Jug Suraiya
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Jug Suraiya is the Associate Editor of the Times of India, Delhi, an author besides being a columnist.
He writes the weekly column Jugular Vein which appears in all the Sunday editions of the Times of India, and the cartoon strip Dubyaman which appears daily. It covers everything from mundane to serious things that happen to people in everyday life, and to the travels of Suraiya and his wife Bunny to other places and countries.
Khushwant Singh calls him "our own Art Buchwald". He is a writer distinguished for the satire, wit and humour in his writings. Suraiya reflects on his personal reminiscences while drawing astounding parallels of some of the most famous personalities or gently touching at the absurdities, which have become part and parcel of our lives.
Post 9/11 Suraiya created a daily cartoon in the Times of India called Dubyaman with Neelabh Banerjee staff artist of The Times of India. It is loosely based on US President George W Bush. According to Suraiya, he first thought of Dubyaman as a kind of a superman type hero who would signify the military might and muscle of America, but unfortunately has the brain of a George W. Bush, thereby making him more dangerous. The idea was to show that far from being some sort of a superpatriot, this man could be a potential danger, not just to his supposed enemies, but also to his friends and to his own country's people. Slowly but steadily Dubyaman has got a local flavour where Jug frequently makes fun of Indian politicians.
He became the first Asian to win the Pacific Asia Travel Association gold award, in 1983, for travel writing.
[edit] Anthologies of his humorous writings
- Delhi Belly and other misadventures in the middle kingdom (1991)
- A Taste for the Jugular (1994))
- The Great Indian Bores (1996)
- Juggling Act (2005)
[edit] Books on travel and non fiction
- The interview and other stories (1971)
- Homecoming (1977)
- Rickshaw Ragtime (1993)
- Word Is a Four-Letter Word: Selected Writings (1994)
- A Portable India (co authored with Anurag Mathur) (1994)
- Mind Matters (2003)
- Where on Earth Am I? - Confusions of a Travelling Man (2004)
- Calcutta: A City Remembered (2005)
Suraiya lives in Delhi with his wife Bunny and Brindle, who is, according to Suraiya, a stray dog who adopted the couple four years ago.
