Tarun Tejpal
Tarun J Tejpal is a journalist, publisher, and novelist. In a 26-year career, he has been an editor with the India Today and the Indian Express groups, and the managing editor of Outlook, India’s premier newsmagazine. In March 2000, he started Tehelka, a news organisation that has earned a global reputation for its aggressive public interest journalism.
In 2001, Asiaweek listed Tejpal as one of Asia’s 50 most powerful communicators, and BusinessWeek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia. In 2007 The Guardian named him among the 20 who constitute India's new elite. In 2009 BusinessWeek has named Tarun one of India’s 50 most powerful people.
Tarun's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, published in 2005, was hailed by Sunday Times as “an impressive and memorable debut”. Le Figaro called it a “masterpiece”; and Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul declared, “At last – a new and brilliantly original novel from India.” Translated into more than a dozen languages, in France the book won the Prix Millepages and was the finalist for the prestigious Prix Femina.
Tarun's second novel, The Story of My Assassins has been published in 2009 to rave reviews. Pankaj Mishra has said, "It sets new and dauntingly high standards for Indian writing in English", while Altaf Tyrewala has called it "an instant classic". He has just recently stepped down from his position as editor of the Tehelka magazine in light of charges of repeated sexual harassment brought against him by a female journalist.
“Power is the engine of the world,and sex and money its oil and lubricants.God is at best the invocation before you start the engine-meaningless if you have no engine to start!God is a goli,a multi-flavoured pill,invented by those who have power,money and sex, to give to those who have none! Love is another great goli.Some days we too swallow these golis.They feel good,like a joint,a temporary high!But they are not the reality.The reality is power,money,sex! And yes,there's another goli-morality!”
“The world doesn't need to be fixed,it only needs to be balanced.And the art of balance demands you tread lightly,not leap ahead in a continual frenzy.The art of balance demands you know your designated role in the game of life,not start muscling in on everyone else's.The art of balance demands knowledge of timelessness,of birth and death and rebirth.The art of balance demands you know the world cannot be fixed it must be endured. It must simply forever be kept in a splendid play.”
“He learned that almost all of the world lived in colossal and constant fear.Afraid of everything-the police,officials and courts,the thugs,criminals and mafia;afraid of the establishment and the anti-establishment;afraid of failure and of criticism,of being humiliated and being mocked,of being ugly and bald;afraid of cockroaches and of cats,of the seas and the skies,of lightning and of electricity;afraid of priests and physicians;afraid of dying and of living.More than hope,people's life seemed to be defined by fear.Most hope,it seemed,was only about somehow negotiating the fear successfully.A tiny minority managed to cross the line of fear and this tiny minority then became the shapers of the world in which the rest lived.”