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Body Offering : An amorous exploration

Author Makarand R. Paranjape's latest book raises age-old questions on love and relationships

The L word. Loaded with veiled promises, hidden facets and layered explanations. Synonymous with so many things—need, belonging, passion, sex, conflict, choices, shared dreams, splintered memories.

To skirt around it, delve into its core and extract its essence is no easy task; love like human relationships is fragile, amorphous, convoluted.

Yet it appears to hold an endless fascination for author Makarand R. Paranjape and his latest novel, Body Offering ( Rs 395, Rupa Publications) is a detailed examination of love and complex relationships.

Set in Delhi, it tells of the liaison between Ashok, a middle-aged surgeon and Sunayana, a young, vivacious editor at a leading publishing house. Infused with raw need, complex desires and intense emotion the book raises that age-old questions: What draws two people together?

“It is a puzzle, a mystery that one will never completely understand,” says Makarand, who was in town a book-reading session at the Oxford Book Store. “You cannot reduce it to practical matters; it is simply a leap of faith, a spark that happens between people,” he says.

An inexplicable, impractical spark perhaps but one that binds vastly different people together—at least for a bit.

“Well that is symptomatic of a changed social reality of which we are all a part of. This will lead to a great deal of flexibility in human relationships.

But love is not a matter of right, it doesn’t have to mean forever. It comes unasked and one has to be grateful for it.”

Born in 1960 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Makarand is an alumnus of several prestigious institutions including the Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, Bangalore, St. Stephen's College Delhi and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate students both in the States and in India for over 30 years and is currently a professor of English at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

He has published over 120 academic papers, has written a novel, several poems, short stories, essays and book reviews and is a columnist for various renowned publications. “I love what I do,” he smiles “An ideal life would be one where I read, wrote, taught and walked,” he says.

Passion and human bonding have always been an intrinsic part of the poetry he loves. “It you read my poems you will discover that it has this erotic tinge. Passion is a trigger to transformation.”

Yet he refuses to classify Body Offering as erotica. “That’s more of a recent marketing gimmick. It certainly has passion but it is not raunchy; it is not sex for the sake of sex.

It is more in the tradition of DH Lawrence, in fact it has an epigraph from Lawrence,” he says adding that he had read Lawrence carefully before starting this novel.

“His books explore human relationships, social change and class conflict. They moved me greatly and helped me reinvent myself as a writer,” he says.

Welcome to Makarand.com!

Makarand R. Paranjape is a Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for English at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies. He was educated at Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore, St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a Masters and PhD in English. He has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow for literature and held visiting appointments/fellowships at several institutions including the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Carleton University, Iowa University, University of Texas-Austin, Ball State University, University of Sao Paolo, Federal University of Minas Gerias, Murdoch University, Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Oxford Centre of Hindu Studies, and Universitat des Sarlandes.

At JNU he teaches courses at the M.A. and M.Phil level. His M.A. courses include American Literature, Indian Literature in English/Translation, Readings in Literary Theory and Criticism, Indian Literature in English/Translation, M. K. Gandhi: An Author, Globalizing India: Literature, Culture, Society, Literature and Allied Arts: Cinema, Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Studies, and M.Phil courses include Research Methodology, Introduction to Contemporary Literary Theory, Literature in India, Postcolonial Literature and Theory, and so on. He also guides MPhil and Doctoral research students.

From 1994-99, he was Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, where he taught a variety of courses including Preparatory English, English in Practice, Introduction to Literature, American Literature, Indian Writing in English, Workshop in Creative Writing, Modern Indian Fiction in Translation, and Science and Humanism at the Undergraduate level, and Contemporary Critical Theory and Indian Writing in English at the Pre-Doctoral level.

Before that, he taught at the Department of English, University of Hyderabad (Central University) from 1989 to 1994, first as Fellow, then as Lecturer, and finally as Reader. He taught M.A. and M.Phil. level courses such as Commonwealth Literature, 17th Century Literature, Victorian Literature, Literary Theory and Criticism, Indian Writing in English, a Special Author course on Sarojini Naidu, and Introduction to Research Methodology, and guided research.

Makarand has been productive as a critic, poet, novelist, short-story writer, literary columnist, and reviewer. He has edited or authored about thirty-five books and published more than 100 academic papers both in India and abroad, in addition to poems, short stories, and more than 250 periodical essays, reviews, and other publications.

Makarand has organized and coordinated several international conferences. He has also been an invited speaker and presented academic papers all over India and in over fifty countries abroad.

He served as Chair, Centre for Linguistics and English and of the Centre for English Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, as well as the Coordinator of the UGC Special Assistance Programme from 2003-2008. In addition, he has been the Principal Investigator in an international project called “Indian Perspectives on Science and Spirituality.” For several years, he has also been a member and active participant in the Alliance for Responsible, Plural and United World. He was also Joint Coordinator of the China-India Intercultural Dialogue for five years under the auspices of the Alliance. He was founding editor of Evam: Forum on Indian Representations, an international biannual journal as also the Managing Trustee of the non-profit Samvad India Foundation.

This site contains samples of Makarand's published works. You can view his full list of publications in the section About Makarand.