Dec 13, 1999

C.P.Surendran, 39
Poet

ENFANT TERRIBLE

C.P. Surendran hates personal labels. But the enfant terrible of The Times Of India, Mumbai, has a mission. "Media ignores the common man and his idiotic problems." His reaction: a column called "Low Life", peppered with voyeuristic details about his broken first marriage.

What he really is, is a poet. His first book was Gemini Two co-authored with former Citibank CEO Jerry Rao -- "a good banker, but a bad poet". Next he penned a solo book called Posthumous Poems; it contains 10 short pieces, about rising Phoenix-like from the ashes of a dead relationship. A second volume is on its way.

Surendran is a voice of the future, "echoing the angst of the 30-something generation in urban India", says one critic. But Surendran of course is having none of that. Future? What future? He belongs to the dustheap of the past.

-Farah Baria

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