Connect with us

Entertainment

Literature: Honouring diverse experience, reviving old stories and sad adieus (2017 in Retrospect)

Published

on

By Vikas Datta
New Delhi, Dec 28 (IANS) It was another glorious year for literature with its top prizes honouring the universality and diversity of human experience, a glittering abundance of compelling reads — including one revisiting a half-century-old classic — by established masters, emerging talent and gifted debutants, and a refreshing lack of controversy that convulsed other fields of culture, especially mass entertainment.

The year also saw the departure of a large number of eminent writers, spanning Nobel Prize winners to authors of popular crime and horror fiction, authors of manifestos of feminism or cultural appreciation, and of enduring philosophical travelogues or children’s favourites.

After last year’s controversy for selecting versatile American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, the Swedish Academy played it a bit safer with the Nobel Prize for Literature, choosing Kazuo Ishiguro for his novels which uncover “the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.

The Japanese-born British writer, however, also exemplifies lack of national landscapes, being possibly the award’s first recipient who doesn’t write in his mother tongue or just about his homeland(s) or times.

The Man Booker Award — for the second consecutive year — went to an American with George Saunders winning for his first novel, depicting a great American President, who had a strange relation with death (including several premonitions of his own).

Set one night in a cemetery, “Lincoln in the Bardo” takes Abraham Lincoln to a strange afterlife where the soul of his young son, who has just died, has gone. While Bardo is a Tibetan concept, Saunders adds Ancient Egyptian and Christian views of afterlife in a poignant tour-de-force that makes one laugh, cry and wonder at our attraction towards our transient life.

Meanwhile, there was a deluge of books and though any selection can only be limited and subjective, let’s try.

Among fiction, we must first pick that doyen of espionage stories, John Le Carre’s “A Legacy of Spies”, which revisits his epic “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” (1963) to provide both a prequel and sequel to this bleak tale.

Among offerings from other legends were “Men Without Women”, a short story collection from Haruki Murakami in his usual disturbingly existentialist form, and Hanif Kureshi’s “The Nothing” about an 80-year-old, wheel-chair bound, sex-addicted but impotent man who once hung out with the Who’s who, but now can’t stop a philanderer in his own house.

Then Hollywood star Tom Hanks added a new role to his repertoire with his “Uncommon Type”, a unique collection of short stories featuring typewriters in some way; Karachi policeman Omar Shahid Hamid penned another evocative account of the interplay of high politics and crime in Pakistan’s biggest city in “The Party Worker”; and “The Collected Stories of Homen Borgohain” pays tribute to a doyen among Assamese writers and a much-needed look into a region which is yet to get its due.

Anuja Chandramouli established a record with three books out simultaneously — about one of Indian pantheon’s most mysterious figures, a legendary Indian king and a remarkable queen. “Kartikeya: The Destroyer’s Son”, “Prithviraj Chauhan: The Emperor of Hearts” and “Rani Padmavati: The Burning Queen” supplemented her “Yama’s Lieutenant and the Stone Witch”, the second in her dark urban fantasy out earlier in the year.

Others deserving mention include Himanjali Sarkar’s “Mrs C Remembers” on ravages of mental illness, Shirish Thorat’s enthralling “Ticket to Syria” about radicalism destroying a Maldivian family, Zarreen Khan’s “I Quit! Now What?” about the travails of the modern Indian working woman and Manu Joseph’s “Miss Laila Armed and Dangerous”, a savage satirical retelling of the Ishrat Jahan case, sparing no section.

In the year marking the 200th anniversary of her death, “Austenistan” (edited by Laaleen Sukhera) shows how Jane Austen’s spirit can flourish in contemporary Pakistan.

Non-fiction is a tougher proposition but could include Allen Frances’ “Twilight of American Sanity” about the social conditions that can explain Donald Trump’s triumph, Oliver Stone’s “The Putin Interviews” giving a look into the Russian President’s mind and T.C.A. Raghavan’s “The People Next Door” about the ups and downs of India-Pakistan relations.

K.V. Sridhar’s “30 Second Thrillers” tells the stories behind many iconic Indian ads, Maya Jasanoff’s “The Dawn Watch – Joseph Conrad in a Globalised World” is self-explanatory, and Jeff Koehler’s “Where the Wild Coffee Grows” about the past and the future of the world’s favourite drink.

Most sadly, it was time to bid adieu to novelist, art critic and poet John Berger (Jan 2), “The Exorcist” author William Peter Blatty (Jan 12), Nobel-winning St Lucian poet Derek Walcott (March 17), Colin Dexter, the creator of “Inspector Morse” (March 21), Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (April 1), Robert M. Pirsig, of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” (April 24), Michael Bond, known for his “Paddington Bear” series (June 27) and Kate Millett, whose landmark “Sexual Politics” was a manifesto for the modern feminist movement (September 6).

Let’s see what 2018 has in store.

(With inputs from Himani Kothari)

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at [email protected])

–IANS
vd/vm/ky/sac

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

Published

on

By

CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

CasinoDays India

The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

Content provided by Adverloom

Continue Reading

Trending