Archive for January, 2010

We are happy to announce that crime and children's writer Colin Bateman will be joining Lit Sutra for activity in February

Read more about Ian's visit in The Hindu, The Economic Times, The Times of India, The Times (2), and a further article in The Telegraph

 

Melvin Burgess, and Robert Lewis have joined the Lit Sutra programme for mid February.

More details to follow!

Read Indian media reports of Ian Rankin's visit in the Calcutta Telegraph and Indian Express

 

In Chandigarh, we have Ian in conversation with Kunwar Sandhu, noted media personality from the city. Bipin very kindly asks me to be the MC of the ceremony and also join the conversation.

 

When we three step into the ballroom of Taj Chandigarh, over 200 people are waiting there to listen to Ian.

 

It’s a fascinating conversation Ian has with Kunwar Sandhu, very different in tenor from the two more literary conversations he has had in this tour with Jeet and Indrajit in Mumbai and Delhi respectively. Kunwar is incisive and it’s more Hard Talk than Coffee with Karan.

 

After the event, Ian is again swamped by requests for signature on his books, new and old. Hitesha and Vivek had lugged their entire collection of Rankins from Delhi and get each of them signed by Rankin.

 

It’s a massively successful event organised put together with great care and enthusiasm by Bipin and his team at the Chandigarh British Library.

 

 

We have arrived by train to Delhi and then waiting at the airport, to catch the flight to Kolkata, our next stop. I part ways with Ian here, as Sujata will be with Ian for the rest of his tour in Kolkata and then on to Chennai.

 

The last four days seem like a month to me in some ways, given the amount of complex logistics we have coordinated among the various teams managing Ian’s tour in Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Chennai and even on to Galle in Sri Lanka. But from another perspective, from that of spending time with one’s favourite authors, these four days seem to have passed in a couple of quick blinks. In between these blinks, I lived a dream – of travelling with Ian Rankin across India.

 

 

Woke up bleary eyed to a foggy morning. Headed for the New Delhi railway station and took the Shatabdi Express to Chandigarh, our next stop.

 

Ian enjoyed the journey, but instead of being the superfast express it usually is, Shatabdi today was this slow coach to Chandigarh, inching its way towards its destination through dense fog like a wary caterpillar. Ian read Amit Varma’s novel My Friend Sancho on the way.

 

 

 

After a bit of rest in the hotel, it’s time for the media interviews that Bipin, our British Library colleague in Chandigarh, has lined up for him.

 

Meanwhile, I receive a call from a young couple from Delhi – Hitesha and Vivek Deshmukh – who missed out on Ian’s event in Delhi and were driving down to Chandigarh to meet him. Hitesha is a huge Rankin fan and had read every Rebus novel. Could they please, please meet Ian?, Vivek pleads over the phone. Of course they can! That’s why we got Ian over to India. All they have to do is show up at the Taj Chandigarh event.

 

Taj Chandigarh is our partner for Ian’s visit to India’s most beautiful city.

 

After the interviews we go for a quick spin around town. Chandigarh is huge change from the frenetic world of Mumbai and Delhi and Ian, who wove in and out of rushing traffic very nervously to get to the Blues Bar in Connought Place in Delhi, observed how much more relaxed it is in Chandigarh.

 

We visit the famous Rock Gardens, created by Nek Chand, and Ian compares it to Anton Gaudi's work, especially Parc Gueil in Barcelona. We then have a quick look at Sukhna Lake on the fringes of the city.

 

 

In the backdrop of the exciting event at British Council in Delhi, our Delhi colleague Amitava (who did a sterling job of negotiating the hotel partnerships for Ian’s tour on our behalf and also mounted the event in Delhi) was on another exciting mission, coordinating how two stars, one from the world of Indian cinema and the other from the world of crime fiction, could meet.

 

Sharmila Tagore, one of the legends of Indian cinema and now the chair of the Censor Board (also mother to two Bollywood stars – Saif Khan and Soha Ali Khan) and one of Rankin’s biggest fans. Sharmila and her two daughters – Soha and Seba – are huge Rankin fans and Sharmila and her husband, Tiger Pataudi, one of the best cricket captains India has ever had, met Rankin last August in Edinburgh. She was in Edinburgh, invited by International Film Festival and she let it out in the media that one person she’d like to meet while in Edinburgh was Ian Rankin. Ian had invited the couple home.

 

 

Sharmila had changed her plans to rush back to Delhi from Lucknow to hear Rankin speak at the British Council but massive fog delayed her flight. However, Ian agreed to meet her at the hotel we were staying after the event when the reception was over – this was past 11 pm and we had an early morning flight to catch. But it was a fascinating conversation between two stars from two countries from two completely different fields – intercultural dialogue at its sublime best! With a little bit of help from a few wee drams of Macallan.

 

 

There are about a hundred people in our auditorium when the conversation starts, a little late to allow people to negotiate through the fog (which has thinned considerably).

Indrajit, who has been one of the 53 authors who was part of our delegation to LBF, is a Rankin fan and had even taken the Rebus tour of Edinburgh. Interestingly, just like Ian, Indrajit was part of a band in his early youth. The two hit an instant rapport on stage and the conversation flows like crisp dry wine, darkly humorous, a literary conversation starts resembling the polished performance of a well-choreographed two-member band.

 

 

 

The after-event party in the Charbagh, the quadrangle in the middle of our office, looks dramatic with the backdrop behind the bar, and coal braziers glimmering but still struggling to keep away the Dilli chill. Fans throng Ian, and there is a rush to get books signed and Ian obliges one and all, even scribbling little notes or sketches along with his autograph.

 

A couple of interviews lined up late in the afternoon and then there is a photoshoot around our office. Ian is given a tour of the office by Vijay Shankar, our Delhi colleague who manages the Young Audiences programme. There is a lovely display of books by all Lit Sutra authors from UK who have visited India or are about to. Ian is impressed with the busy bustling office.

 

 

 

His interviews and photoshoots over, we head out of the office, to nearby Connought Place, to have a look around and may be grab a quick drink. I sms Indrajit Hazra, novelist and deputy editor of the Hindustan Times and a connoisseur of all places wet and cheerful for his suggestion. He will be in conversation with Ian later in the evening, and Indy recommends the Blues and offers to join us soon.

 

 

So the event, the conversation between Ian and Indy, begins fairly early and in a way Rebus would have approved.