BENGALURU: Subodh Sankar, co-founder of Atta Galatta, loves Wodehouse and would like to go on adventures with Swami and his friends.
Your favourite book of all time and why? Could you quote a passage?
“Aunts Arent Gentlemen” by PG Wodehouse. I haven’t read any other book as many times as this one, and it has made me laugh so many times over the years. The best mood repairer tool I have. ‘Jeeves,’ I said at the breakfast table, ‘I’ve got spots on my chest.’
‘Indeed, sir?’
‘Pink.’
‘Indeed, sir?’
‘I don’t like them.’
‘A very understandable prejudice, sir. Might I enquire if they itch?’
‘Sort of.’
‘I would not advocate scratching them.’
Your favourite fictional character and why?
Bertie Wooster. To go through life as Bertie states, “I know perfectly well that I’ve got, roughly speaking, half the amount of brain a normal bloke ought to possess” is a definite recipe for a happy ending!
Few lines you got from a book, which you would never forget?
“To condense fact from the vapour of nuance” from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
A friend recommended the book, a genre that I don’t read and I could not finish the book. This quote, however, has remained stuck in my head and it keeps popping up everytime I see what I believe is unreasonable behaviour.
What re the five top books released in 2017, according to you?
Small Town Sea by Anees Salim
Lone Fox Dancing: My Autobiography by Ruskin Bond
Pukka Indian by Jahnvi Lakhóta Nandan
Incarnations by Sunil Khilnani
The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil
One book you would want a first edition of and why?
Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore. It would be an honour to own the first edition of the book for which he largely won the Nobel Prize
Which author would you like to have tea with and what would you talk about?
Jules Verne. I would end up wondering if he just had the greatest imagination possible, or if he were a clairvoyant.
One advice you would give to your favourite author, and one you would give to terrible writers.
I would ask my favourite author to write more, and avoid any advice to terrible writers.
Which books would you take with you on a solo holiday?
A bunch of Wooster and Jeeves stories, and all of Tom Robbins’ books.
Your one guilty-pleasure read?
Sidney Sheldon
One fictional character you go to when you need a friend?
R.K Narayan’s Swaminathan. I would have loved to be with Swami and his gang on their adventures in Malgudi.
What is one quality of a book you wish people would have?
I wish you could go back to people with the same certainty of expectations that you have with a book.
One book you wish was never written, and why?
High School English Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin
The amount of trouble I went through with English teachers in school thanks to the darn text is indescribable.
What is one thing you cannot tolerate when you are reading?
Mosquitos that buzz you just when you are totally into the book. They drive me mad and make me jump after them with an electric fly swatter.
Your favourite reading nook?
My bed.
Do you remember to keep bookmarks?
I prefer dog earings!