Even while I was in the second semester of the PGDES course
at CIEFL, I had more or less decided to work on George Lamming’s novels for my
MPhil in case I got a seat in the programme.
This was mainly because I, very surprisingly, found all of Lamming’s six
novels in the CIEFL library. Some
sensible and informed soul must have recommended that the library should buy
the novels of this important voice in postcolonial literature. I had already read In the Castle of My Skin,
and before I left Hyderabad after completing the PGDES course, I went around asking
friendly seniors like Pradeep Sharma to borrow these five novels on their
library cards. I wanted to take these
novels with me, finish reading them, and when I’d return to Hyderabad for the
MPhil entrance exam, I could return them.
And since I was a very popular ‘participant’ (ho ho ho ho ho … [oh, come on maan, allow the guy to indulge in
some deceptive dreams…]), I was a known commodity and a couple of seniors
humoured me and borrowed these books on their cards for me to read.
I read all five of them during the break … in
swelteringly hot and sweaty Sultanpur … and also in Chandigarh, where I went to
attend my classmate Priya Bhatnagar’s wedding.
So, I read the other five novels of Lamming – The Emigrants, Of
Age and Innocence, Season of Adventure, Water
with Berries, and Natives of My Person – during this
break. By the time the MPhil interviews
came around, I decided to work exclusively on In the Castle of My Skin, and this was also endorsed by my
research supervisor. It was also
suggested that I could extend my research and work on all the novels for my
PhD, if things get that far. Though
things went far, as far as PhD was concerned, my research into Lamming’s novels
stopped with my MPhil dissertation. But
as I said in the previous post, Lamming continued to occupy space in my mind … In
the Castle of My Skin would never leave me.
Those other five novels slowly receded from memory. I don’t remember anything that I read of
these novels in those summer months in 1992.
But I would keep an eye open for these novels whenever I went to
bookshops, at Abids, at Best Books sales, etc.
I also tried to see if they are available in online bookshops. After all this, I got lucky in late January
this year. I found two Lamming novels on
dealstar, a used books portal on amazon – The Emigrants and Season
of Adventure. The prices were on
the higher side, considering that these were being sold as used books. But they was not prohibitive and they were
Lamming novels and I pressed the button.
There were two other books that I ordered along with these two Lamming
novels, but that is for another post. For
some reason, it took ten days for the package to arrive. I opened the package and saw that The
Emigrants was a paperback edition and Season of Adventure was a
hardback.
I opened The Emigrants and flipped
through. Going by the cover, I think the
CIEFL library has the same edition. Season
of Adventure is a hardback and hardbacks come with an outer cover and
all that. I opened the book and I saw
some writings on the blank page inside.
I read that and then I realized … Oh my god! Oh my god! This was unbelievable …. look what
I found …
An author signed copy of George Lamming’s novel!!! No less!!
I held the book in my hands and just kept looking at it … then I ran with the book to Shruti and showed this to her … isn’t that great, she said … a real surprise gift for a Lamming fan …
Though I have got copies of books signed by some of my
favourite authors, they were all intended and happened live. I could never have hoped to get a book signed
by Lamming. It would have to be either
me going to England or Lamming coming to India.
And this was the second time I got lucky with finding author-signed
copies while buying secondhand books.
Remember, I got an author-signed copy of an Ian Rankin novel? (Don’t remember? Then read it here)
I settled down after some time, but the excitement didn’t
wear off. The more I read the
‘dedication,’ the more I started wondering … ‘Who is this Mike Henshaw?’
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