oh yes, he exists in the flesh and blood alright. in fact, he was with the sunday desk at the hindu (sunday magazine and the literary review and the young world) about eight years ago (i joined the hindu and been doing the literary since june 2000). subsequently he was with the news desk for some time and went over to outlook about four (?) years back.
while i share his politics (i am from ciefl, hyderabad, late 80s-early 90s where susie tharu was just beginning to make a name for herself, if these things mean anything ;)), i do think his writing can become self-defeating (those who do continue to read him are already on his 'side' but he tends to put off the 'uninitiated'). not only can writing become monotonous but also glib in the use of terminology (jargon?) and i am not too sure about where i stand about a non-dalit (even though a convert to buddhism) making a career out of writing about dalits and the downtrodden. i know that raises more questions than i'd care for and no, i am not a cynic nor a status-quoist. :) subash On Sun, 4 Dec 2005 13:56:41 +0530, Abhishek Hazra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > on another note, while TOI and HT might be depressing, the arrival of > new academic imprints is quite exciting and encouraging. i am > thinking of small, focused publishing interventions like S.Anand's > Navayana, Three Essay's Collective... > Is it true that S.Anand who writes in Outlook is actually a phantom > entity and the real author is Sadanand Menon? or just some running > journo-joke? I have always read his pieces with interest ( I remember > the one he did on the Dalit Christian Mridangam makers of Tamilnadu, > in the context of the cow-slaughter ban > http://india.indymedia.org/en/2003/09/7309.shtml). In fact, if its a > "Dalit Story" from South in Outlook, you can be almost sure that it > is S.Anand.
