On Thu, 2006-04-06 at 01:41 +0530, Ajay Pal Singh Atwal wrote:
Ok I may disagree a little here, I do sincerely think fadia may not be foolish or dumb, but his claim to faim may be a little too far fetched and he got more media attention then he actually deserved.
he built a brand and now selling it, even it is more or less fake. But for a 16 year old, that he was, it was/ is an achievement by his time, atleast we should appriciate that, but nothing more, and the 16 year old, now 20 something, must realise that he has to grow and be more than an ankle biter.
A 16 year old getting a publisher like McMillan, with prose that had childishness splaterred over it? Doesn't sound like merit to me. It is more of a *jugad*.
Same can I say about some other authors, though not as bad as fadia, who is very very popular in the script kiddy/ haxor wannbe C/C++ student community, some one with a sir name starting with a **K**, from Pune, author of a number of books on C/ C++ / C++ Projects and pointers and a lot many others. Except for maybe one books the rest need a lot of improvements but he sells.
Are you are talking of YP Kanetkar? Kantekar is based in Nagpur not in Pune. AFAIK, though a bit showy Kanetkar knows his stuff. Many of my friends have learnt C/C++ programming from him (personally), and they are good programmers. We had his books in our syllabus in Engineering, but I prefered K&R and Bjarne Stroustrup more (learn it from the horses mouth).
These people have skills, and should get the respect that is worth to them, but their claim to fame is usually over hyped and more that they actually deserve. But still these people deserver **some** respect and no more.
Sure, marketeers and booksellers do tend to do this and ask the author to do it too. Hell, it helps the book sell. But what matters more is not the hype or the claim to fame -- there is nothing wrong in it. It is whether the 'claim' is based on real knowledge and wisdom.
Regards,
ah