By Ayaan Khan
Agents Seek Business With Assured Returns As House Owners Too Scout For Tenants
As people are getting cautious about investing in property, real estate agents are turning to rental deals in the hope of earning some money. Despite rents seeing a good 15-20 per cent dip in the last three months, agents feel it is comparatively more stable business and assures some returns.
Imtiyaz Ahmed Khan, an agent, who had not managed to sell many properties of late is glad about the money he is making through rental deals. “Commissions on sale of properties is anyway not great. We charge only 2 per cent for a property valued at less than one crore and one per cent if it is more than one crore. But people are not ready to pay even that now. Anyway sales have dipped hugely and even prospective buyers are only using us to get introduced to the owner. After that they are directly negotiating with the owner in order to save on our commission,” he says. Agents like Khan also cash in on the desperation of house owners. Aware of the poor market condition, owners are now ready to pay agents extra commission to get tenants. “What seemed like a waste of money earlier has now become a preferred choice of owners,” says a brokerage manager.
However, not many agents in the city share the same view. The dip in rents have reduced their commissions drastically. With people opting for cheaper places, their monthly income has come down by almost 35-40 per cent.
“Houses that were earlier rented out for Rs 25,000 per month are now being given for as low as Rs 18,000. Duplexes in the Malaysian township that fetched at least Rs 45,000 as rent per month is now on offer for just Rs 25,000 per month. With owners settling for such low rents, our commissions are suffering. As against one month’s rent for these deals we are now charging something between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000,” says Asim Khan an agent adding that furnished houses with the latest amenities situated in posh localities, which in better times would have owners demanding Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000, are going for an unbelievable Rs 20,000 only.
Real estate experts point out that the dip in rentals is also a much needed correction. In the last few years, house owners, buoyed by the rising property prices in the city, had been quoting astronomical rents. Builder P Srinivas, whose residential complex in Banjara Hills has several flats lying vacant for long is hard selling them to any customer who looks even remotely interested. He is not only renting out two-bedroom flats, that would have fetched him anything between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000, for just Rs 8,500 but is also relaxing the deposit amount for his tenants.
Instead of the usual three months advance money, he is settling for only two months deposit. The fact that people are now ready to compromise on certain grounds is also affecting agents.
While some are moving to the outskirts of the city in search of cheaper accommodation, others are settling for apartments without high-end provisions like a centralised gas connection or wifienabled zone. “People are not hesitating to take up residence even beyond Hi-Tec city. The rents there are comparatively lower and so is our commission,” says an agent wryly.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Hyderabad Reality Scouts Landlords
By Ayaan Khan
Agents Seek Business With Assured Returns As House Owners Too Scout For Tenants
As people are getting cautious about investing in property, real estate agents are turning to rental deals in the hope of earning some money. Despite rents seeing a good 15-20 per cent dip in the last three months, agents feel it is comparatively more stable business and assures some returns.
Imtiyaz Ahmed Khan, an agent, who had not managed to sell many properties of late is glad about the money he is making through rental deals. “Commissions on sale of properties is anyway not great. We charge only 2 per cent for a property valued at less than one crore and one per cent if it is more than one crore. But people are not ready to pay even that now. Anyway sales have dipped hugely and even prospective buyers are only using us to get introduced to the owner. After that they are directly negotiating with the owner in order to save on our commission,” he says. Agents like Khan also cash in on the desperation of house owners. Aware of the poor market condition, owners are now ready to pay agents extra commission to get tenants. “What seemed like a waste of money earlier has now become a preferred choice of owners,” says a brokerage manager.
However, not many agents in the city share the same view. The dip in rents have reduced their commissions drastically. With people opting for cheaper places, their monthly income has come down by almost 35-40 per cent.
“Houses that were earlier rented out for Rs 25,000 per month are now being given for as low as Rs 18,000. Duplexes in the Malaysian township that fetched at least Rs 45,000 as rent per month is now on offer for just Rs 25,000 per month. With owners settling for such low rents, our commissions are suffering. As against one month’s rent for these deals we are now charging something between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000,” says Asim Khan an agent adding that furnished houses with the latest amenities situated in posh localities, which in better times would have owners demanding Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000, are going for an unbelievable Rs 20,000 only.
Real estate experts point out that the dip in rentals is also a much needed correction. In the last few years, house owners, buoyed by the rising property prices in the city, had been quoting astronomical rents. Builder P Srinivas, whose residential complex in Banjara Hills has several flats lying vacant for long is hard selling them to any customer who looks even remotely interested. He is not only renting out two-bedroom flats, that would have fetched him anything between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000, for just Rs 8,500 but is also relaxing the deposit amount for his tenants.
Instead of the usual three months advance money, he is settling for only two months deposit. The fact that people are now ready to compromise on certain grounds is also affecting agents.
While some are moving to the outskirts of the city in search of cheaper accommodation, others are settling for apartments without high-end provisions like a centralised gas connection or wifienabled zone. “People are not hesitating to take up residence even beyond Hi-Tec city. The rents there are comparatively lower and so is our commission,” says an agent wryly.
Agents Seek Business With Assured Returns As House Owners Too Scout For Tenants
As people are getting cautious about investing in property, real estate agents are turning to rental deals in the hope of earning some money. Despite rents seeing a good 15-20 per cent dip in the last three months, agents feel it is comparatively more stable business and assures some returns.
Imtiyaz Ahmed Khan, an agent, who had not managed to sell many properties of late is glad about the money he is making through rental deals. “Commissions on sale of properties is anyway not great. We charge only 2 per cent for a property valued at less than one crore and one per cent if it is more than one crore. But people are not ready to pay even that now. Anyway sales have dipped hugely and even prospective buyers are only using us to get introduced to the owner. After that they are directly negotiating with the owner in order to save on our commission,” he says. Agents like Khan also cash in on the desperation of house owners. Aware of the poor market condition, owners are now ready to pay agents extra commission to get tenants. “What seemed like a waste of money earlier has now become a preferred choice of owners,” says a brokerage manager.
However, not many agents in the city share the same view. The dip in rents have reduced their commissions drastically. With people opting for cheaper places, their monthly income has come down by almost 35-40 per cent.
“Houses that were earlier rented out for Rs 25,000 per month are now being given for as low as Rs 18,000. Duplexes in the Malaysian township that fetched at least Rs 45,000 as rent per month is now on offer for just Rs 25,000 per month. With owners settling for such low rents, our commissions are suffering. As against one month’s rent for these deals we are now charging something between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000,” says Asim Khan an agent adding that furnished houses with the latest amenities situated in posh localities, which in better times would have owners demanding Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000, are going for an unbelievable Rs 20,000 only.
Real estate experts point out that the dip in rentals is also a much needed correction. In the last few years, house owners, buoyed by the rising property prices in the city, had been quoting astronomical rents. Builder P Srinivas, whose residential complex in Banjara Hills has several flats lying vacant for long is hard selling them to any customer who looks even remotely interested. He is not only renting out two-bedroom flats, that would have fetched him anything between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000, for just Rs 8,500 but is also relaxing the deposit amount for his tenants.
Instead of the usual three months advance money, he is settling for only two months deposit. The fact that people are now ready to compromise on certain grounds is also affecting agents.
While some are moving to the outskirts of the city in search of cheaper accommodation, others are settling for apartments without high-end provisions like a centralised gas connection or wifienabled zone. “People are not hesitating to take up residence even beyond Hi-Tec city. The rents there are comparatively lower and so is our commission,” says an agent wryly.
Can Desi Pens Fuel Our Passion?
By Saleha Haseeb
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
Can Desi Pens Fuel Our Passion?
By Saleha Haseeb
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
Can Desi Pens Fuel Our Passion?
By Saleha Haseeb
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
Can Desi Pens Fuel Our Passion?
By Saleha Haseeb
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
Are authors from the land of Kamasutra up to the challenge of writing about love and passion in Mills and Boon style?
It can be a classic tale of passion. Where the land of Kamasutra meets western romance. Where the temples of Khajuraho inspire scandalous confessions. If romance publisher Mills & Boon (M&B) implements its idea of launching Indian writers, we may witness a cataclysmic union of Indian sensuality and western passion.
Or maybe not. Because in a country that’s obsessed with sex, we have a horrible track record and style of writing about it. “There are 50 different ways to write about bad sex, and Indian writers have explored all of them,” says Nilanjana Roy, chief editor, Westland/ Tranquebar Press. “We are very embarrassed to write about sex. It is a reflection of what we’ve been so far as a society,” she explains. Sex is one of the hardest subjects to write on, because “unlike food, there are only a finite number of variations.”
Which is why the Bad Sex in Fiction awards are as popular as they are notorious. They were instituted 11 years ago to mock “redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel”. On the illustrious list of Indians who have been nominated for and won this award are Tarun Tejpal whose Alchemy of Desire explored “peaks and valleys” and “danced the Last Tango of Labia Minora,” and Salman Rushdie, who wrote in Shalimar the Clown, “…Let’s, you know, caress each other in five places and kiss in seven ways and make out in nine positions, but let’s not get carried away.”
The 2003 winner, Aniruddha Bahal, said he wouldn’t change a word in the passage from his book Bunker 13 that made comparisons between women and cars: “She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high… She picks up a Bugatti’s momentum… Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she’s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing.” He does not agree that Indians cannot write about sex. “We have a tradition of erotic writing, from the works of Kalidasa to the Kamasutra. How can we be bad at writing about sex?” he asks.
Theatre personality Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal has an answer. “It is our sophomoric attitude towards sex, no doubt encouraged by down market renditions of it in most Bollywood movies, that prevents a sense of being comfortable with this subject,” she says. Insisting that sex is a subject better handled by regional writers, she wonders if “Mills and Boon is experiencing a recession in good writers in English, that it is looking towards India for this?”
But the themes in western novels about passion are so deep-seated in Indian society too — misogyny, irresistible locations, rape fantasies, and sexual submission of women — that writers can easily make a success out of such writing. “The only problem is that Indians write with a fear of family looking over their shoulders. We consider our writing autobiographical. There is an association of the writer with the writing, especially when it involves sex,” says V K Karthika, publisher, Harper Collins India.
But the times are changing. And it’s possible that the new crop of writers will become comfortable writing about it. After all, even M&B has gone from dishing out innocent fairy tales to sexually explicit stories. “In keeping with our philosophy, all stories should be page-turners, with happy endings,” said Harlequin M&B India director Andrew J Go about what he expects from the publishing house’s Indian chapter. The prospect sounds, for the lack of a better word, exciting.
BUSINESS OF BEING SANTA
By Kajol Singh
The success of the Santa Claus village in Finland’s Lapland owes as much to its smart marketing as to the timeless appeal of Santa, finds out HNN
in snow, Rovaniemi — the capital of Lapland, Finland’s northernmost province — looks all ready to celebrate Christmas, just a few days away. Despite the severe cold, it is teeming with reindeer sleighs, hundreds of children, their parents and other visitors from across the world — all here to meet Santa Claus in his village.
Set up in 1992, the Santa Claus village is on the Arctic Circle, about 8 km from Rovaniemi and is recognized worldwide as his main residence. No wonder then, the village received half a million visitors in 2007 and looks set to surpass that figure this year.
One such visitor is 13-year-old Katja Virtanen from Helsinki, who has been meeting Santa Claus for the past three years. She sets her hair right before entering his office for a photo-op. “You know, I have been a good girl. Santa gives me presents every year,” she says, unable to hide her excitement. She may not know that her parents spend 25 for her photo with Santa, 50 for the video and 5 each for the Santa badges that she takes home for friends. A meeting with Santa certainly doesn’t come cheap, but does anyone mind?
“Not really,” says Anja, Katja’s mother. “Why would I mind a trip to the Santa village every winter if it makes Katja an obedient and well-behaved child for the rest of the year?”
All that goodwill is translating into megabucks for the Santa enterprise. A food court, shopping center, souvenir shops, sleigh rides, gift shops and Lapland ceremonies add to the village’s attractions. The total sales figures cross 20 million annually, with more than 60 companies operating there and giving employment to hundreds of people at the Santa Claus office, post office, souvenir shops and activity services.
At the Santa post office, a large variety of Christmas goodies like greeting cards and CDs are sold, and the proceeds are used to send gifts to “children who have been nice”. Santa receives as many as eight lakh letters from children annually, with requests ranging from laptops, video games, good grades, more friends to even “happiness” as gifts. Dozens of Santa’s elves make sure that every letter is read, and then draw up a list of lucky children whose requests would be met.
Helping Santa in his endeavour is Mrs Claus, who stays at the Santa Claus residence in Luosto, 150 km from the village. She wraps gifts and bakes special Christmas cookies. It’s said that every evening when Santa gets back home, he asks: “Mrs. Claus, can I see how many gifts have been wrapped for the kids?” And she replies, “Don’t worry, Mr Claus, I will take care of everything. I am really pleased that this year, so many children from around the world have made it to your goodies list.”
Critics may see Santa Claus as a business enterprise that perpetuates a myth and leads children to a make-believe world. But does it cause any harm? Montreal University professor Serge Larivee, who teaches psychology of education, compared two studies on the way children related to the myth of Santa back in 1896, and in 1979. He concludes in his recent report that though parents lie to their kids about Santa, they feel that having children believe in him is not such a bad thing after all, because it makes them happy.
Meanwhile, Santa gets ready to meet a new lot of visitors. “I might travel a bit and even go to India soon,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye.
The success of the Santa Claus village in Finland’s Lapland owes as much to its smart marketing as to the timeless appeal of Santa, finds out HNN
in snow, Rovaniemi — the capital of Lapland, Finland’s northernmost province — looks all ready to celebrate Christmas, just a few days away. Despite the severe cold, it is teeming with reindeer sleighs, hundreds of children, their parents and other visitors from across the world — all here to meet Santa Claus in his village.
Set up in 1992, the Santa Claus village is on the Arctic Circle, about 8 km from Rovaniemi and is recognized worldwide as his main residence. No wonder then, the village received half a million visitors in 2007 and looks set to surpass that figure this year.
One such visitor is 13-year-old Katja Virtanen from Helsinki, who has been meeting Santa Claus for the past three years. She sets her hair right before entering his office for a photo-op. “You know, I have been a good girl. Santa gives me presents every year,” she says, unable to hide her excitement. She may not know that her parents spend 25 for her photo with Santa, 50 for the video and 5 each for the Santa badges that she takes home for friends. A meeting with Santa certainly doesn’t come cheap, but does anyone mind?
“Not really,” says Anja, Katja’s mother. “Why would I mind a trip to the Santa village every winter if it makes Katja an obedient and well-behaved child for the rest of the year?”
All that goodwill is translating into megabucks for the Santa enterprise. A food court, shopping center, souvenir shops, sleigh rides, gift shops and Lapland ceremonies add to the village’s attractions. The total sales figures cross 20 million annually, with more than 60 companies operating there and giving employment to hundreds of people at the Santa Claus office, post office, souvenir shops and activity services.
At the Santa post office, a large variety of Christmas goodies like greeting cards and CDs are sold, and the proceeds are used to send gifts to “children who have been nice”. Santa receives as many as eight lakh letters from children annually, with requests ranging from laptops, video games, good grades, more friends to even “happiness” as gifts. Dozens of Santa’s elves make sure that every letter is read, and then draw up a list of lucky children whose requests would be met.
Helping Santa in his endeavour is Mrs Claus, who stays at the Santa Claus residence in Luosto, 150 km from the village. She wraps gifts and bakes special Christmas cookies. It’s said that every evening when Santa gets back home, he asks: “Mrs. Claus, can I see how many gifts have been wrapped for the kids?” And she replies, “Don’t worry, Mr Claus, I will take care of everything. I am really pleased that this year, so many children from around the world have made it to your goodies list.”
Critics may see Santa Claus as a business enterprise that perpetuates a myth and leads children to a make-believe world. But does it cause any harm? Montreal University professor Serge Larivee, who teaches psychology of education, compared two studies on the way children related to the myth of Santa back in 1896, and in 1979. He concludes in his recent report that though parents lie to their kids about Santa, they feel that having children believe in him is not such a bad thing after all, because it makes them happy.
Meanwhile, Santa gets ready to meet a new lot of visitors. “I might travel a bit and even go to India soon,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye.
BUSINESS OF BEING SANTA
By Kajol Singh
The success of the Santa Claus village in Finland’s Lapland owes as much to its smart marketing as to the timeless appeal of Santa, finds out HNN
in snow, Rovaniemi — the capital of Lapland, Finland’s northernmost province — looks all ready to celebrate Christmas, just a few days away. Despite the severe cold, it is teeming with reindeer sleighs, hundreds of children, their parents and other visitors from across the world — all here to meet Santa Claus in his village.
Set up in 1992, the Santa Claus village is on the Arctic Circle, about 8 km from Rovaniemi and is recognized worldwide as his main residence. No wonder then, the village received half a million visitors in 2007 and looks set to surpass that figure this year.
One such visitor is 13-year-old Katja Virtanen from Helsinki, who has been meeting Santa Claus for the past three years. She sets her hair right before entering his office for a photo-op. “You know, I have been a good girl. Santa gives me presents every year,” she says, unable to hide her excitement. She may not know that her parents spend 25 for her photo with Santa, 50 for the video and 5 each for the Santa badges that she takes home for friends. A meeting with Santa certainly doesn’t come cheap, but does anyone mind?
“Not really,” says Anja, Katja’s mother. “Why would I mind a trip to the Santa village every winter if it makes Katja an obedient and well-behaved child for the rest of the year?”
All that goodwill is translating into megabucks for the Santa enterprise. A food court, shopping center, souvenir shops, sleigh rides, gift shops and Lapland ceremonies add to the village’s attractions. The total sales figures cross 20 million annually, with more than 60 companies operating there and giving employment to hundreds of people at the Santa Claus office, post office, souvenir shops and activity services.
At the Santa post office, a large variety of Christmas goodies like greeting cards and CDs are sold, and the proceeds are used to send gifts to “children who have been nice”. Santa receives as many as eight lakh letters from children annually, with requests ranging from laptops, video games, good grades, more friends to even “happiness” as gifts. Dozens of Santa’s elves make sure that every letter is read, and then draw up a list of lucky children whose requests would be met.
Helping Santa in his endeavour is Mrs Claus, who stays at the Santa Claus residence in Luosto, 150 km from the village. She wraps gifts and bakes special Christmas cookies. It’s said that every evening when Santa gets back home, he asks: “Mrs. Claus, can I see how many gifts have been wrapped for the kids?” And she replies, “Don’t worry, Mr Claus, I will take care of everything. I am really pleased that this year, so many children from around the world have made it to your goodies list.”
Critics may see Santa Claus as a business enterprise that perpetuates a myth and leads children to a make-believe world. But does it cause any harm? Montreal University professor Serge Larivee, who teaches psychology of education, compared two studies on the way children related to the myth of Santa back in 1896, and in 1979. He concludes in his recent report that though parents lie to their kids about Santa, they feel that having children believe in him is not such a bad thing after all, because it makes them happy.
Meanwhile, Santa gets ready to meet a new lot of visitors. “I might travel a bit and even go to India soon,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye.
The success of the Santa Claus village in Finland’s Lapland owes as much to its smart marketing as to the timeless appeal of Santa, finds out HNN
in snow, Rovaniemi — the capital of Lapland, Finland’s northernmost province — looks all ready to celebrate Christmas, just a few days away. Despite the severe cold, it is teeming with reindeer sleighs, hundreds of children, their parents and other visitors from across the world — all here to meet Santa Claus in his village.
Set up in 1992, the Santa Claus village is on the Arctic Circle, about 8 km from Rovaniemi and is recognized worldwide as his main residence. No wonder then, the village received half a million visitors in 2007 and looks set to surpass that figure this year.
One such visitor is 13-year-old Katja Virtanen from Helsinki, who has been meeting Santa Claus for the past three years. She sets her hair right before entering his office for a photo-op. “You know, I have been a good girl. Santa gives me presents every year,” she says, unable to hide her excitement. She may not know that her parents spend 25 for her photo with Santa, 50 for the video and 5 each for the Santa badges that she takes home for friends. A meeting with Santa certainly doesn’t come cheap, but does anyone mind?
“Not really,” says Anja, Katja’s mother. “Why would I mind a trip to the Santa village every winter if it makes Katja an obedient and well-behaved child for the rest of the year?”
All that goodwill is translating into megabucks for the Santa enterprise. A food court, shopping center, souvenir shops, sleigh rides, gift shops and Lapland ceremonies add to the village’s attractions. The total sales figures cross 20 million annually, with more than 60 companies operating there and giving employment to hundreds of people at the Santa Claus office, post office, souvenir shops and activity services.
At the Santa post office, a large variety of Christmas goodies like greeting cards and CDs are sold, and the proceeds are used to send gifts to “children who have been nice”. Santa receives as many as eight lakh letters from children annually, with requests ranging from laptops, video games, good grades, more friends to even “happiness” as gifts. Dozens of Santa’s elves make sure that every letter is read, and then draw up a list of lucky children whose requests would be met.
Helping Santa in his endeavour is Mrs Claus, who stays at the Santa Claus residence in Luosto, 150 km from the village. She wraps gifts and bakes special Christmas cookies. It’s said that every evening when Santa gets back home, he asks: “Mrs. Claus, can I see how many gifts have been wrapped for the kids?” And she replies, “Don’t worry, Mr Claus, I will take care of everything. I am really pleased that this year, so many children from around the world have made it to your goodies list.”
Critics may see Santa Claus as a business enterprise that perpetuates a myth and leads children to a make-believe world. But does it cause any harm? Montreal University professor Serge Larivee, who teaches psychology of education, compared two studies on the way children related to the myth of Santa back in 1896, and in 1979. He concludes in his recent report that though parents lie to their kids about Santa, they feel that having children believe in him is not such a bad thing after all, because it makes them happy.
Meanwhile, Santa gets ready to meet a new lot of visitors. “I might travel a bit and even go to India soon,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye.
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