While the official notice has yet to go out, Picnic is delighted to announce it will be publishing Professor Sharma’s beautiful novel THE TAILOR’S NEEDLE this July. He is organising Allahabad University’s international conference on the 21st century novel in Allahabad, 29 November – 1 December 2009. The seminar is open to scholars and researchers working on the novel. Their institutions will pay for their fare and the registration fee of $100. If they are experts, and if the committee approves their names, it will pay for them. Papers will be published. Presentation time will be less than the actual length of papers — 15-30 minutes. Accepting how busy Professor Sharma is, Picnic is thrilled to welcome him to the Author Blog and his post below.
I live in Allahabad, the town of the confluence of the Ganga, the Jamuna, and the 
mysterious Saraswati. This last river takes its name from the Hindu goddess of learning, the arts and creativity. This ancient town has attracted learned men, artists and authors just as it has drawn spiritualists and sages. The Kumbh Mela, a fair, which is held at the confluence once every twelve years, is perhaps the biggest assemblage of humanity one might hope to encounter. Strangely, time refuses to move on in Allahabad and year after year the same kind of anonymous people, the same little nothings that amuse the crowds, the same unchanging fashions reside in the confines of this exquisite geographic setting. I have liked the ethos of this place. It allows you to remain content, without hankering after the world of prosperity and glamour.
The University of Allahabad, where I teach English, blends well with the town and provides enough stimulus for the mind and the soul. This university was once the Oxford of the East, now it has a more native character. It does provide that blessed ambience in which one is gently led on into the terrain of the spirit rather than remaining glued to the intellect alone.
The Tailor’s Needle had to be written. The youngest of five brothers and sisters, I grew up under their shadow, often watching their achievements with consciousness of my inadequacies. It was a situation in which I was compelled to think, feel, and intuit. I had heard stories of people of earlier generations – people who were extraordinary and who were now becoming an extinct lot. Noticing the vast difference between them and my own contemporaries I thought it a duty to pass on what I had heard about the past for the benefit of the future. If you ask what we are made of, apart from the flesh and blood that informs our bodies, one answer can be – stories. We get our identities largely from what we have been told about our past. We are what our stories have made us. It is for this reason that history is such an important subject; it takes us back to our past. But history has always bordered on fiction. For who can narrate without distortion of truth? But through fiction, we can actually get a glimpse of the past, the truth of the past. The Tailor’s Needle is such a novel. It contains much truth about India’s colonial past. I hope you will read it and enter the past of a particular phase of history when ambitions soared and bred racial interaction with a vengeance. People from different parts of the globe noticed each other and often desired to taste the otherness of the other. Some merely got baffled by the other, some managed to defeat the other, some blended beautifully with each other. The Tailor’s Needle has resulted from the need to tell the world how we became what we are today, what were the forces that contributed to our present. The present has resulted from a situation that was wretched, but it has emerged from conditions that were equally funny. This is the stuff that seems to lie behind the making of The Tailor’s Needle.
My best
Lakshmi
You make both the place and the stories come alive in just this bit of wiritng. And what you say about stories and about history, about the spirit of place rings so very, very true for me. I really look forward to The Tailor’s Needle now!
Thanks Gisela for that beautiful comment. I can see the quality of the mind that perceives so much. I hope to read your work too.
Lakshmi
Your novel sounds fascinating and I was particularly struck by your statement that,
‘… through fiction we can actually get a glimpse of the … truth of the past’. When I think of my own knowledge of history, it’s the history that I’ve learnt from reading fiction, set in the period, that I find most memorable and illuminating. But then I guess that puts a heavy responsibility on historical fiction writers not to misrepresent the past. There’s been some criticism recently of some Hollywood films for ‘falsifying’ the past. I guess good research and trying to inhabit the world of your characters is a good insurance against that.
Looking forward to reading your novel.
Thanks for that thought provoking observation about the relationship between history and fiction. This relationship has been traced out by the new school of theorists called, “The New Historicists” the chief of whom is Stephen Greenblatt. My comment was largely influenced by New Historicist thinking.
You are quite right about the responsility of the author in creating characters. The more real the characters and situations, the more history is likely to be revealed by fiction. I look forward to seeing your work.
Lakshmi
I like your statement “People from different parts of the globe noticed each other and often desired to taste the otherness of the other. Some merely got baffled by the other, some managed to defeat the other, some blended beautifully with each other.” And wish your novel would be interesting and fascinating and fetch attention of the readers.
Thanks, Ashish for that beautiful comment. I’m glad you liked the statement.
Thanks also for the good wishes for my novel.
Please keep in touch and do let me know what you feel about the novel once it is out.
My best wishes to you.
Lakshmi
Respected Sir
In this contemporary time when we say that history is dead and find hyper-real projection of everything with emphasis on relative truth, I witness some comfort over here of getting some’ glimpse of the past,the truth of the past’, through a novel.
I would really like to know the situation that was wretched and the conditions that were funny, from which our present resulted.
I genuinely look forward to The Tailor’s Needle .
All the best!
Dear Sir
We are waiting your novel eagerly. wanted to know the journey of ‘people like us’ I mean Indian. for most of the people we are laughingstock but they don’t know that the great thing is not the victory but the struggle.
with wishes well
Dear Saumya,
Thanks for your interest in The Tailor’s Needle. You have hit upon something which I find difficult to explain within a few sentences here. For the time being suffice it to say that our past was wretched because it was more orthodox and caste-oriented. There was less freedom for social mobility, for individual likes and dislikes. It was funny because it invited responses that would seem odd to us today. Perhaps the novel will give you a clearer picture of this.
Lakshmi
Respected Sir,
Before sending my comment I Offer my thanks and warmth emotions for your herculian task to write this novel.It is a general tendency that history is less important in this realistic world because of its pseudo-intellectuality.But there is a nice blend of history and reality in your novel.Your description about story”If you ask what we are made of,apart from the flesh and blood that informs ourbodies,one answer can be-stories” is really praiseworthy. I am compelled to quote these lines”Through fiction we can actually get a glimpse of the past,the truth of the past”. Really this novel will be your magnum-opus and useful for us.To conclude,this is the the result of your long experience and devotion to your profession. I salute your imaginative power.
praying for the success of your novel; suraj verma,
Respected Sir,
History taught us to choose the way, which leads us success and as well as prevent us not to do as again that step which leads in the destruction. The mixture of the fiction has made it glorious for their glittering entertaining aspect. Thus it finds beauty and beauty appeals to every one, who is the keynote of satisfaction as Keats says:-
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”-that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Thanks Dinesh, for that comment.
I think I understand what you say. History shows us the way by refelcting what was right and wrong with our past, and this is presented aesthetically through fiction.
Lakshmi
Thanks Suraj,
I don’t know how successful I’ll be but I sincerely hope you like the novel.
Lakshmi
Respected sir,
Let me, at the very outse, wish Sri Sharmaji a great success with his newly written novel, The tailor’s Needle. You gave a graphical rendering of Allahabad-the town of the confluence of the Ganga, the Jamuna, and the mysterious Saraswati. The university of Allahabad is as old as himalayas. History is being ignored without knowing that how indispensable it is for the present to give shaping for future. All the three-past, present and future are very important.The catchy lines as mentioned above: The Tailor’s Needle has resulted from the need to tell the world how we became what we are today, what were the forces that contributed to our present. The aforementioned information given by the author is very little but very thought provoking. I am eagerly looking forward to reading the full version of novel. I am quite sanguine that this novel, though it is fictional, Sri Sharma garu can ignite the minds of millions of readers by this novel.
Thanks Pradeep, for your kind comments and your good wishes.
I hope your words come true.
Best.
Lakshmi
Respected sir,
You always taught me that literature is a lie that tells us truth.Ihope that your novel will prove this aspect of literature and developes the historical approach to literature.
salluiting for your hardwork.
yours obidientely
Mani prasad dwivedi
M.A. final ,English Department(Allahabad University)
Respected sir, i am really very glad to know that you have written a novel that is set in COLONIAL-INDIA. I would like to extend my congratulations on gettig ur novel publlished. Sir you have said that we are, apart from flesh,blood,and bodies, made of stories, this statement itself shows certain things which i hope to find in your novel.
Dear Mani,
All novels have to tell some lies. The plot is artistic lies because it is not be factually true or maybe partially untrue.
My novel too will contain that kind of lies. Though I hope that it will, as Shakespeare says for the witches in Macbeth, “lie like truth”. Hope that the lies will still point to the truth.
Lakshmi
Dear Amit,
We are made of stories as Edward Said informs us. Nations are narrations. The stories, particularly the mythical and the historical ones, influence us tremendously without our quite knowing it.
Stories and fictions are therefore of great importance and it is vitally necessry that we read the right (or appropriate) ones.
Lakshmi
I congratulate my dearest sir for his great endeavour in his writing, The Tailor’s Needle. This time when many scholars of the world attempt to write ths genre, one of them, Prof. L. R. Sharma’s attempt is noticale. It is his great effort to produce such a novel, in discussing the mileu and fragrance of Prayag(Allahabad), a mythologicl city of India. Prof. Sharma has been the experience of two cities of India, one is Mirzapur, the another is Allahabad. When the Indian rooted fames are describing the metro cities along with the major European cities, his work has discussed the typical Allahabad city, with great variance of lattitudes and longitudes, as is my assumption.
Recently I have seen his noel in the departmental Library while proceeding an international seminar in his direction. Now, a don of deptt. has given an forgettable contribution in the field of novel-writing.
I wish him a tremendous success for The Tailor’s Needle.
With Great Regards N Affection
Pankaj Dwivedi
Thanks Pankaj, for your kind words. I hope you don’t find my novel disappointing.
Lakshmi
I congratulate my dearest sir for his great endeavour in his writing, The Tailor’s Needle. This time when many scholars of the world are attempting to write this genre, one of them, Prof. L. R. Sharma’s attempt is noticale. It is his great effort to produce such a novel, in discussing the mileu and fragrance of Prayag(Allahabad), a mythologicl city of India. Prof. Sharma has been the experience of two cities of India, one is Mirzapur, the another is Allahabad. When ‘the Indian rooted fames’ are describing the metro cities along with the major European cities, his work has discussed the typical Allahabad city, with great variance of lattitudes and longitudes, as is my assumption.
Recently I have seen his novel in a book-exibition, in the departmental Library while holding an International Seminar in his direction. Now, a don of deptt. has given an unforgettable contribution in the field of novel-writing.
I wish him a tremendous success for The Tailor’s Needle.
My best wishes are with you.
Thanks Pankaj,
You ovepraise me. And I’m no don.
Lakshmi
Dear sir,
I’ve read your novel, a quite facinating literary piece. As i’ve interested in history, the novel gives a vivid image of the past. It really makes me to feel history.
Thanks for such a living creation….