BOMBAY - Starting with the idea that everyone would love to peek into someone else's e-mail, an Indian writer has hit upon an innovative idea to serialise a novel.
Bombay-based author Jerry Pinto's e-novel, titled Inbox Outbox, can be read by accessing the "mail" of protagonist Jai Mathur and his friends
on internet websites which are owned and run by Cafe Networks.
"We all feel tempted to read other people's mail," said the 34-year-old writer. "In the novel, you enter Jai's world by reading his mail."
To get a daily glimpse of Jai Mathur's life, readers will have to go either to www.cafemumbai.com, www.cafekolkata.com or www.cafe delhi.com, log on to the novel and open his e-mail.
The novel is in the same format as normal e-mail, complete with inbox, outbox and folders titled Personal, Work, Drafts and Trash which give readers access to Mathur's mails to his girlfriend, boss, mother and others. The novel will be launched on April 15.
"I thought it would be stupid to write an e-novel as a set of chapters," Pinto said. "It would be more interesting to represent the way the net has changed our lives, especially in the form of e-mail."
He said that life in a bustling metropolis like Bombay left little time for socialising, and people relied on e-mail to keep in touch.
The story of Inbox Outbox centres around Mathur, his girlfriend, Nayarika, and his England-based best friend, Shankar.
The e-mails are mostly brief, sometimes chatty and generally shot through with humour.
- REUTERS
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