Early 2024: As of this date, I have published 15 or more books and ebooks (some under pseudonyms such as Benny Profane and Vijay Prabhu, and two as Avatar Prabhu), lived 24 or more years of my life in India and the U. S., and more than ten in Southeast Asia, but I have never mooned anyone, or photo-bombed, and never used the f-word as an adjective in casual speech (to compensate, I do use it in some of my books, given that D.
H. Lawrence already won us the right to use it in the 1920s and 1930s). Perhaps the reason for my verbal shyness lies in my roots: I was born in Bangalore, India, but mostly grew up in coastal Mangalore (Kudla in Tulu, Kodial in Konkani), shepherded by conservative Catholic nuns and priests (who would have restarted the Spanish Inquisition, Portuguese edition, if permitted). As a means of escape, at 10, I wrote my first short "novel" ...
which made a classmate laugh so much (at the book, and at me for daring to think I could write) that he passed it around and around for more derisive laughter and it was lost forever (however, being a cautious optimist, I offer a reward of $100 for its miraculous safe return). That first setback did not stop me from dreaming of becoming a writer in America. Working briefly in India's Administrative Service (IAS), where I pretended to quell two riots, granted land to tenants, and conducted two state elections unchallenged by Rudy Giuliani or Che Guevera, I soon went to America on a student visa to study literature, and stayed on, beginning my first novel while at Columbia University, while also bearing responsibility for the birth of three bouncing boys (two of whom are now big enough to be bouncers).
That novel, ironically titled The Revised Kama Sutra, received wide critical acclaim, was described as "very funny" by the late Kurt Vonnegut-he himself is the poster boy and the dictionary definition of funny-it's been published in ten countries and in seven languages. My passions include music, comedy, and opposing war, oppression, injustice and greed . if possible, by joking about it. Lord Bush of Iraq and What We All Need represent some of these passions, as do other works in progress.
H. Lawrence already won us the right to use it in the 1920s and 1930s). Perhaps the reason for my verbal shyness lies in my roots: I was born in Bangalore, India, but mostly grew up in coastal Mangalore (Kudla in Tulu, Kodial in Konkani), shepherded by conservative Catholic nuns and priests (who would have restarted the Spanish Inquisition, Portuguese edition, if permitted). As a means of escape, at 10, I wrote my first short "novel" ...
which made a classmate laugh so much (at the book, and at me for daring to think I could write) that he passed it around and around for more derisive laughter and it was lost forever (however, being a cautious optimist, I offer a reward of $100 for its miraculous safe return). That first setback did not stop me from dreaming of becoming a writer in America. Working briefly in India's Administrative Service (IAS), where I pretended to quell two riots, granted land to tenants, and conducted two state elections unchallenged by Rudy Giuliani or Che Guevera, I soon went to America on a student visa to study literature, and stayed on, beginning my first novel while at Columbia University, while also bearing responsibility for the birth of three bouncing boys (two of whom are now big enough to be bouncers).
That novel, ironically titled The Revised Kama Sutra, received wide critical acclaim, was described as "very funny" by the late Kurt Vonnegut-he himself is the poster boy and the dictionary definition of funny-it's been published in ten countries and in seven languages. My passions include music, comedy, and opposing war, oppression, injustice and greed . if possible, by joking about it. Lord Bush of Iraq and What We All Need represent some of these passions, as do other works in progress.
