Hot Bill, Russian chill

what lies beyond boston and bengal? jhumpa lahiri will say, beyond the first one, lies a bagful of green backs called pulitzer. and in the second place? it's biye bari (nuptial knot). when she sat down to pen the interpreter of maladies, the 33-year-old nri couldn't have guessed what the god of big things like bookers and pulitzers had in store for her.she, after all, had only heard of six-figure advances; what she'd seen was a handful of rejection letters, politely worded as ``come back when you write a novel.'' well, the interpreter of men and women who straddled two worlds named boston and bengal had a half smile when critics discovered in the ``uncommon elegance'' of her short stories a new maupassant or o'henry. delectable, the turn of events in a year when goliaths called rushdies and seths had fallen by the literary wayside. more so, when the year melts into one where a certain alberto vourvoulias comes to bengal - with the wedding ring. the god of small things also had a crooked smile on her face this year. that was when a fighter of maladies called dams got a rap on her knuckle. little did arundhati roy expect that her way with words would cause anguish. that, too, to the supreme court. imagine her surprise when m'lord ruled that she'd only ``misinformed'' public about the bridge over the troubled waters of narmada! not even the thought of another booker can induce the winner to utter another word now. why invite the wrath of the almighties who've taken mercy and stalled contempt proceedings? by ratnottama sengupta