A common man's impression of Ms. Roy's articles
New Friend’s Colony, New Delhi. 29 September 2010.
In a shocking, heartbreaking confession, Booker-winner and India’s top intellectual entity Arundhati Roy, today admitted to inserting random lines from Hindi movie scripts in her essays “so that they look long and intimidating”. “I learnt this trick in my history class as a kid. We had a teacher who used to mark our answers by measuring them with a metric scale. So we used to smartly insert film songs, dialogues, etc. in say, an answer to the impacts of WW-I on Indian freedom movement “, said a suitably nostalgic Ms. Roy.
The story broke when Ashok, a bored teenager in Orissa’s Koraput District, happened to stumble upon the words “Aaja shaam hone aayi, mausam ne li angdaayi…” in a passage of Ms. Roy’s latest marathon-article for a reputed National weekly. “I was bored of rediff comment-boards that day”, said Ashok, “And as luck would have it, after spotting these lines as well as the rest of the screenplay of the film in the article, I went back to rediff and posted the whole thing online. lol.”
"I never thought anybody would read them..."
Ms. Roy’s fellow ‘long-essayist’, Arun Shourie defended her rights to use ‘whatever it takes, to make the essay longer’ by writing a very-long essay (a 20-part series) in Indian Express.
Experts believe that this may not be a stray case and we need to go back to all our long speeches, essays, and critiques including Pandit JL Nehru’s ‘Tryst With Destiny’, to find hidden-movie references or chunks. “I remember Mughal-E-Azam scenes in an Indira Gandhi speech to the UN once”, said a Congress insider not willing to be named.
Meanwhile, soon-to-be-married BJP MP Varun Gandhi has threatened to chop the hands off of Baraatis who refuse to dance at his wedding.
The Daily Tamasha 
naaah… the last post still rocks… this is mediocre
That is an incredible shame to a writer boasting a “Booker Prize”. Perhaps now, all her works will have to be audited for authenticity and creativity. We don’t need duplicates lavishing on credentials barely deserved of them.
If there is a forum to look into it, I strongly urge them to audit her works before providing her with the status quo she enjoys presently.
Thanks Prashanth. (You made my day.) Hope the authorities take note and do the needful, and then give you an award for pointing it out. Keep the spirit of justice flying high….
This is just Bullshit what you’re writing. In France, many Goncourt do no longer write their novels. The hire what is called some ‘negriers’ to do the job for them and these books sells better than their original book that won them the Goncourt !!!
Wow! Wonderful exposé Varun. I must say that it is great to see hitherto-unknown fact about Ms. Roy. Rishtey mein to hum tumhaare baap lagte hain. Naam hai shehanshah. Reminded me of the true story that one of my classmates actually used “stock text” in answersheets at BHU :). I think you should keep posting more frequently. Itna sannata kyun hai bhai? All I can say is – D.S.P. Saab aaj kya naag panchami hai kya? Nahi to? Toh phir aap is naag ko doodh kyo pila rahe hai?
-A
Haa haa haa….wish you could use double spacing too!
Another trick we used to employ was to start the answers from mid-page so that it spreads over to the next page giving a feel that it’s too long.
Kendriya Vidyalaya Zindabaad.
Ha ha kaafi awesome hai !
Really funny!
I agree, writers like her, must be made subject to audit.
Awesome! I have the honor of reading some of her essays which didn’t make any sense. And now I understand why 🙂
You are going to give serious competition to Faking News with this kind of stuff. Keep it up!
A request: Please put some FB, twitter sharing widget.
hahaha 🙂
nice one !
i know this article isnt about varun gandhi but
“soon-to-be-married BJP MP Varun Gandhi has threatened to chop the hands off of Baraatis who refuse to dance at his wedding.”
that just worked for me 🙂
hahaha
and your BACK! please post more often! your stuff really makes my day.
gr8 going buddy…
keep posting more often..
maybe if the essay would wear horizontal stripes it might look heavier and probably even deeper, its all about getsalt, you know like someone saying, ‘ namak la’, but then they will be in some place in Delhi, intonation se idea hoita hai na, waise Arundhati ke saath ek baar photo khichwayee thee, abhi bhi hot hai, woh kya essay vessay kaun padta hai, dali hogi usne filler, woh toh uskee purani aadat hai, maine pyar kiya itnee buri bhi nahi hai, shukar hai dhoom ka nahi dala, unki taste achchi hai, yun toh hum zyada baat nahi kartein… par ab keh rahe hai toh to bata hi dete hain, woh god of small things maine likhi thi, unki novel khatam nahi hori thi toh unhone mera wala cut paste kar diya, hota hai kabhi kabhi, hum writers kee beech mein yeh sab chalta hai.