----- Original Message ----- From: "// ravi" <ravi at platosbeard.org>
I really, badly, want to like Arundhati Roy. But I cannot bring myself to it:
> We are far from the forest now, sitting face to face, curled up on the two corners of a sofa in Roy's living room-cum-work space in one of New Delhi's most affluent neighbourhoods. One wall is lined with books, and a large flat-screen TV. Elsewhere, the walls are adorned with a portrait of Howard Zinn, the late US historian; a poster that says "Stop Dams"; and a large photograph of a Maoist fighter, his weapon next to him.
>
> A bowl of sliced mangos is brought out by the household help, and Roy invites me to share it with her. "Let's eat mangos," she says, sweetly. "There is nothing like mangoes. I once thought I would retire and eat mangoes in the moonlight and generally have a good time. Help yourself.”
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To be fair, the tone of the article cannot be blamed on Roy. The journalist has to take some blame for praising Roy's "tasteful" (Jesus!!!) apt.
Otherwise, I hear books and mangos. So what?
It's the journalist who talks about the "rapacious middle class" -- really? It's the middle class that's the problem?
....
I don't like Roy much either. But my dislike has nothing to do with the fact that she writes about the dams and about the Maoists.
Joanna