For few days now, I have been reading a compilation of Jug Suraiya's articles, published under the title "Delhi Belly". Over the years, I have read a large number of his "middle" columns in the TOI, and read it more or less, regularly, even now. I had also happened to read a collection of his articles earlier (it was called "Juggling Act"). I usually like the humor and satire, and puns in his articles, and fairly liked "Juggling Act" as well. I admire his capability to laugh at himself - he frequently pokes fun at middle column writers, and himself in particular. This had prompted me to buy "Delhi Belly", when I saw it on the shelves of a bookstore I visited recently.
Delhi Belly is a collection of his older articles - written in late 80's and early 90's. Sorry to state that I was quite disappointed with it - really had to work hard to finish it. But there were certain things that quite struck me. The articles in this collection were written in a very verbose style - unnaturally long sentences, which are quite difficult to comprehend and heavily ornate words which did not make much sense (at least to me). An entire sectione is devoted to commentory on the political scene of the country at the time, where the names of the people are transformed (perhaps to escape charges of slander ?) - eg, Ajib Grandee, Weepy Singlet (mentioned as prime moderators) [no, I am not offering any prizes to guess the actual names of these personalities, but you can guess away if you want to :-)]. Then there are a couple of sections devoted to his stay and experiences in Lajpat Nagar and Vasant Kunj. The political section was a drudge for me, but I found interest in reading about his early days. Well, what I noticed was that his writing has become much more refined now (I find his current articles much more readable), and that now he narrates his experiences of his trips abroad :-) He does seem to have risen to social ladder. I think he was a mere Cup earlier, and now he has evolved into the Jug. (hehehe ... this sentence is just to demonstrate my miserable attempt at his kind of humor). :-D
Delhi Belly is a collection of his older articles - written in late 80's and early 90's. Sorry to state that I was quite disappointed with it - really had to work hard to finish it. But there were certain things that quite struck me. The articles in this collection were written in a very verbose style - unnaturally long sentences, which are quite difficult to comprehend and heavily ornate words which did not make much sense (at least to me). An entire sectione is devoted to commentory on the political scene of the country at the time, where the names of the people are transformed (perhaps to escape charges of slander ?) - eg, Ajib Grandee, Weepy Singlet (mentioned as prime moderators) [no, I am not offering any prizes to guess the actual names of these personalities, but you can guess away if you want to :-)]. Then there are a couple of sections devoted to his stay and experiences in Lajpat Nagar and Vasant Kunj. The political section was a drudge for me, but I found interest in reading about his early days. Well, what I noticed was that his writing has become much more refined now (I find his current articles much more readable), and that now he narrates his experiences of his trips abroad :-) He does seem to have risen to social ladder. I think he was a mere Cup earlier, and now he has evolved into the Jug. (hehehe ... this sentence is just to demonstrate my miserable attempt at his kind of humor). :-D
3 comments:
job security matters after all :)
Adi, you stole my lines :-D
Hmmmmmm
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