The chuckle specialist

You don8217;t need to be a Sherlock to figure out that when Aniruddha Bahal8217;s book is released on June 19, those who read it will be d...

You don8217;t need to be a Sherlock to figure out that when Aniruddha Bahal8217;s book is released on June 19, those who read it will be divided into three groups: the journalists, the defence personnel, and the others.

Bunker 13 is one of those rare thrillers in Indian English fiction, and marks the literary debut of the man whose name already has high recall value for the journalistic exposes he spearheaded at Tehelka.com. Despite the unrelenting publicity surrounding Operation West End and the subsequent brouhaha at the Venkataswami Commission, 36-year-old Bahal remains a pleasant mix of self-effacing yet proud. So yes, he does point out that 8216;8216;in the UK, radio stations are calling my book reminiscent of the works of Hunter Thompson and Joseph Heller. Unusually flattering.8217;8217; But on the phone from London 8212; where he has been promoting Bunker 8212; Bahal turns the verbal equivalent of scarlet when he hears of the press release his publishers have issued for Bunker 13. 8216;8216;This rivetting new novel,8217;8217; it reads, is 8216;8216;by one of India8217;s most famous investigative reporters8217;8217;. Bahal8217;s guffaw in response to those words turns into several seconds of embarrassed laughter with a few shy almost-giggles somewhere in between.

So is that what he thinks he is, you ask? 8216;8216;8230; One of India8217;s most famous investigative reporters8217;8217;? More laughter and then, 8216;8216;No, no, I8217;d like to be known as just a journalist.8217;8217; Okay.

8216;8216;Actually, journalism was something I started as a stop-gap arrangement until I become a writer,8217;8217; says Bahal. 8216;8216;But then journalism itself became too interesting to give up.8217;8217; Bangaru Laxman and a few others would wish it were otherwise. The co-founder of Tehelka.com, Bahal now hopes to provide space to his questioning, probing brand of reporting on Cobrapost.com which he has just founded.

So Bunker 13 is the story of an investigative reporter, Minty Mehta, who unearths certain unsavoury facts while following special forces during missions on the Kashmir border. Mehta works for the weekly newsmagazine, The Post, which has a rival that goes by the name News Today. Reality? Or just inspired and realistic? After all, the author has done stints at both India Today and Outlook.

Bahal may cry himself hoarse about how 8216;8216;this is only fiction8217;8217; and 8216;8216;should be treated as such8217;8217;, but watch the hackles rise in the country8217;s defence establishment when they read damning bits like this 8230; During an army operation in the village of Ur in the book, 8216;The major follows unwritten army procedure for civil disobedience in disturbed territories adjacent to the national border. Step 1: separate the population by sex. It8217;s easier for rape.8217;

And hear the chuckles at the Press Club, when they read daring bits like 8230; actually, when they read the entire book.

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Back in 1996, when Bahal began work on this novel, he says he wiped out his meagre savings to buy a computer on which to write. He also took two months unpaid leave from News Today 8230; err, The Post 8230; sorry, Outlook, and would have completed it then if the boss had been willing to spare him for another month. Maybe it8217;s a good thing he didn8217;t get that leave. After all, in 1996, he was only a journalist with Outlook. Today, it doesn8217;t hurt that he8217;s 8216;8216;just a journalist8217;8217;.