At the Launch of 'Sea of Poppies'

It was not exactly a sea of humanity at the Darbar Hall in the ITC Hotel Kakatiya, but the hall was almost over flowing yesterday at the reading of Amitav Ghosh’s ‘Sea of Poppies.’ It was quite undoubtedly the biggest gathering I have ever seen of book lovers at any book launch in Hyderabad. Amitav Ghosh must have been quite surprised to learn that Hyderabadis actually read while they are not eating biryani. Jokes apart, I was quite thrilled to be at the book reading yesterday evening, where the city’s literati gathered and listened spell bound as Amitav Ghosh himself read out passages from his latest book.

There was laughter as he read out some humorous passages and lines and applause too at the end of the reading. The questions followed and for a change, almost every one seemed to ask quite intelligent questions that had Ghosh stumped. There were questions (actually everyone seemed to ask three questions) on whether readers need to be aware of history when they read such books, whether the 19th century holds some kind of fascination for Indian English writers, how he crafted the book, comments on some of his characters, questions on his previous books and there were many questions waiting to be asked but there was little time. Jai commented on the missing pages in his copy which he discovered long after he had bought the book and also about the music of the migrant communities in various countries like Trinidad and others.

Like every one else, I too stood in line to get a copy that I picked up on a friend’s request, signed by the author. It was quite a lengthy line and one could judge Amitav Ghosh’s popularity from the fact that people in the queue had three or four copies of ‘Sea of Poppies’, and also copies of his older books in their hands for the author’s signature. After a discount, the hardcover came for Rs 540 and after half hour my turn came. It was bad timing because the moment I reached him someone started a conversation with the author forcing him to sign my copy without so much as a word to me. But I wasn’t disappointed since I had a special moment with him earlier.

As always, I had forgotten the keys to my bike on the bike itself so I rushed up the stairs hoping to collect the keys before the author arrived. However, as I was climbing up the stairs I discovered the author had indeed arrived. Amitav Ghosh was being escorted down the stairs by the hotel staff. I was looking at him and unexpectedly he happened to glance at me. I smiled and nodded at him and got a smile and a nod in return. That, and some of the dazzling smiles that the hostesses flashed at me had me on cloud 9 until I got back home