Posts Tagged ‘Ian Rankin’

Ian Rankin recorded these video messages for us while in Kolkata as part of the Lit Sutra programme. Ian says: "A fascinating experience for me, I've never been to India before – and hopefully an interesting experience for the many readers that I'm meeting, fans not only of my books but of crime fiction, of British writing, of world literature… I'm not only bringing back those cultural experiences but also lots of books, written by the authors that I'm meeting. So it's a fantastic cross-cultural thing, a way to engage with the culture of another continent, and also hopefully give that continent a small sense of what it's like to be  a contemporary writer in Britain, in Scotland, at the beginning of the 21st century. I'm enjoying the trip thoroughly, I'm being very well looked after. I'm really enjoying the experience – thanks to the British Council for bringing me to India, and I hope I can come back some time!"

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

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.

 

 

 

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.

Having brought our flights forward to cope with Delhi’s thick fog, we are surprised when our flight cuts through the dense blanket and lands in Delhi. And Air India flight captain makes the proud announcement that we are the only aircraft to have landed in a long time because there Air India aircrafts are fitted with  CAT III landing systems.

The flight waits for about 45 minutes on the tarmac and then, when we get to the arrivals lounge, it’s another hour before the luggage arrives. So much for CAT III landing systems!

 

A very pleasant surprise awaits Ian at the hotel, though.

 

Shangri La – Eros Hotel New Delhi is our partner for Ian’s tour in Delhi. When we arrive, Ian’s given a grand Indian welcome, a gorgeous marigold and rose garland draped on him and a vermillion bindi applied on his forehead. As an incidental beneficiary of this red-carpet welcome, we are made to pose for a photograph. I blurt out that the snap would look like a wedding photograph and our wives may not be pleased and Ian cracks up!

We creep through Mumbai’s crush hour traffic to the Landmark Bookstore in Andheri. Andheri literally means darkness! The large bookstore is at the heart of a buzzing shopping mall, the cathedrals of modern India, and a large pop-up banner outside the store proclaims the visit of UK’s king of crime to the store. It’s a great venue and Ian is as impressed by its music collection as he is by its books. “I have not got out of the habit of my student days – all I do is I buy books and music and newspapers and like having an occasional pint in a bar,” he confides.

What can one see of a city as large and complex as Mumbai in a few hours? When in doubt, trust the driver. Does Ian want to visit museums and parks? No. Does he want to shop for nick-nacks, pick up dirt-cheap, as-good-as-original (not fakes, the driver insists) branded goods from Armani and Louis Vuitton from Fashion Street, or may be jewellery from Javeri Bazar? No, none of those either.

 

Slice of life is what interests Ian, and good café’s and bars, so we head off towards Marine Drive and Gateway of India. Our first stop is the stunning archictecture of Mumbai’s mainline railway station, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly Victoria Terminus, and still referred to as VT by Mumbai’s masses. It’s difficult to visit any of South Mumbai’s landmarks without the scary pictures of the carnage of 26/11 cropping up. Inside the station, heaving with crowds, each constituent of which determinedly ploughing towards individual destination. We talk about order in chaos, order a coffee, watch a trade union demonstration in full swing and policemen armed to the teeth every few steps and inevitably conversation veers towards 26/11.

 

“Why do you think they attacked Mumbai of all places?”, Ian asks. I forward the thesis that I find most credible which I heard the journalist Swapan Dasgupta air at the Debating Matters final in New Delhi recently. It was an attack on the idea of modernity by a gang of men who had no demands, I say. And Mumbai is perhaps the most frequently victim of terrorist activity among cities of its size and prominence in the world.

 

We visit the Gateway of India and look at the Taj Mahal hotel, heavily fortified now, and parts of its elegant, timeless façade still under scaffolding, giving the impression of a proud, grand old man leaning on crutches.

 

It’s lunchtime by now and we wander off to the iconic Leopold’s Café nearby.

 

Back to the hotel and then a few media interviews.

 

It’s a hectic tour. Our colleague Al Hagger called it a tour of death when he saw the schedule, but Ian’s holding up well, and as Renuka in Mumbai, Angeles in Delhi and Shonali in Kolkata approach him with more requests for interviews, he is very generous and accommodating.