Last Friday I had the opportunity to meet one of my favorite authors. As part of the tour organized by Landmark, he was here at Bangalore Landmark on the 23rd. This event witnessed a huge gathering. The event was supposed to start by 7 Pm and well it did start on time. But book lovers had gathered at the venue well before 6.Since it was raining heavily that day, I was of the impression that not many would turn up. But to my surprise there was huge gathering even by 6.50 when I stepped in. I had to stand right at the end of the hall to get a glimpse of him.
Evening started with a very hilarious speech by Lord Archer before he answered few questions from the audience. Then he sat down to sign copies for huge number of fans who had queued in. I was one of them and had to stand in a chaotic queue for about 45 minutes before I could get a copy of his latest book signed. He did sign each one of those copies with a smile and with the huge queue like that one I guess he would have done it till well past midnight. I was worried that I might get nothing more than a few strokes scribbled on my copy as I guess I was the 300th guy to get one. But surprising it was as clear as his first one. I did mention this to him while getting my copy signed, for which he thanked me by getting up from his chair :). I should confess that I was moved by this gesture of him.
Couple of things that struck me about him right throughout the evening was his humbleness and the witty way in which he put each sentence and word through. Though I have read a lot about his interest about cricket I came to know the passion with which he follows the game. He is an ardent fan of Sachin, Dravid, Gavaskar and Kapil.
He said he had come across the name of R.K. Narayan a lot on this tour and decided to get his hands on some of his books. Said he loves R.K.N's work and that he has already read 5 books of his in the last 5 days. The author was also critical about lack of education, our indifference towards politics. Also his experience on his first tour to USA to promote his "Kane and Able" was very funny.
Though his entire speech was enjoyable few quotes from his speech that I can recall:
"20-20 is not cricket, its entertainment. Cricket is Laxman and Dravid surviving an entire day against Australia", when asked about his view on IPL.
"I am like Shane Warne, leading and winning with a bunch of hopeless", when one of them asked whom he considers to be his biggest competitor.
Financial crisis made me write my first book ironically I named it “not a penny more not penny less”.
"The way they (Indian cricket team) behaved in Australia, when touring abroad, they are the best ambassadors,"
"He is a genius" on R.K.Narayan.
“In my view Shakespeare is the greatest story teller of all times, if we didn’t know the end of Romeo and Juliet we would be in the edge of our seats."
“Though my first book will always be close to my heart, this book (A Prisoner by birth) is the best work of mine so far."
“In US and UK one book purchased book is read by 3 people, in Australia 7. In India its 25, I don’t know if this tells anything about the economy of the country, but most of the comments I get on my website are from Indians."
RJ
