BAHAL, Aniruddha 1967-

PERSONAL:

Born 1967, in India.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Noida, India. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003.

CAREER:

Investigative journalist and novelist. Worked for India Today and Outlook; cofounder and CEO of Tehelka.com; founder and editor and chief of Cobrapost.com.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Bad Sex in Fiction Award, Literary Review, 2003, for the sexual encounters in Bunker Thirteen.

WRITINGS:

A Crack in the Mirror, Rupa and Company (Calcutta, India), 1991.

Bunker Thirteen, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Born in 1967, Aniruddha Bahal has made a name for himself in India as a muckraker and journalist determined to uncover the truth. Early in his career he worked as a reporter for India Today and Outlook and helped brake a story about match-fixing in international cricket. He went on to cofound and work as CEO of Tehelka.com, a news Web site which name means "sensation" in Hindi. In 2001 Tehelka.com gained fame when the group organized a sting to uncover politicians, senior bureaucrats and army officials accepting brides from arms dealers. They were able to capture the interactions on video and the scandal resulted in the resignation of BJP president Bangaru Laxman and defense minister George Fernandez. While the scandal gained fame and prestige for Bahal it also resulted in his short and wrongful imprisonment and the closing of Tehelka.com, due to loss of funding. He has since started a new news Web site called Cobrapost.com. He lives in Noida, India, near New Delhi.

In 1991 Bahal published his first work of fiction called A Crack in the Mirror. It was published in India and did not make much in sales. His second publication in 2003, Bunker Thirteen, has received much more attention. It is a spy thriller set in modern India about a journalist named MM who becomes involved in a tangled plot of intrigue, all the while seeking to satisfy his drug addictions and sexual desires. The story is told uniquely in the second person "you." David Wright for Library Journal wrote, "The second-person narration seems less calculated to grab the reader than to abstract the borderline sociopath narrator from his own relentless gamesmanship." However, a reviewer for Publishers Weekly found "Bahal's use of the second person heightens suspense and adds psychological depth." Jamie James of Time International found that the book "suffers from some common flaws of the thriller…yet on his first time out, Bahal has succeeded admirably at the genre's main requirement by creating a complex and compelling (if frequently repellent) protagonist." Frank Sennett of Booklist concluded, "MM proves wearisome after extended exposure, and Aniruddha tips off the book's big surprise too early. Even so, there's a lot of fresh, crackling action here for thrill junkies." Bunker Thirteen received the dubious honor of Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction award in 2003, for the sexual encounters depicted throughout the book.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2003, Frank Sennett, review of Bunker Thirteen, p. 1862.

Bookseller, December 12, 2003, "Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award," p. 29.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2003, review of Bunker Thirteen, p. 621.

Library Journal, June 15, 2003, David Wright, review of Bunker Thirteen, p. 98.

M2 Best Books, December 4, 2003, "Bad Sex Award Goes to Indian Author."

Nation, August 18, 2003, Amitava Kumar, "Thieves Like Us," p. 46.

New York Times Book Review, June 22, 2003, James Buchan, "Old Nukes and Spooks," p. 8.

Publishers Weekly, April 28, 2003, review of Bunker Thirteen, p. 44.

Time International, July 7, 2003, Jamie James, "James Bond is a Choirboy," and "Troublemaker" (interview), p. 58.

ONLINE

Desi Journal,http://www.desijournal.com/ (October 22, 2003), Sudheer Apte, review of Bunker Thirteen.

South Asian,http://www.the-south-asian.com/ (October 22, 2003), Avinash Kalla, "Anifuddha Bahal-Creating Another Tehelka. "*