CHARU NIVEDITA'S O DEGREE IS NOT A PULP FICTION.

A rejoinder to Time of India
Dear Shalini,

I got a chance to read your review in Times of India on Blaft Publication's Anthology of Pulp Fiction. I was appalled to note that some words almost sounded like misguiding the reader as that 0 degree is a pulp fiction. But it is more than obvious that 0 degree is not a pulp fiction at all.

Madam, 0 degree is an alchemical novel from the beginning to end and is considered to be one of the greatest works of Literature.Every step of this novel shows much poetic qualities and I call 0 degree 'FROZEN MUSIC'.
It is very sad as Emerson says " To be great is to be misunderstood". I should agree that there is an optical illusion about every great masterpiece we read. Infact Charu Nivedita has created a microcosm of life,successfully preserving its complexity,its tension,liveliness and dynamism.He wrote this novel a century early and 0 degree is one of the landmark publications in the history of Literature.

I would like to bring to your kind notice Paul Zakaria's foreword to the Malayalam translation of 0 degree
" 0 degree is like an open experimental laboratory.Amidst the smoke, noxious vapours and beautiful imagery, high experienced and a wondrous journey."

Please note this remarkable and notable novel is placed now for four years in the syllabus for PG course students in Kottayam Mahatma Gandhi University.

When this novel was first published in Tamil ten years back, there was a hue and cry to ban this book. But it is the height of irony that the rulers and intelligentsia are insensitive and incapable of either appreciating or banning this work of art.

More over as there is a torture scene in which National Anthem is used in a police station,the so called national patriots are making hallabaloo and are against this remarkable novel even now.

I humbly request you not to disillusion the literary significance of 0 degree,extremely contraversial in both its subject matter and its use of often 'OBSCENE' language.

Kind regards,

R.P.Rajanayahem

The above email was sent to the editor of Time of India on 19 th June, 2008.