Manil Suri

Heathrow Musings

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:08:08 -0500

This is the second time I'm traveling through the new Heathrow terminal 5 (each time on my way to India) this year - what better time to catch up on my blog? I'd set aside this Fall as the period when I'd be staying at home and writing - but it's turned out to be a lot more travel than I anticipated. Two weeks ago, the Blazer lecture at Lexington, Ky went well, plus I got a chance to go to the races (where I almost bet on winning horse number 6 in race 8, but changed it to number 9 at the last minute - I can't even blame it on dyslexia - just one of those odd quirks).

German Covers

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:37:29 -0500

That's the German cover for "The Age of Shiva," released this fall in the German language edition as "Shiva." The publisher, Luchterhand, is the same who did "The Death of Vishnu" ("Vishnus Tod") some years back, which they've reissued in a nifty new cover, to go with the new "Shiva" design, see below. The translator is the same for both books, the wonderfully talented Anette Grube.

Ucross, Wyoming

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:06:55 -0500

I spent most of September at the Ucross Foundation, a retreat for writers and artists near Sheridan, Wyoming. The above photo shows my studio. Ucross is probably my favorite such retreat - I've always managed to get a lot of work done the three times I've been there. There are usually only about 8-9 people at residence at a time, and the place is huge - a 20,000 acre ranch (which works out to about 2500 acres per person, not bad). Made some great new friends (pic below), ate delicious food prepared by Cindy, our chef, managed to make some good progress on a math book for non-mathematicians, which I worked on steadily. But what about my novel? Well, here's how that went.

Booker Recommendation

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:17:06 -0500

The Booker longlist is out, and I've just read an amazing book that's been included: Colm Toibin's "Brooklyn." I just couldn't put it down - in fact, I had to sedate myself one night to stop reading it and go to sleep - a true gift of a book. Having had the pleasure of meeting the author, I've sent him an enthusiastic e-mail conveying how much I'd like to see him win. Now I'm not making this up, but there have been precisely 3 occasions in the past when I've wished an author the best of luck for winning the Booker. The first time was Yann Martel for "Life of Pi." The second was Kiran Desai for "The Inheritance of Loss." And last year, bowled over by "The White Tiger," I sent an e-mail to Aravind Adiga saying I was rooting for him. It was actually a little chilling when Adiga won, just like Desai and Martel before him. Could I have some sort of weird knack at this? (And, more importantly, should I be placing bets on who's going to win? - which you apparently can do with British bookies.) Anyway, we shall find out soon - in the meantime, I highly recommend Toibin's book.

The Best Shrimp Recipe Ever!

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:44:27 -0500

I've been getting good feedback from those of you who've tried my "murgh au vin" recipe published last year in the New York Times. In response to requests for more recipes, here is my favorite shrimp preparation, adapted from something I saw in Bon Appetit magazine many years back.

"The Hindus" by Wendy Doniger

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:10:05 -0500

I haven't reviewed books since the seventh grade, when we had to pick a book we'd read and comment on it. I believe I chose "Wuthering Heights" and called it "boring," whereupon my teacher advised, "Next time, don't take potshots at the classics." Perhaps that feedback permanently killed my career as a critic, because although I've given blurbs to a few novels I've loved, I've never agreed to review one. (For one thing, being a novelist myself, I'd hate to have to keep looking over my shoulder, waiting to be stabbed in print by someone I'd dissed - right now, I only have to worry about the ghost of Emily Brontë - whose book I really must read again.) I'm not going to deviate from my policy here, but I will comment on "The Hindus - An Alternative History" - a 700 + page book by Wendy Doniger that I've just finished.

For Fans of Indian Cinema

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:36:17 -0500

OK, so I haven't quite reached the level of Anderson Cooper yet, but not too bad for a first attempt. I actually did my first interview - as the interviewer, rather than the interviewee. The fact that my subject was so interesting and articulate really helped - I talked with Preminda Jacob on her new book titled Celluloid Deities. Preminda is an Arts professor at my university, and when the offer came to interview her on a book that dealt with film posters in India, I jumped at it. The reason is that I used to paint film posters myself while growing up (you can see a few samples in the video).

m(ARCADIA)

Tue, 12 May 2009 20:48:51 -0500

I've been having a great time being the mathematics consultant to the Folger theater for their production of Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia. I figured I'm probably never going to get closer to a theater production, so I even managed to wrangle a credit in the program for the play. Anyway, the play is quite amazing because of all the mathematics that Stoppard puts in it (along with about a dozen other topics - everything from Romanticism to Garden Design). But I've been concentrating only on the mathematics - the iterated algorithms, the fractals, the chaos, the population dynamics. If you want to learn more about these topics (especially in connection with the play), I invite you to watch the above video. Also, go to the Folger website, where I've put up a bunch of other links to help understand the math. Several scheduled events related to this: On Friday, May 15, the Folger is

The Prize

Tue, 12 May 2009 20:39:54 -0500

OK, it's not the Pulitzer, but when my agent sent me this link, I have to admit I was tickled pink. Thanks once again to my friend Jose Villarrubia for the great photograph! (I'm sure the modeling agencies are lining up as we speak....)

The Mathematics of Fiction

Fri, 01 May 2009 21:39:00 -0500

More than a year in the making, and finally here! The long-awaited sequel to "Taming Infinity" (which already has enjoyed more than 11,000 viewers on YouTube). A new math video, which requires NO knowledge of mathematics! You'll see me talk about all the approaches to math that DON'T work, and then see how it really should be done. With lots of nifty animations. Please watch (drumroll, please) THE MATHEMATICS OF FICTION! (I promise you'll find it entertaining.) And I would LOVE to hear your feedback.

Chicago Interview

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:29:27 -0500

Here's a link to Victoria Lautman's website, on which she has available interviews with several dozen authors (all conducted at the Chicago Public Library's beautiful Harold Washington Center). Victoria interviewed me earlier this year, and it was a highlight of the paperback tour - hear it on the link above.

Quantum Physics in Pittsburgh

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:46:03 -0500

I was in Pittsburgh for a few days last week, the city that I first came to in this country (as a grad student at Carnegie-Mellon University). Oakland, whose streets I first walked almost thirty years ago, still had that same university hangout feel - the Oakland Original restaurant was still there, though the King's Court theater has been long gone. It was all very nostalgic, but also strangely melancholic. I suppose the melancholy came from memories of being 20, of trying to figure out my place in the world and my best strategies for happiness. It was tremendously exciting to be in this new American culture, but also tremendously stressful - plus, there was a long road of self-discovery that lay ahead. I realized last week how relieved I was to have survived all that excitement, all that stress, all that self-discovery, how lucky I felt to have made the journey to my present juncture in life.

BBC Program "The Forum" - a mathematics discussion

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:15:57 -0500

It took lots of work with Jacqueline Smith, one of the producers of the BBC program, The Forum, but after weeks of talking and e-mailing, we finally nailed down a tentative script of what I would say on the show. It was all quite ambitious - in addition to explaining an idea I've been mulling: how "basis functions" crop up in several artistic fields (watch for a YouTube show on this very soon), I was also going to expound on my mathematical research on the finite element method. Well, the show was quite lively and fun, with two other guests - Ruth Padel (the great grand-daughter of Charles Darwin) and Andrea Sabbadini, chair of the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival. You can listen to all our comments here - they sort of united to form a whole greater than the individual contributions. (I come on after Ruth.) As part of the show, I also got sixty seconds to describe an idea that would improve the world, which you can read here (together with some complimentary and not-so-complimentary feedback). My idea: teach kids to question everything!

Along the Silk Road

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:41:49 -0500

Had a great time this past Saturday at the annual Howard County Library benefit, whose theme this year was "Along the Silk Road". The whole library was decked out in colorful fabric, with eastern music and the smells of Indian food wafting through the book stacks. I gave a talk, "Capturing India through Fiction," which I'd just delivered the previous day at the India Studies program at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. The difference was that this time, I had a somewhat larger audience - 170 people - and what a fantastic audience it was! Pulled out all the stops - even showed them my Bollywood video. Here's a blog entry describing the event by Roberta Rood, who was in attendance.

Now on Facebook

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:59:52 -0500

Hey folks, check out my new facebook page. It's not a profile, but an author page, and I'll be using it mostly to let people know what's new and the events at which I'm appearing. But I'll also be answering queries posted on it - so feel free to write something!