Chitra Viraraghavan’s ‘The Americans’ – Book Launch at Landmark, Hyderabad (Part 2)

There was a nice moist-eye moment during the conversation when Chitra Viraraghavan’s own hero flashed into the limelight to soothe the parched throat of his damsel in cough-stress … caught in the crossfire between cough and concern, the bottle cap suffered some damage!!

The conversation was lively and energetic and after that the discussion was ‘thrown open to the public’ … the first question itself, I felt, was a googly and Chitra Viraraghavan was, if I am not mistaken, slightly bamboozled by it … ‘what is the message that you want to convey through your novel and its final denouement (one couldn’t miss hearing this word; what with an insistent ‘ment’ denting the air…three times…)?’  Chitra Viraraghavan managed to retain her composure and said that what she wants to say is in the novel and one should read the novel to see what she has to say … very tactfully answered … the questioner was not to be denied, he asked again, the same question … I told Vinod what answer Kamala Haasan had given to a similar question … ‘what message do you want to deliver through your film?’  Kamala Haasan answered, ‘I am not a postman to deliver messages.’  Vinod doubled up with laughter...

There weren’t too many questions and then Chitra Viraraghavan and Sridala Swami were asked to unwrap the novel and the book was launched officially in Hyderabad …

I must say this … the cover is stunning … The Americans and Chitra Viraraghavan in suspended 3D animation atop the city of garbled skyscrapers  and a genie like figure hovering above them all … approaching the city … in animated suspension …

We got ready to leave…Vinod bought a copy and got it signed by Chitra Viraraghavan... he said he wanted to meet his other novelist friend Harimohan Paruvu before we left .… (Vinod should join the company soon … then I can say, 'Vinod, my novelist friend' … ) then Vinod and I left …

(If Chitra Viraraghavan is reading this, then I want to tell her that I didn’t buy The Americans that day as I was seriously out of pocket … what with irregular inflow and arid accounts and all that … I will buy it as soon as it starts raining, hopefully soon, and get it signed by her, whenever she is in Hyderabad …)

(I had wanted to write about the novel launch, but the next day when I was browsing the net trying to see where The Americans was available online, I hit upon Harimohan Paruvu’s blog and he had already written about the book launch (http://harimohanparuvu.blogspot.in/2014/05/book-launch-of-americans-by-chitra.html) and he had written it so well that I left a comment saying that I had planned to write about the event, but since he had written such an evocative account of the launch that nothing more needs to be said … Harimohan was very gracious and replied that I too should write and that he looked forward to reading my account of the launch…so, Harimohan, here it is…)