All Indian arts are designed to produce complex emotional effects on the audience. These effects are strictly delineated and classified according to Bharata's Natyasastra (c. 200 AD), an ancient treatise on the arts which includes eight rasas (rawsh in Bengali). The ninth rasa, for "peace", was later appended. Each rasa corresponds to one emotional effect, including love, anger, the comic/happy, disgust, heroism, compassion, fear, wonder, and peace. All serious art must evoke combinations of these rasas (a word which also has the meanings of taste, the “essence” of something, as well as living liquids like sap and juice).

The result of Ray’s inventing this tenth rasa is two-fold. First, it helps to distinguish the nonsense form from other Indian literary forms. As Satpathy has discussed, Tagore initiated this distinction by recognizing that children’s chora represented a separate rasa: “There are nine rasas in our aesthetic theory. But, the chada [or chora], meant for children, contains a kind of rasa which does not fit into any of the nine rasas. The beauty of this rhyme can be called, baalras [children’s ras]. It is neither thick nor pungent. It is, rather, clear, innocent, beautiful, and that which cannot be related to anything” (Lok 52). Tagore was the first to recognize such value in folk rhymes and stories, and according to Chaudhuri, “it was largely owing to his efforts that these began to be recorded and studied seriously” (Writings 2). Having folk material taken seriously was an important step for Indian scholarship and paved the way for Sukumar Ray to distinguish further the genre of nonsense from folk and other forms of literature. Ray’s new rasa is not restricted to children, as Tagore’s is. Rather, it represents the complexity of literary nonsense. As Satyajit Ray, Sukumar’s son, claims in his introduction to his father’s volume, “There are traces of such whimsy in the folk poetry of any nation. But authentic literary nonsense masks its caprice beneath an apparent gravity in an urbane and sophisticated manner unknown in popular rhyme” (5). By creating a tenth rasa, and designating it the prime rasa of nonsense, Ray was thus distinguishing nonsense, the essence of whimsy, from folk material, which only has “traces of such whimsy.” He also was giving it respectability as a genre that includes an adult audience.

More significantly, though, the creation of the rasa of whimsy revises about 1700 years of fundamental aesthetic theory, necessitating that nonsense be considered a serious, even conservative art form. Long before Bharata’s treatise on art, Indian aesthetic theory was well-developed, codified, directly related to religion, and therefore mostly, if not exclusively, serious. Bharata recognized that the “comic” mode existed but marginalized it (at best) by making it share a rasa with “happiness,” a conjunction any modern theory of comedy, such as Freud’s on jokes, would cast doubt upon. The creation of this tenth rasa thus has some quite revolutionary and revisionary effects. Incorporating a kind of thoughtful “whimsy” into the pantheon of rasas, and claiming it to be the primary characteristic of nonsense, legitimizes the genre in the eyes of even the most aesthetically and culturally conservative judges. Furthermore, including the concept of whimsy with the other rasas introduces a rebellious, potentially dangerous concept. “Whimsy,” which is a decent translation of the Bengali kheyaal, is an “odd fancy; idle notion; whim” or alternatively, a “curious, quaint, or fanciful humor” (Webster’s New World). But the Bengali word, even more than the English word, has a pejorative meaning, especially in the adjectival form. Thus, to sanction that which is odd, idle, contrary, fanciful—all partially in a pejorative sense—is dangerous; it could potentially disrupt the seriousness, the discipline, and the sanctity of the others. In particular, it distinguishes itself from the combined “comedy/happiness” rasa, perhaps showing the inherent rebellion or at least the sheer absurdity of nonsense that Gorey referred to, a mode that is often problematically comic. As French absurdists like Ionesco show, nonsense can be comic, absurd, disquieting, and terrifying all at once. In addition, it is important to note that "kheyaal" also has connotations of deep thought, in addition to the whimsicality. This connection is the essence of the concept and of the genre of literary nonsense.

As rasas are not temporal creations but rather eternal qualities, Ray’s inclusion of “whimsy” implies that is has always been there, unrecognized, yet affecting the other rasas nonetheless (especially the comic/happy). One would have to go back to reconsider the other rasas in light of the newest “discovery” and completely revise the ways they are used in the arts. Of course, one has to believe in the rasa for the revolution to occur. If the aesthetic pundits of Sukumar Ray’s time had accepted his concept, then he would have succeeded not only in the ultimate “Indianization” of literary nonsense, but in potentially revolutionizing Indian art. His nonsense, not surprisingly, was not taken as seriously as he would have liked, though it did become wildly popular, and continues to be to this day. West Bengal is also one of the few areas in India where nonsense is taken seriously by adults. His was but a beginning for this still nascent art form in India.

Works Cited

Ray, Sukumar. (SNSR) The Select Nonsense of Sukumar Ray. Trans. Sukanta Chaudhuri. Calcutta: OUP, 1987.
-------.(AT) Abol Tabol: The nonsense world of Sukumar Ray. Trans. Sampurna Chattarji. New Delhi: Puffin, 2004.
Tagore, Rabindranath. Selected Writings for Children. Ed. Sukanta Chaudhuri. New Delhi: OUP, 2002.
-------. Khapchhada, 1937
-------. “Lok sahitya” (folk literature) in The Works of Rabindranath Tagore, Vol. 3. Calcutta: Bishorbharati University Press, 1986.

We're number two! We're number TWO! (Twice!)

2007-04-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, indeed, in fair Visakhapatnam we are number two on the non-fiction bestseller list. I'll have to look back in the book to find something non-fictional, but I'll take the ranking!

click here to check it out in Visakhapatnam

And now... in Hyderabad, no less!
click here to check it in The Hindu, Hyderabadi-style

Hooray for Andhra Pradesh! Could they be returning the favor after all of our sumptuous meals at Andhra Bhavan in Delhi??

Boston Launch of The Tenth Rasa

2007-04-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

On March 29th, we spanked the Boston bum of The Tenth Rasa, and it entered the USA howling over the sound of the enthusiastic cappuccino machines and juicers of Trident Booksellers & Café. My voice is still recovering. A crowd of friends, family, colleagues, students, curious cows, and cockle-headed cockatrices gathered to hear tales of Indian nonsense. With the help of the crowd, we chanted Sarita Padki's "The Bathing Hymn" and shouted "Gadbadjhala" in 4-part harmony, with feelin'. This event was different from those in India because there was no panel of contributors, but we were very fortunate to have one of the versifiers (those unsung heroes) present, Gloria Machlis Heyman (not, despite the rumors, my cousin), who read some of the pieces she pounded into pluperfect poesie. While the crowd was robust, we did wonder where the Indians were! Probably stuck in the Waltham traffic... The evening was capped off with the traditional nonsense postpartum formalities, including, but not limited to a celebratory fondue-fest.

Many thanks to the Trident and all attendees, and may the Spalectic Spirit of Nonsense infest your Noodles forevermore. I'm hoping this is just the beginning of The Tenth Rasa-mania in America, so look for events in the future. Call us for weddings, wakes, and bar mitzvahs.

Here's the Boston Globe's evening out recommendation:
"Sidekick" section of The Boston Globe, March 27, 2007.

Click on the photo below to see some photos from the event.

Trident launch of Tenth Rasa 3/29/07

Tenth Rasa events in India and photos!

2007-03-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

In January 2007, several book events took place around India. We started off with a reading at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, where Sumanyu and I imposed upon the stage with some impressive poets.

The first offical event was in Mumbai, 4 Jan, with a reading mostly organized by PEN India, with the help of Sampurna Chattarji (who has helped in innumerable ways!). This took place in the Theosophical Society library, where the stolid books looked down on us somewhat incredulously. The mic was faulty, though I found that it worked perfectly if I held it in my teeth, standing on-point with my proboscis pointed north (the photo of this pose, unfortunately, has been lifted and is now making the rounds in Swedish sauna websites). Participants included Sampurna Chattarji, Anushka Ravishankar, Anant Bhave, Usha Mehta, Anita Vaccharajani, and Ranjit Hoskoté.

In Chennai, a few days later (7 Jan), we did an official "launch", cutting the ribbon, unwrapping the book and all. I thought the ceremony rather silly, but when I mentioned the releasing of the doves (thinking myself to be in the spirit of things), the Powers that Be were not amused. Once again mic-less, we bellowed our nonsense into the void. Or at least into the tea bar of the Oxford Bookstore. Joining the fun: S. Ramakrishnan, M.D. Muthukumaraswamy, Sirish Rao, Kaushik Vishwanath, and Shreekumar Varma. We were glad to see the whole Tara group(ies?) there, amidst a gaggle of interns.

I stopped over in Guwahati, under the careful care of Dileep Chandan. He was kind enough to arrange a lecture for me at Cotton College (10 Jan). I was greeted warmly there and had the opportunity to speak to a room full of somewhat bewildered, but willing graduate students in media studies. Who knows what they thought of nonsense, but a good time was had, it seems.

Back in New Delhi. Anushka, Sayoni, Akshara, and I found our way through Civil Lines by pure instinct to reach Sarai, and a lovely, casual event in the coffee shop (13 Jan). Finally, the three editors harmoniously joined in a reading that included the now-famous chanting of "The Bathing Hymn", among other classics. Huzzooas and huzzahs followed.

The grand climax to this rash of events was to be a beatific book farewell at the infamous Badum-approved Bukhara, in the Maurya Sheraton. Shomma, Paul V K, Sayoni Q B, and Rehan B K and his ulto-kaka, Mike, raced to meet Anusha and Ravi for said farewell. After traffic wrangling and tangling, we decided on the somewhat less-glorious, but still delightful Bauji ka Dhaba, in Hauz Khas Village. Which no longer exists. Or, the village does, but it seems that all commercial activity has been booted from it, as we discovered after wandering the dark passages of the Hauz Khas Village complex, with an armful of Rehan. And so, with our firm upper-lip spiritually moustachioed, we ended up in a glorious, gluttonous galumphing gorge at Whimpy, at Arobindo Market. We shivered through our beanburgers and one lonely order of biryani (Paul shed a tear). Now, Samit, don't you wish you had joined us?? Many thanks and barrels of bhalobhashi to all!

Click on the photo below for photos from the various book launch events in India.

Tenth Rasa Book Events

New Nonsense stories in The Moustache Maharishi and other unlikely stories

2007-03-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

We struggled to find nonsense prose for The Tenth Rasa--when all along Harsha Dandapani was waiting in the wings... An excellent nonsense story was recently published by Scholastic called "Relative Death", in the volume entitled The Moustache Maharashi and other unlikely stories (including the semi-nonsensical title story by yours truly!).

Unfortunately, this book only seems available within India. Here is a link to the Scholastic web site for more information: Click here

The Moustache Maharashi and other unlikely stories, New Delhi: Scholastic, 2007. ISBN:8176556025

Anushka Ravishankar

2007-03-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

It is probably no surprise that I'm a fan of Anushka Ravishankar's nonsense prose and poetry. You can find some previously unpublished pieces in The Tenth Rasa ("If", "Discovery of India", and "Ogd"--all excellent!). If you're interested in more from Anushka, you should check out her other books:

Today is My Day, Excuse Me, Is This India?, Wish You Were Here, Alphabets Are Amazing Animals, Anything but a Grabooberry, Tiger on a Tree, One, Two, Tree, (all published by Tara), and Moin and the Monster published by Scholastic...and more to come!

You also might like to read this overview that I wrote for The Horn Book Magazine: Click here

Tenth Rasa on the Recess radio show

2007-03-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Kevin Shortsleeve and the Recess radio show. Click on this link for the transcript, and click on "Audio" for the, uh, audio.

Comments on the book? Post them here...

2007-02-23T06:27:00.000-08:00

Any comments you might care to leave can be posted here...
You may not use the words "luv" "lol" "pneet" and "fathom", but all other words most welcome.

Want to write me email? Do!

Op ven øster Bøkernase Frütsaläde

2007-02-21T20:37:00.000-08:00

Püt om topp søck!
Ungdom fur alles!
Ja wir haben tøk
Und glemt me my talles!

Click here for Bokklubben for the schlubben!

New Punjabi nonsense from Khushwant Singh

2007-02-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Khushwant Singh for his two (!) columns--and especially for giving us more nonsense. The following is from his Hindustan Times column:

Children of my generation knew a lot of nonsense verse by heart. It faded out of memory with the onset of years and we rubbed out what remained as too childish to be remembered. I tried to recall what I once knew by rote. The most popular one was as follows:

Akkar dukkar bhumbai bhau
Assee, nubbey, poorey sau
Sau mein laaga dhaaga
Chor nikal kar bhaaga.
Akkar, dukkar, bhumbai bhau.
Translated:
Eighty, ninety, to a full hundred.
String the hundred by a thread
The thief ran out and fled.
Eighty, ninety, to a full hundred.

Some nonsense verse had educational aims. So we learnt the English alphabet:
ABC Too kitthey gaeo see
Edward mar gayaa
Pittan gayee see
Translated:
ABC Where did you go
Edward died, and so
I went to beat my breast.)

For some reason when we had to cram multiplication tables when it came to nine into nine is 81, we put in verse:
Nau nai ikkasee
Booko teyree masee
Translated
Nine into nine makes 81
Your mother’s sister is a monkey.

Another entirely meaningless favourite was a meaningless jingle you could add to as you please:
Chal, chal, Chameli bagh mein / mewa khil aoonga;
Mewey kee daalee tootgayee / chadar bichhaoonga;
Chaddar ka phattaa konaa / Darzi Bulaoonga
Darzee kee tootee sooee / Loohar bulaoonga
Lohar Ka toota hathaura / ghora dauraoonga.

I can’t bother to transalate this one; none of these are in the book. It has many better examples taken from all our languages.

Hamecdotal Edifence-- blogs, frogs, clogs...

2007-02-19T21:05:00.000-08:00

I was delighted to find Catmeister's blog. She seems to have found some inspiration in nonsense!

Here's another blog with a tip of the noggin to nonsense:
Indiadrant's blog. Check out Sun., 18 Feb.

By way of Khushwant Singh, another thoughtful bloggish konkimplation about the book:
Eggstreamly Eggcentric's Blog . Check out Sun., 26 Feb.

Misquotes from Williams aside, here's another blogger who wants us: Nandan Newlander's Blog

From our dear Thinkopotamus: Click here

How to buy this book!

2007-02-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

The Tenth Rasa, now that it is being distributed through Penguin Global, is available anywhere Penguin distributes!

Click on these links to order in the US:

Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble.com
Borders.com

Also available now in the Freer/Sackler Shop, Smithsonian Museum. Click here.

And, now, because we are so hip, available in the MTV shop.

The book is also available at various online booksellers around the world. Click on the following links to order the book:

Abe Books
$8.42 plus shipping. Alternatively, you can buy the version with an introduction by Amartya Sen, for $22 dollars. I'd say it's worth it, even if it doesn't exist.

Eastern Book Corporation
This is the cheapest I've found on the web so far... $6.94 plus shipping

Akhil Books
$11.70 plus shipping

Oxford Bookstores,where we did a launch in Chennai.

Aggarwal Overseas book exporters
$16.20 plus shipping

NBC India bookstore
Price in rupees!

India Club$19.95 plus shipping, unless you order three!

In the U.K.

Blackwell Booksellers
£11.99 plus shipping

Waterstones...£11.99 plus shipping.

Tenth Rasa on Amazon UK

Indian Bookshelf
£10.99 plus shipping

Starpublic.com
£10.99 plus shipping

In Europe
Proxis.be
Is this Belgium? Golly... 19.95 Euros plus shipping

Amazon in Germany, for 15.00 euros.

um... Norway? Planet Zog?
Bokklubben. You know you lub it!

In Sweden
Getus your bokus here

In Japan
Amazon Japan

Also available on Amazon Canada for about $50! Holy Herr Gott!

If you would like to contribute to the Evil Empire, you can buy it here:
The Evil Empire

Reviews aplenty!

2007-02-18T19:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of links to all the reviews I've been able to find. If you know of others, please do let me know.

International Research Society for Children's Literature journal review, 2008.

International Research Society for Children's Literature book review, 2008.

Indian Express, 17 Feb 2007, by Mitali Saran

Tehelka, by Manohar Shetty, 17 Feb 2007

Recess radio show does a brief piece on the book.

India New England piece on Michael Heyman and the book. The first US press...
Also, Here

A review in Dawn, 10 June 2007

Express India, 3 Jan 2007
This one wins the award for most damaging factual error, namely that I was the one to invent the tenth rasa. It was Sukumar Ray!! Not I! Sheesh.

The Hindu, Buisnessline, 8 Jan 2007

Telegraph review

The Hindu, Metroplus Chennai, 10 Jan 2007

New Kerala.com review
This one wins the award for the most hilariously bad English and outrageous misquotes.

The Tribune, 3 Feb 2007 (also appears in The Telegraph)
Thanks to Khushwant Singh, who wrote this and other column (below) praising the book!

Hindustan Times, 16 Feb 2007

Business World, by Henry James Foy

The Sunday Tribune, 13 May, 2007

The Tenth Rasa is born!

2007-02-18T18:44:00.000-08:00

Hear ye! Fear ye! The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense is born!

As is this, the Official ("official" because, well, I was the head hippo) Blog of it and all things nonsensical.