Goa-based Norbert Rebello sails through words with the same ease as he navigates bulk tankers across the oceans. He readies this week for his second novel, also on a theme set at sea, giving hint of how diverse interests show up as more Indian captains and officers take to the global merchant navy fleet.

France's top literary prize, the Goncourt, on Wednesday went to Jerome Ferrari for a Corsican epic, set in a bar on the violence-wracked Mediterranean island.

Newsrooms are manic hell where destinies of the nation and its inhabitants are written, expunged and even manipulated to grab maximum TRPs as in the case of reality television that peppers news with spice to reach out to viewers.