Jerry Pinto
Showing all 12 books
Poignant, witty, melancholic and intense, this is the best of four decades of prose from one of Indias masters of the written word. The worst thing about being a human being is being a human being. I wish I was bird, as the railway clerk in Nissim Ezekiels poem says. But if I were, the worst thing about being a bird would be being a bird. Welcome to the world of Adil Jussawalla, poet, columnist, critic. The essays and entertainments collected in this volume take ...
A paying guest seems like a win-win proposition to the Joshi family. Hes ready with the rent, hes willing to lend a hand when he can and hes happy to listen to Mrs Joshi on the imminent collapse of our culture.
But hes also a man of mystery. He has no last name. He has no family, no friends, no history and no plans for the future.
The siblings Tanay and Anuja are smitten by him. He overturns their lives. And when he vanishes, he breaks their hearts.
Elegantly ...
Set in Bombay during the last decades of the twentieth century, Em and The Big Hoom tells the compelling story of the Mendeses mother, father, daughter and son. Between Em, the beedi - smoking, hyperactive mother, driven frequently to hospital by her mania and failed suicide attempts, and The Big Hoom, the rock-solid, dependable father, trying to hold things together as best he can, they are an extraordinary family.
Filled with endearing and eccentric characters, ...
Bollywood rules our lives: it entertains us, gives us dreams, fills us with longing, makes us laugh. It is glorious and it is absurd. The Greatest Show on Earth celebrates all that is fascinating about Hindi cinema.
Writers and industry insiders like Saadat Hasan Manto, Salman Rushdie, Bhisham Sahni, R.K. Narayan, Ismat Chughtai, Suketu Mehta, Shobhaa De, Dev Anand, Dada Kondke and Manna Dey write about superstars and strugglers, filmmakers and playback singers, ...
Indian cinema is now almost synonymous with ‘Bollywood’, both within India and globally. But does this shorthand tell the whole story? Does it encompass the range of India’s cinematic production? Beyond the Boundaries of Bollywood explores forms of Hindi cinema that cannot be termed ‘Bollywood’, including those that predate it, and those that are undeniably discrete from it.Combining essays and interviews, this volume analyses the ...
A witty, astute commentary on the notion of masculinity and the relationship between the sexes. Jerry Pinto provides tips on how to survive the woman you love, or the one who dumps you; your wife, or your ex-wife; your daughter; your mother; your female colleagues.
When King Charles II of England married Princess Catherine de Braganza of Portugal in 1661, he received as part of his dowry the isles of Bom Bahia, the Good Bay. Reclaimed from the sea, these would become the modern city of Bombay. A marriage of affluence and abject poverty, where a grey concrete jungle is the backdrop to a heady potpourri of ethnic, linguistic and religious subcultures, Bombay, renamed Mumbai after the Goddess Mumbadevi, defies definition. ...
It is now over two decades since the Hindi-film heroine drove the vamp into extinction, and even longer since the silver screen was ignited by the true Bollywood version of a cabaret. Yet, Helen—nicknamed ‘H-Bomb’ at the height of her career—continues to rule the popular imagination. Improbably, for a dancer and a vamp, she has become an icon. Jerry Pinto’s gloriously readable book is a study of the phenomenon that was Helen: Why did a refugee of ...
‘And even now/when … years have passed/love has nothing to say …’ writes Vinay Dharwarker in his poem ‘Waking’, included in this anthology. Nevertheless, poets continue to address the issue of love, looking for novel and original ways to beat clich?s. In Confronting Love, Indian poets writing in English try to make sense of this emotion. From the spiritual to the corporeal, from the whimsical to the brooding, these poems convey the myriad nuances of ...
Described variously as the Kashi of the South, the Rome of the east and the pearl of the orient, Goa, located on the west coast of India, is renowned for its scenic charm, its beaches, and the architectural splendour of its temple, churches and old houses. With its sun-sand-surf leitmotif it is also the land of the lotus-eater, a tourist's paradise of fun and frolic, raves and revelry. But Goa is more than just the world's favourite holiday destination. Its ...