An evening with Dan Brown

The evening started off badly. An unending queue of people - waiting at the venue for a couple of hours - was turned away because the Tata Theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, was full. It led to angry shouts and furious people clanging on the gates, demanding to be let in. 

Inside, the hall was packed to seating capacity. It was abuzz with chatter and lit up by the eerie glow of laptop lights and flashes of smartphones. The crowd was largely young, mostly made up of college students brandishing their passes and newly purchased Dan Brown books with pride.

Ravi Subramanium opened the proceedings. "Good evening. I am Dan Brown." The audience didn't take too kindly to that. A few seconds later, however, he had them on his side when he mentioned how the "Bombay crowd is more discerning than the Delhi one and as such events like these should be held in the city". He then said, "He (Brown) has sold 220 million copies... think of it as one for every Indian." A few laughs and one very loud snort of derision greeted it. 

As soon as Subramanium announced Dan Brown's name, the lights dimmed further and the two screens on stage flashed glimpses of the author's life. It felt like the start of a film, complete with background music. When Brown did walk on to the stage, he received a standing ovation, loud hoots (thankfully, no whistling) and continued applause. It left him speechless. 

He recovered enough to give his first quip of the evening: "I can't believe how young this crowd is. Isn't it past your bedtime?" That got the required chuckles and set the mood for the evening. 

It's safe to say Dan Brown did not give a lecture. He put up a show. He gave the audience something Ashwin Sanghi later spoke about while describing his own books: entertainment. He pulled out a (supposed) copy of the first book he wrote when he was five, he flashed the license plates of his parents' cars - his mother's reading KYRIE and his father's reading METRIC, he treated every static of the mike as a 'conspiracy', and despite claiming to have not given too many public speeches, he paused at just the right times for applause. 

It was a good show despite the fact that Brown read out his entire speech and that most of his answers appeared rehearsed. His topic 'Codes, Science and Religion' gave him ample space to talk about all his six books. He gave an extended look into his childhood, growing up as the son of a mathematician and a religious church organist. He grew up seeing both sides and yet was confused. When he was 13 years old, Brown happened to ask a priest about whether science or religion was fact. The priest gave him a solemn answer: "Good boys don't ask such questions". 

The topic soon veered to an Indian favourite, The Da Vinci Code. Brown spoke of the backlash he had received after the book was out, making him wonder what exactly he was thinking about when he wrote it. He had got all kinds of questions from people, he said, questions like: "Were you dropped on your head by a Catholic priest? Did God not answer your boyhood prayers? What happened to you as a child?. 

It wasn't all brickbats though. "There was a priest who came up to me and said he didn't care about my book…but after its release he saw a surge of people interested in Bible studies," Brown said.

Brown wasn't too keen on turning the book into a film because to him, "The magic of a book lies in its ability to be different things to different people." He shared an anecdote from the days of filming. The entire cast was to attend a party and had to wear kilts. So in a surreal scene, he was in a hotel room with Tom Hanks helping him wear his kilt when someone asked him, "When writing the book, did you ever think it would lead to you being in a hotel room and having Tom Hanks help you wear a skirt?"

At the end of the session, author Ashwin Sanghi engaged him in a discussion about, among other things, whether he timed his book releases according to a secret code. Sanghi asked him questions noted down for the audience and from social media. The funniest one was: "Since Robert Langdon is your alter ego, do you wear a Mickey Mouse watch?" He doesn't, although he has the watch that was worn in the film. The nicest compliment he has heard about his book? "An old lady told me this. Reading your books is like eating my vegetables, just that it tastes like ice cream."

Brown dropped hints about possibly having Robert Langdon come to India. "He would feel like a fish out of water because his main area of expertise is the Catholic Church," the author said.

Owing to a logistics issue Brown was unable to sign books, leading to a collective groan from the audience. But as they streamed out of the hall, they appeared happy. Some lingered to take photos in front of Brown's standees, others bought his books from the stall outside and somewhere in the distance, a girl was heard saying, "I can't believe it actually happened. I saw Dan Brown." 

The Penguin Annual Lecture 2014 was held in association with Crossword.