Hi Kavita,

I admire Rushdie, specially because he faced death threats and a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, calling for his assassination, he spent years underground, appearing in public only sporadically.

He faced threat of death with dignity.

Thanks
Lots of Love
Rajesh Sharma

Salman's best book till date is Midnight's children.
I didnot enjoy "Moor's Last Sigh" as much...i read it few years back so cannot constructively remember my dislikes but it was not a masterpiece.I'm looking forward to read "Shalimar the Clown" it looks like a very promising book and few of my family members like it better then Moor's last sigh....

Kavita: Ask him to write more and more books like Satanic verses, bringing the bigotry of Islam out into the open. Even otheriwse without him, the Islamic fascists have helped that cause in letting the world know how screwed up they are.

Is it true that they issue death sentence whoever speaks against their religion?? Is such a thing in other religions too?

Dear Kavita

Rushdie's writing style is strengthened and energized by his arrogance. In interviews, his arrogance comes across as simultaneously endearing (the imperfection makes his brilliance seem less intimidating) and irritating (by making it seem as if he sometimes thinks readers are of a lower order than he is). I'd like to know if he thinks his arrogance has any downside.

love, Heath

Thank you Rajesh, Andaleeb, Amanda and Heather. I had sent out the same question to people on a couple of my email lists and by last night I had received about 200 resposnses. A large majority had not read his books, some were more interested in his wife's work, others who were at the lecture liked it enough to now want to read his works.

A handful thought his writing was utter trash-one pointed out that when he was writing satanic verses, his then wife, was trashing the Bible, which unlike the Muslim world, the Christian community ignored-he became famous-she a nobody, and then they divorced-another one wrote that pretty much all his writing is mostly fluff with little at the core, and that he simply writes provocative stiff to make money.

There were a handful who loved his work and gave some insightful reasons. Others wrote to me saying, who he is as a person(what the heck does it matter if he was nice to talk to!) should be kept separate from who he is as a writer.

The first email list has about 2000 people on it-so it will be interesting to see the rest of the feedback over the next week before I send out more emails.

Heather a friend of mine who met him in the 1980s agreed with your assessment-she was surprised that I found him to be very humble. Her response-oh Humbug! People do change I said..She ofcourse had met him shortly after the success of Midnight's children.

Rajesh, Rushdie did say that the fatwa made him think more about death and that he would die some day but after a period of time he just decided to stop being afraid-in the interim period he saw so many of his friends die of other diseases, and realized that none of them had a fatwa on their head-so when your time is up its up.

Amanda I guess the Muslims funamentalists are a little trigger happy with their fatwas..I'm not sure how many are taken seriously though! Andaleeb-Shalimar the clown is actually an interesting read, and a quick one at that.
love to all

Dear Kavita

I know people who are both arrogant and humble. Maybe there's a better word for what I sense, other than arrogance. Self-sufficience with an outward turn -- needs us not but speaks to us anyway, or very much wants an audience but in the end needs only himself -- that kind of thing.

love, Heath

Hi kavita,
I have never read any of Salman Rushdie except for excerpts given insome article, I find them nice, I think people should judge him just by the quality of his writings and not be prejudiced by the happenings of his personal life.

Keep the faith,
Ispita Saha

Dear Kavita,

Thanks for your reply saying that
"Rushdie did say that the fatwa made him think more about death and that he would die some day but after a period of time he just decided to stop being afraid-in the interim period he saw so many of his friends die of other diseases, and realized that none of them had a fatwa on their head-so when your time is up its up."

Its really true that "when your time is up its up"

I feel personally, you are very lucky that you know Rusdie and has got a chance to interview Rusdie.

Lots of Love
Rajesh Sharma

Too dense for me.

Hello Whoever you are, Sower here,

So can you explain exactly what you mean?

I'm SO, SO SORRY Kavita CHHIBBER, I'm sorrry,

I didn't Know it was you Gary here, I'm sure you

remeber me? I'm Lebanese and my e-mail begins with r.
CHAKKHACHIRO, I know I sound Japanese and I am partly.

My hobbie is the pilots of that era actually.