``It's time the writer, poet, artiste or film-maker comments on what is happening in the world,'' she said, addressing a packed hall at the St. Andrews School on Monday on the eve of the release of her essay, The Greater Common Good. ``People ask me if I have stopped being a writer and become an activist. In fact, I should be interrogated if I am quiet. It's my business, my brief to comment on what is happening around me''.

``The story of the Narmada Valley is the story of India today. Almost 40 million people have been displaced by dams in the country till now. For whose benefit? Do we question that? The saddest part is that educated and working people have abdicated the political arena, the right to choose and question. We have left the power to make decisions in the hands of a few,'' she said, adding that we have beenconditioned to believe that what is good for the `nation' is good for everyone.

``The success of God of Small Things should have made me a very happy woman. But I am not. Every emotion that I had put in the book was roping in money. The commercial sucess and adulation was almost `obscene'. I felt as if the world was trying to kill the person who had written the book. It was the beginning of an uneasy private journey and the realisaton that I had to give back something to the world which I had so lovingly created in my story''.

Arundhati said her childhood on the banks of a river made her realise the gravity of the problem faced by the inhabitants of of the Valley. ``It's not only my heart but also my mind that is involved,'' she said, adding that she had honed her `weapon' by reading all kinds of material related to the Narmada movement.

When asked what would happen to the Rs 7,500 crores that had already been spent on the project, the writer said that if the construction were to continue, anadditional Rs 35,000 crore would be spent. ``I suggest that the half-built dams be allowed to stand as monuments to remind people of the foolishness of the 20th century and money collected through the sale of tickets. As far as alternatives are concerned, there are enough local successful movements for water harvesting which the government can support if it wants to.''

Arundhati called for a open debate and review of big dams and demanded that the government make public the documents of the project. ``Why are they hiding the facts? They are fooling the public by saying that water will reach the dry lands of Kutch and Saurashtra.''.