APPENDIX 1 a Full Text of the Interview with Gauri Deshpande Who Was A
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APPENDIX 1 A full text of the interview with Gauri Deshpande who was a sub-editor of the weekly for nearly two years during the seventies. R. S.: How did you get into The Weekly' ? G. D.: I was offered the job by Mr. Khushwant Singh who liked m«y published work and met me in Pune where he was giving some lectures. He first asked me to do some freelance work for him and then offered me the job when he approved of that too. R.S.: was there any definite policy for the fiction section of "The Weekly' ? What was it ? How was it different from the preceding policy ? B.D.: As far as I could judge the "policy" depended entirely on the editor's taste. The sub-editor had the right of refusal but not of acceptance. The final selection was made by the editor. He seemed to like well - written, "clever" stories; he also liked "discovering" people (e.g. me II) R.S.: 'The Weekly' was not a fictional magazine. Even then almost all the issues of the periodical had stories and poems. How did it fit into the general scheme of the magazine ? G.D.: The general endeavour of the editor was to 298 make 'The Weekly' into a brighter, more popular, more accessible paper; less 'colonial' if one can say that. The changes he made in typography, layout, covers, photographs, even payment scales, all point to this. The often controversial themes of his main photo features (e.g. communities of india) and the bright new look fiction were part of the general policy. During my time there, the weekly's sales continuously went up from week to week and each landmark sale was celebrated by him - he distributed sweets to us. He insisted on an "interesting" cover. On his way to work he often stops at a vendor's to ask about sales. He once said that he listened to the vendor's advice who told him to put a pretty women on the cover if he wanted higher sales. You could compare the covers with this in view !! R.S. : What criteria did you apply for the selection of the stories ? Did you choose a story for its writer or for the story proper ? G.D.: Quite often the stories were commissioned by the editor from well-known authors; in which case, we, the subs had little say in its acceptance. But the general, unsolicited material was judged by its quality - style, form, humour and as I said, its "cleverness" or quirkiness. Quite often. Miss. Hyder or I would recommend a story from Urdu or Marathi and he would then 299 trust our judgement and get us to translate it. Stories by lianto or Ms. Wanarse appeared in "The Weekly' in this manner. R.B.: Khushwant Singh was himself a novelist and a story writer. Did he do anything special for the upcoming creative writers in English and regional languages ? How ? G.D.: He made space for fiction without fail in almost every issue - that was a lot in the days when there was hardly any other comparable circulation, English language mag. on the market that covered the whole country. It realy meant something to be publish^in 'The Weekly'. R.S.: There were many stories in translation in 'The Weekly' during the seventies. What was the philosophy underlying the selection of such translat ions? G.D.: This was part of the editor's search for new writers. Being himself very proud of his regional culture, he was generous enough to give the rest of the Indian regional languages the right to be as good and he wanted to put their literature before the whole country as it were. (He even said "the world" in his expansive moments). He did believe that great and relatively unknown talent existed in regional languages which 300 should be explored. In his capacity as an advisor to various publishing houses <DL. & Penguin) he followed the same policy and if you look at the lists you will find more translations appeared there too. I would say that his offer of a job to me was partly due to his desire to have an ear on the ground in the region. R.S.: Quite a few stories by foreign authors also appeared in 'The Weekly'. What purpose did it serve for the readers of 'The Weekly' ? Did you try to expose your readers to the International writing or was there any other consideration ? G.D.: I do not know if there was any particular policy regarding foreign authors. As I said before, their work must have appealed to the editor's taste and also if they were "name" authors to his feeling that 'The Weekly' could be a "world" magazine. He was intensely "Indian" at heart, but liked to be lionized by "foreigners" - a feeling not unknown to most of us I R.S.: I personally was confused to find the serialized publication of novels in 'The Weekly' for months together. What necessitated such a step ? Was it due to a lack of response from the story writers or just an attempt to ignore this section ? G.D.: The subs were confused by this too ! I can only suppose that some personal reason on the part of 301 the editor led to such practices. R.S.: I had hoped that the '1975 Emergency' would have had some impact on "The Weekly' as a whole. But my hopes were belied. How did manage to keep its separate identity inspite of the sensorship? G.D.: I left 'The Weekly' in 1972 and was out of India during the Emergency. However, I did evince an admiration on the Editor's part for Mrs. Gandhi while I was there. Also he was an a-political man then-and may be continued so until the troubles in the Punjab. I don't think I can comment on this. R.S.: "Sex' is a conspicuous theme in these stories. How did you manage to publish stories on incest, lesbianism and masturbation without getting into a cultural controversy ? G.D.: The Editor was very interested in "Sex" as a theme - the more controversial the better ! As I said before, he knew that sex and controversy sell mags ! R.S.: What do you think is the contribution of 'The Weekly' to the development of Indo-Anglian short story ? 6.D.:'The Weekly' made "respectable" and acceptable space available to good writers. Many who later became "known" writers were published first in 'The Weekly'. One example is r^-J.Akbar, whose first 302 story I published in 'The Weekly'. R.S.: Would you like to comment on any other aspect of this section during the seventies ? B.D.: Khushwant Singh had just begun to change the face of 'The Weekly' when I came to work for him and I was on the staff for barely two years before a combination of my inexperience and ignorance, his misunderstanding of the sort of person I was and office politics led to his requesting my resignation. While there, I saw that he was far too susceptible to the influence of personalities - which may explain many of the editorially inexplicable- seeming decisions about publishing some of the material you have noticed.He did have an "editorial policy" but he bent it often for the sake of a person who influenced or "charmed" him. He changed quite a lot during his tenure as Editor- as perhaps made clearer by the fact that after me, within a year or so three or four other subs left 'The Weekly' as well ! After I left, I had no cause or opportunity to meet with Khushwant Singh and I do not at all know what happened. If you are intersted, I can refer you to Ms. Karkaria, Ms. Hyder or Mr.Benedict Costa. 303 APPENDIX 2 PRIMARY SOURCES List of the short-stories published in 'The Weekly' between January 1971 and December 1980. The stories that are thematically analysed in the thesis are marked with an asterisk. 1971 3 Jan. * The Future of Babli Nandini Satpathy 10 Jan. Remember the Queen Gauri Deshpande 17 Jan. Pavitra B.P. Koirala 24 Jan. The Brahmananda Story Hamdi Bey 31 Jan. The Sanyasi Doctor Murad Fyzee 7 Feb. * White Lady Aban Gazdar 14 Feb. * The Visitor Amrendra 21 Feb. * New Eyeglasses Ramapada Chaudhary 28 Feb. Those that Gift Monika Varma 7 Mar. * Only at Night & Tara Parmeswarn Secretly 14 Mar. * Tiger Skin Balwant Gargi 21 Mar. * Floatsam Salome Parikh 28 Mar. * Voyage to Bombay Vasanta Surya 4 April. Perinbai Mahavir Adhikari to 18 April 25 April * The Gods Laughed Konica Sircar 304 2 May * The Death of a Hero Jai Nimbkar 9 May Phr^^t^flRH 16 May * A Green Vally Not So Ash is Gupta 23 May The Jewel Box Salma Siddiqi 30 May * The Green Gardener Jayanta Mahapatra 6 June Gentleman in the Bar B. K. Karanj ia 13 June Dervish Qurratulain Hyder 20 June * Marriages are Made Dina Mehta in Heaven 27 June * The Man who Bought R. Wilkinson Pressure 4 July * Mr.Banerjee's Secret Vijay N. Shankar 11 July * The Jungle Manoj Das IB July * Reunion Gauri Deshpande 25 July Kali Puja Ansuya Asher 1 Aug. * Another Triangle Krishna Baldev Vaid 8 Aug. * The Storm in a Tea- M.P. Nambiar Cup 15 Aug. * Graveyard M. J. Akbar 22 Aug. * Heaven,Hell &< Ivan Klima Paradise 29 Aug. * The Man Who Swam With S. I. Francis Mr. Josti 5 Sept. * The Accident Subrata Sen Gupta 12 Sept.