The Alleged Second Printing and other mews

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

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

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...

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!

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

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

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!