Kirjahaku

The devastatingly original debut novel from a winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. "Profoundly moving . . . I cannot remember when I last read something as touching as this." --Amitav Ghosh, author of The Glass Palace First published by a small press in India, Jerry Pinto's debut novel has already taken the literary world by storm. Suffused with compassion, humor, and hard-won wisdom, Em and the Big Hoom is a modern masterpiece, and its American publication is certain to be one of the major literary events of the season. Meet Imelda and Augustine, or--as our young narrator calls his unusual parents--Em and the Big Hoom. Most of the time, Em smokes endless beedis and sings her way through life. She is the sun around which everyone else orbits. But as enchanting and high-spirited as she can be, when Em's bipolar disorder seizes her she becomes monstrous, sometimes with calamitous consequences for herself and others. This accomplished debut is graceful and urgent, with a one-of-a-kind voice that will stay with readers long after the last page.

Brilliantly comic and almost unbearably moving, Jerry Pinto's Em and the Big Hoom is one of the most powerful and original fiction debuts of recent years.'Profoundly moving. I cannot remember when I last read something as touching as this' Amitav Ghosh'Hilarious, reckless, brilliant' Kiran DesaiIn a tiny flat in Bombay Imelda Mendes - Em to her family - is by turns flamboyant, maniacally affectionate and cruelly candid. Her husband - Augustine, the 'Big Hoom' - and two children must endure her 'microweathers': swings from searing joy to brooding malevolence.And here is the story of how this family of four came to be. Of how Imelda was courted by Augustine - 'Hello, Buttercup' - and of how with the passage of time and the arrival of her children she slowly turned into Em, loving and loathing a world terrified of her extravagant excesses . . .'A near-perfect account of a psychologically troubled mother. Touching and funny' Irish Times'Delightful. Pinto is quite a genius with dialogue' GuardianJerry Pinto has been a mathematics tutor, school librarian and journalist and is now associated with MelJol, an NGO that works in the sphere of child rights. He has edited several anthologies including, most recently, an anthology on his native city, Mumbai.

Compelling and personal essays that underscore the importance of inclusive storytelling in understanding our world. In Thinking Aloud, Jerry Pinto examines the notion of Bollywood as a national cinema in a linguistically diverse India. He traces its evolution from films from the 1940s–50s like Kismet and Mother India—which contributed to national identity through its themes of sacrifice and unity—to male-centric cinematic narratives of the 1970s–80s. Writing on Bollywood, biography, translation, and teaching with candor and empathy, Pinto argues that Bollywood's simplistic, good-versus-evil narratives have deeply influenced the public’s perception of their past. Drawing from his translations of works such as Sachin Kunalkar’s Cobalt Blue and Daya Pawar’s Baluta, Pinto stresses the importance of biographies in providing personal insights into historical events, challenging monolithic narratives, and enriching our understanding of history through diverse, often overlooked, experiences. He delves deeply into the vital role of translation in bridging cultural and linguistic divides. This book also explores Pinto’s unconventional journey as an educator. Reflecting on his reluctant start as a teacher at fourteen and his innovative methods promoting the inclusion of marginalized voices, he offers a poignant commentary on the transformative power of education.

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. Winner of 'The Hindu' Literary Prize 2012

DescriptionWhat do you want to be when you grow up?Will you drive a taxi? Dance the ballet? Cure a disease? Or become anOlympic archer?Jerry Pinto answers the question, asked of every child, hilariously anddelightfully: children will do anything they want to, thank you. Anything atall-bake cakes or grow cabbages, become bankers or drive an oil tanker.Ashok Rajagopalan's vibrant and mischievous illustrations bring to life a worldof possibilities that is open to every person.

It is now well over three decades since the Hindi-film heroine drove the vampinto extinction, and even longer since the silver screen was ignited by thetrue Bollywood version of a cabaret. Yet, Helen-nicknamed 'H-Bomb' at theheight of her career-continues to rule the popular imagination. Improbably, for an 'item girl'-who rarely appeared for more than five minutes in amovie-she has become an icon.Jerry Pinto's sparkling book is a study of the phenomenon that was Helen: Why did a refugee of French-Burmese parentage succeed as wildly as she didin mainstream Indian cinema? How could otherwise conservative familiessit through, and even enjoy, her cabarets? What made Helen 'the desirethat you need not be embarrassed about feeling'? How did she manage theunimaginable: vamp three generations of men on screen?Equally, the book is a gloriously witty and provocative examination of middleclass Indian morality; the politics of religion, gender and sexuality in popularculture; and the importance of the song, the item number and the waywardwoman in Hindi cinema.

Now a byword in the art world, the story of Gallery Chemould begins inthe 1940s when Kekoo Gandhy decided to set up a picture-framing store onPrincess Street. To this store, Chemould Frames, came the likes of K.H. Ara, M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza, and others who called themselves theProgressive Artists Group. Husain sold his first canvas from that very window.Kekoo Gandhy brought in the few rich buyers there were in those daysincluding the scientist Homi Bhabha and the industrialist Naval Tata.In the 1960s, the manager of the Jehangir Art Gallery invited his friendsKekoo and Khorshed to start an art gallery in an empty space on the firstfloor. On 16 September 1963, Gallery Chemould opened its doors to theworld with an exhibition of paintings by K.K. Hebbar, V.S. Gaitonde, LaxmanPai and several others from the growing community of Indian painters. Itbecame the training ground for the eyes of the city.Eventually Chemould moved to an expansive new space: Chemould PrescottRoad, now run by their daughter, Shireen Jungalwala. The gallery's new avatarcontinues to champion modern art with a range of brilliant artists from VivanSundaram through Neelima Sheikh and Atul and Anju Dodiya, to Jitesh Kallatand Reena Saini-Kallat.Did Gallery Chemould play midwife to the Progressives? Can a gallery be aresponsible citizen? Read on then

DescriptionBound by the need for breathWe lie on beds of foaming rubber.But the room is filled withThe rhythm of blood and need and the story.We lie quietly, listening.The whales are singing each to each.It is my last article of belief: They understand their music.You and I only have words.Outside the windowThe sea, the sea.Searching for safe havens; wanting to cut loose. Trying to make peace withdeath, love and madness. Learning that we can wound and be wounded.Looking for solace and meaning through rage and confusion.Jerry Pinto's debut collection of poems, Asylum, established him as a trueoriginal, a writer unafraid to be vulnerable, to take risks, to open the doorand blunder into the world or let it sweep in. He travels, wrote ImtiazDharker, 'the breathtaking spaces between madness, luminosity and quietrebellion...This is a writer who draws precise lines of control, and then, withsurprising tenderness, crosses them.'

DescriptionI want a poem like thick tropical rain.Dense green spatter of syllables, Drumbeat consonants, fertile with meaning.Sudden. Short. Unforgettable.Afterwards, jungle silence.I want a poem like a Russian circus;You should know it has been trained.No ordinary everyday poem could leap like that, No quotidian poem could shimmer, spangle, exult like that...Wondering poems, wise poems. Fierce poems and playful poems. Poemsabout everyday things and uncommon things. Poems of isolation andfellowship; about loving and leaving, finding and losing and finding again.Jerry Pinto's second collection of poetry sparkles and soothes; in wordsthat always ring true, it shows us what it means to be human, and how to behuman. In his verse, as in his prose, Pinto is a writer to come home to.