DIANA FERNANDES | NT NETWORK
Following the launch and success of five books, author and columnist Pachu Menon is now set to release two more books, ‘Thoughts and Tangents’ and ‘Human Landscape’.
The books are being published by Sanjana Publications and the covers have been designed by Adriel Alvares. Menon’s previous books include ‘An Unprejudiced View’, ‘Bon Voyage’, ‘A Baker’s Dozen’, ‘In So Many Words’ and ‘Write Angle’.
‘Thoughts and Tangents’ is a compilation of some of Menon’s columns and articles that have been published in various newspapers and periodicals over the last year. As in the previous books, the author puts together his keen observations, opinions, commentary and analysis on a range of topics in the book.
“There is a general feeling that articles in newspapers and magazines – though appreciated quite often – are forgotten no sooner they are read. This had a good friend of mine advising me on the ‘virtues’ of compiling and publishing the articles in book-form so that they are not lost in the flow of time, so to speak. Writing enables the ‘structural survival’ of ideas by leaving behind a trace of the author’s thoughts and experiences,” he says.
With ‘Human Landscape’ Menon wanted to write a sequel to his travelogue ‘Bon Voyage’ but thought it would be restricting himself to only writing about places of tourist interest. Instead he thought of writing the book about the people and places and the stories that make
them remarkable.
“This is something new I’ve tried and the name is a little different because I thought of bringing people and the place together. And it’s not just the things that I admire but also stuff that I didn’t really like. For example, I remember how beautiful Margao was when I was a child and what it has become today. Similarly with places like Patna,” he says.
Speaking about the need for stories to be told, Menon encourages anyone who wants to write, to do so. “The field of writing is constantly evolving and I would encourage anyone interested to put their thoughts on paper as the first step and pursue ways to get it published later. Poetry, I feel, is also becoming a fast developing area of literature,” says Menon.
