Amit Rajp is a first-time author. He has a background in academic research and teaching in Birmingham. This is an excerpt from his book: ‘My Name Is Baljit But You Can Call Me Gary: The Alternative Guide To Indian Culture’

What is the fixation that mums, aunties, nans (nannijis), and grans (bibijis) have with plastic containers? It’s like Asian women have an addiction to plastic Tupperware!

The person that sets up the first ‘Tupperware Addiction Clinic’ for Asian women is going to make a lot of money – probably some Asian guy who will acquire a forged certificate from India.
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by Imran Ahmad
Author

I have always felt that Britain has remained remarkably tolerant despite the shock of the July 7th terrorist attacks in London, and the continuing provocation from some elements. But I wasn’t sure the same was the case for the United States.

For example there was a dreadful incident on this year’s New Year’s Day when nine Muslims – including three young children, and all US citizens – were removed from a domestic flight because two of them were overheard discussing where was the safest place to sit on an airplane.

A few weeks later, I was reclining on my sofa, watching President Obama’s inauguration speech in January – in which he mentioned a new era of ‘mutual respect’ between America and the Muslim world. I thought: ‘I can do that!’
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The annual Muslim Writers Award takes place this week in London. Nominations for its presitigious journalism prize include writers Ziauddin Sardar, Faisal al Yafai and Kia Abdullah.

Organisers have announced a partnership with publishers group Penguin Group.
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Writer and producer Farrukh Dhondy (far right) spoke at the launch for the new publishing company Revenge Ink last week in central London. The company is publishing two debut books by its founder, The Armageddon Mandala by Gopal Mukerjee, and Ugly Duckling by Amita Mukerjee.

“Revenge Ink is a small, idealistic publishing house for the post-modern age, when more people are writing than reading (about their lives on the Internet), when they are more eager to turn themselves into characters through their blogs and Facebook pages rather than turn to fiction for just such a specialised art,” said Ms Amita Mukerjee.
www.revengeink.com

London based Asia House is launching its ‘Festival of Asian Literature’ this month, hosting an array of writers including Ziauddin Sardar, Kenan Malik, Pankaj Mishra and Hardeep Singh Kohli.
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Novelist and poet Zahid Hussain is launching a society to help develop the talent of writers, hoping that one day “Muslim narratives” would become a part of British life. He is setting up Manchester Muslim Writers, open to Muslim and Non-Muslim writers, to foster creative and factual writing including poetry, the novel, screenplay, blogging and journalism.

The author of ‘The Curry Mile’ said: “I always felt there was little provision for talented individuals despite the demand. MMW is therefore being set up to provide pivotal social and technical support to nurture literary talent for the long-term.” MMW will meet monthly at Shakespeare House in South Manchester. Contact: zahid@r-squared.org.uk.

Leela Soma published her first book, Twice Born this year, after winning a local literary prize to finish the book. She tells AIM magazine how she got into writing and on the Scottish-Indian cultural scene.

What inspired you to get into writing your debut novel? Was the process difficult?

I had always written stories when I was young and some short poems for family events. I joined the Strathkelvin Writers Group in 2006 and won a few competitions there. In 2007 I won the Margaret Thomson Trophy for the first 10,000 words of this novel. The adjudicator Scottish Writer, Robin Lloyd -Jones’s advice was to make sure I completed the novel as it had a very good story line.Winning the Trophy gave me a boost and I worked hard to finish it.

The process was not easy as some bits flowed easily and others not quite as much. One character Aunty BB took over and grew bigger than I meant to but I had to restrict her scenes and work to the plot. The main thing was to keep the momentum going and have the stamina to finish writing the original 100,000 words then edit it down to 80,000.
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The Armageddon Mandala is the debut novel by writer Gopal Mukerjee, about a small-time private investigator who finds himself in the middle of a planetary holocaust.

The book is being published by upcoming company Revenge Ink, which describes itself as a “revolutionary, subversive publishing company that was launched to showcase cutting edge works”.
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The third annual Muslim Writers award will take place on the 27th of May at the Hilton on Park Lane, organisers announced this week. The event aims to recognise the very best of British Muslim literary talent.

Project director Irfan Akram said: “[Our] staggering growth reflects a growing desire for good quality literature amongst what’s expected to be the fastest growing sector of the book buying public over the coming months and years.”

Last week author Hema Macherla (pictured, left) from Hornchurch has won the accolade of ‘Reading Hero’ for her outstanding reading achievements following a nationwide hunt for heroes. The award was presented by the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown.

Hema spoke very little English when she arrived in England decades ago. Determined to fit in, she decided to learn to read. Last year she became a published author, in English, and her novel, Breeze from The River Manjeera, reached the top 26 out of 44,000 entries for the Richard & Judy Novel writing competition in 2005.

An anthology of literary pieces tackling the controversial topic of ‘the veil’ will be launched in March, in London. Behind the Hijab has contributions from both Muslim and Non-Muslim women in the UK.

Monsoon Press, which is partly behind the event, say the aim of the book is to enlighten those who have preconceived ideas about women who wear the hijab and perhaps encourage a greater level of understanding and mutual respect.
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An Indian sociologist walks into a housing project in Chicago with a questionnaire and walks straight into a lethal gang of drug leaders. Among his questions: “How does it feel to be black and poor?“.

Not only do they think he’s Mexican, and possibly a decoy for a gang attack, the suggested answers to the question are just as surreal: “very bad; somewhat bad; neither bad nor good; somewhat good; very good.” The gang members just laugh at him.

And so begins a journey by one man, sociologist Venkatesh Prasad, to live among one of Chicago’s most notorious drug gangs to find out more about their lives.
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by Navjot Singh
Travel writer

I first started writing about China when I went to visit the southern city of Guangzhou, which is the capital of Guangdong Province, for a one week holiday in autumn 2002. Initially it was only meant to be a short holiday and I had no firm intention to live in the country on a long term basis. Prior to this trip I had very little knowledge about the country, its people and the Chinese culture.

That one week’s vacation, plus a further opportunity to come and work in Hong Kong at a future date laid the firm foundations for me to turn all those situations related to culture shock which I came across, both in and outside the corporate environment, into a diary format.
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Motivational speaker and writer Arvind Devalia has published a new book called Personal Social Responsibility.

He says he is on a mission to help business people and their companies find “just the right answers before it is too late”.

“As we increasingly question the way we live our lives, business people need to ask themselves powerful questions to convert our good intentions into positive actions. It is all about not just doing things right, but doing the right thing.
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Former model and journalist Anjana Gosai has published a new beauty book aimed at South Asian women.

Currently beauty editor at Asian magazine, Ms Gosai’s book – ‘The Ultimate Guide To Beauty’ – is billed as “a one-of-a-kind dressing table guide containing everything a girl needs to look and feel her best”.
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Nasreen Akhtar, a 34 year writer was recently longlisted for an award for her self-published book, Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet). It is a memoir about trying to find a partner on the web and traces the remarkable journey of a hopeful soul seeking something that every human being craves: to love and be loved.

How did the idea for the book come about?

My post graduate study was called ‘Eenie, meenie, minie, mo…Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet)’. Then one day purely by chance, I looked at it from a non-academic angle and saw that is was amusing at the same time and thought that if it was a book, it would be quite entertaining.

During the years that followed, many people told me that I should write a book but I did not take this idea seriously. Then someone very important came into my life and told me that he wanted me to do something with my writing as he believed that I could create something fantastic.

By that time, even though I had set up my publishing company, I abandoned the idea due to severe writer’s block. But when he shared his thoughts with me, how could I not honour his request? And so Catch a Fish from the Sea (Using the Internet) as the world knows it now, came to be in its full glory.
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Author Rashmita Patel has just published her second teenage novel – Web of Lies.

We ask her what makes her tick and why she likes writing books for teenagers.

What do you do other than write?

I work as a School Librarian. I have been working at Alumwell Business & Enterprise College for the last 14 years.

How did you first find the inspiration to write and what drove you to finish it?

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A new novel by writer Hema Macherla is published next month in the UK, after getting top billing on the chat-show Richard and Judy.

Breeze from The River Manjeera was picked as a finalist on the program’s book competition, reaching the final 26 out of 44,000 entries, an incredible achievement for a book written in the author’s second language.

Hema was was born in a village in the state of Andhra Pradesh, South India. She came to the UK in 1977 speaking very little English. She lives with her husband in London and has two grown up children.
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Earlier this year, the activist Zerbanoo Gifford published a book on the achievements of Asian women from across the world. Ms Gifford is the director of Asha Foundation and holds the Nehru Centenary award for her international work, championing the rights of women, children and minorities.

She made history by being elected as the first non-white woman Liberal councillor in 1982, and has stood three times for parliament and has been a member of the Home Secretary’s Race Relations Forum, and she has chaired the Commission, ‘Looking into ethnic minority involvement in British Life’.

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Getting into Publishing is Penguin Group’s annual open day for students and graduates, particularly those from ethnic minority backgrounds with an interest in Publishing, to learn more about opportunities at Penguin and in publishing.

The day consists of morning and afternoon presentations from senior employees of the company and a networking lunch in the afternoon where candidates have the opportunity to meet senior managers of the company.
Date: Thursday 20th November 2008; 10am – 2pm
Location: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL
To attend: Please send a CV to gettingintopublishing@penguin.co.uk by 31st October 2008.

Two writers and a producer, including the British novelist William Dalrymple, are aiming to turn next year’s Jaipur Literature Festival into the event in India to rival the UK’s Guardian Hay Festival.
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A new publishing company going by the name of ‘Revenge Ink’ has launched in the UK to challenge the conventions of the mainstream, highbrow publishing industry by showcasing cutting-edge works from “subversive” new writers.

Two siblings – Amita and Gopal Mukerjee founded the company to “promote strong voices and take on emotionally driven and inspiring projects”, and to “encourage edgy ‘outside-the-box’ thinking”, they said.
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Celebrated rock photographer Peter Sanders has launched a collection of work showcasing the diversity and beauty of the Islamic world. Peter Sanders, who made his name photographing famous rock and roll icons of the 1960s, has launched “In the Shade of the Tree”, documenting his travels around the Middle East.

The book illustrates Sanders four decades of travels and captures the humanity of peoples often labeled by the West as either victims of circumstance or a threat to modern culture.
www.inspiralbooks.com

Sonny Kalar wants to be the Asian Guy Ritchie. Of writing, that is. He has self-published two novels and is working on his third, with more adult and children’s books planned.

AIM Magazine asked him a few questions.

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The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday that writer and media psychiatrist Raj Persaud is fighting to save his career:

One of Britain’s best-known psychiatrists began a battle to save his consultant’s job yesterday after admitting wholesale plagiarism in a book and articles which underpinned his celebrity media career.

Dr Raj Persaud sat quietly at a General Medical Council hearing as the scale of his profiting from “the hard work and scholarship of others” was catalogued and described as making him unfit to practise.

He was also accused of trying to blame subeditors for cutting out acknowledgments which had never existed. Jeremy Donne QC, counsel for the GMC, said that repeated dishonesty had been deliberately used to “enhance his professional reputation and standing with the public and the press”.