The Remix of Orchid | Rs 250 | Written and published by A N Nanda

There are some stories that make a point, and stop. And then there are others that make a point and don’t stop. Rather, they fade into the end. One wonders what manner of a story would require such a fade.

Perhaps a story about a place. Because places don’t really end. They just stretch out into other places.

A N Nanda’s The Remix of Orchid has the Andaman islands at its centre. Though the book features husbands and wives, thieves, undersea divers and even ghosts, the star of the tale remains the island paradise.

I love reading manuals. But before you tag me a freak, allow me to explain. A manual isn’t just a manual. Perhaps, right now, you are flipping through a manual without knowing it.

Manuals like dictionaries and grammar references are lower level manuals. Higher level manuals include relationship guides and stuff on the lines of How to be successful. Higher level manuals define rules as well as enumerating them for easy use and application.

This is the first of the gods know how many part series of posts I have long wanted to write about my favourite storybook heroes. Ironically, I start with an anti-hero.

There is no mistaking Doga for one of Raj Comics’ cleaner heroes. He doesn’t have the powers to avert natural disasters or tackle alien menaces. The human menace on the other hand, is just his element. He gets his hands dirty. He kills.

Every student knows the horror of the listless question that comes up early in the study of any subject. It is the call to define the subject. What is Biology? How would you define Journalism? What is Political Science? What the blazes is literature? And there are the ancillaries: Is Political Science a science or an art? Is travel literature literature too?

I am willing to bet your way of dealing with them was saner than mine. I crumpled, tongue-tied and lost for words. I watched helplessly as my chance at making a brilliant first impression flew out of the window (these questions usually come up during introductory classes). The teacher’s eyes glaze over and drift to another student (prig) slicing the air above his/her head with a raised arm.

As a kid, I was racked by guilt each time I read a comic book. They were banned in the house. Reading comics was not permitted, bringing them home was unpardonable, buying them was unthinkable. My mother’s sensibilities having been formed by voracious reading of Sarita, a magazine that stood for new age thinking (bah!) in the late eighties.

Though she was totally against my reading Raj Comics, my mother quite encouraged Champak, Nandan, Balhans and the like. Mostly because they had goody-goody stories about children my age (dealing with cute little problems like an upcoming exam or a class bully) and were published by reputed publications but also because they weren’t high on action, like the books I preferred more.

I love Superman. I love him almost as much as I love myself. And I love him considerably more than I love Batman. But you know why Batman stories take the cake? Because they are so much more than just fistfights.

Superman is generally pictured as the leader of all DC heroes. This is attributed to several things including his smalltown upbringing and his level-headed nature. I couldn’t agree more. It is because of this that I am the Superman fanatic I am. But let’s go over the idea of the ‘leader’ again.