Email
Print
Share"The process of writing is so emotionally draining for any author that with passing years, many senior writers resort to verbal pyrotechnics to escape this emotional wrench," declares Amitav Ghosh, as he addresses his readers and fans at the opening of Crosswords' newest store in Bandra. As always, he's elegantly logical to a fault. The trademark kurta, white hair and sangfroid is intact, and accompanied by his family, Ghosh cuts a deceptively docile picture.
Ask him about his forthcoming projects though, and he pulls back. "Ideas are so fragile, like bubbles, premature speculation might just cause it to burst, you know!" But this reticence is only skin deep.A career strewn with academic honour, literary success, awards and veneration doesn't deter him from his primary passion - the sheer joy of writing a novel. "I am one of those people who don't really see his surrounding environment till he sits at his writing desk and travels back in memory to the moment. And then everything from the mundane to the grand gets amplified, and the world comes alive."
Ghosh's books, along with being great studies for characters in churn, have also been a mirror for India and events that have shaped its history. So what is the one Indian event in recent times that has provoked thought and comment in this acute observer?
"Well, there are actually two events. One would be the release of the Nanavati report, which to my mind is a very important event simply because it proves the existence of governance. Unlike many massacres that have simply been swept under the carpet of history, here at least the perpetrators have been brought to book. The other event - though I must confess I haven't seen the movie yet - is the release of 'The Rising'. To my mind Aamir has helped bring the year 1857 and its remarkable place in history to our notice, because in some ways this year and its events are even more important than 1947. I have met Aamir a few times in New York and found him incredibly intelligent, well-read and self-possessed. I admire his efforts in supporting a movie like this, especially since we live in times of resurgent neo-Imperialism ourselves, withIraq being the most burning example."
As the evening wears on, with the TV channels having captured their sound-bytes and his easy charm beginning to show signs of fatigue, it's time to take leave. But not without the parting shot: I ask Ghosh if he EVER does anything interesting and normal when he isn't writing his grand, sweeping novels? Pat comes the reply. "Of course I do! I love playing tennis, hanging out with my friends, rustling up a meal." Erm, cooking?!! Does his ladle measure up to his pen? "Well, I am a true Bengali at the end of the day; I have to be a foodie! And I cook pretty much everything as well, from Burmese to Italian, to French to Bengali."
Now I am well and truly stumped. Adios Monsieur Gaston Ghosh!
