Recently at a wedding related puja, I giggled at something inane when an uncle came upto me and said, ‘Don’t laugh!’ I was rather cheeky to the prim-dhoti clad old man and answered, ‘But uncle I laugh at everything!’
Someone else gave me a well-meaning ‘tip’ over at Facebook: “You’ve written a dark, occult book, perhaps you should look mysterious and author-ly rather than laugh/smile in photographs.”
Yes, well meaning marketing advice. But in a world where everything to do with humour is banned, where people kill each other over cartoons, where people take criticism seriously and jump from high rises, where people ban cab companies for rapes, what else can you do but laugh? Laughter is necessary, even if it doesn’t help Anantya much (Sorry, babes. You’re on your own now). So I laugh. Even when all I think and see are violence and darkness. For who would the anger or mysteriousness or seriousness help? With a laugh perhaps people will listen, smile and have a nicer day?
It seems Sravasti of The Hindu, who came to my book launch the other day, seemed to think the same. She chose this laugh-out-loud image of mine to go with the event coverage as well as the word ‘occult’. On the front page of MetroPlus, the city supplement of The Hindu.
Read the article online.
PS: Anantya, sorry, damage done. You shouldn’t have come to me, instead you should’ve gone to some brooding fellow’s brooding head.