Flood of Fire . . . finally . . .

After waiting and waiting and waiting, the Ibis finally berthed . . . Amitav Ghosh’s Flood of Fire, the third and last in the Ibis Trilogy released in the last week of May this year . . . I had pre-ordered the book on Amazon and received my copy on 31^st May . . . and couldn’t wait to start reading . . . but first, I had to save the exquisite gold and red cover . . . 

Actually, I had planned to re-read Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke and get ready for the Flood of Fire, but the best laid plans of men and so on and so forth . . . anyway, I started to read Flood of Fire and slowly the characters and events started coming into focus . . . but I could read only till page 55  . . . the last set of internal tests at college started the next day and I was flooded with answer scripts for correction and that occupied me for the rest of the week . . . and I had barely finished them then the language lab tests started this Monday onwards and I am stuck in the high seas till the end of this week, more or less . . . and I didn’t want to read Flood of Fire in flickers and flashes . . . at least three hours at a stretch would do very well, actually . . . a real blaze . . . let’s see . . .

There were reviews and excerpts and interviews in newsmagazines and papers the whole of the last week of May and first week of June . . . all very nice, but I like to read interviews with Amitav Ghosh . . . and look forward to the launch and reading in Hyderabad, and I hope there is one . . . and the best part would be to have a picture taken with my really favourite writer and have his autograph on the Flood of Fire . . .

Waiting eagerly for this book in 2015 … the third in the Ibis Trilogy …

After the first and second novels in this trilogy, I was looking forward to the third novel … book launch forecasts in early 2014 indicated that the third one wouldn’t be out in the year and I was disappointed … it had been quite some since the second novel was launched and devoured and the wait was beginning to become unbearable …

Around four weeks back, a small report with the author’s photo in The Week gave out the good news that the third novel in the trilogy is ready and would be released sometime in mid 2015 … and the name of the novel too was mentioned … aha … I logged on to Amazon.in and typed the name and there it was … no, the book was not for sale, not even pre-order, but you could sign up for an ‘alert’ … a space for your email and a submit button and the amazonians would let you know when the book would be released … so, it is confirmed now that Amitav Ghosh’s third novel in the Ibis Trilogy would be released this year … 

During the days after reading the second novel, River of Smoke, I started this guessing game of the probable names the third novel would have … the first one was called Sea of Poppies … somewhere I was sure that the title would have some reference to ‘water’ … and after ‘Sea’ narrowed down to ‘River,’ I speculated that the title of the third would refer to a further narrowed down waterbody … ‘Lake’ perhaps … ‘Pond’ was too small …  ‘Stream’ may be … or even ‘Waterfall’ …

When I read the title of the third novel, I saw that there sure was a reference to ‘water,’ but not ‘Lake’ or ‘Stream’ or ‘Waterfall,’ but ‘Flood!’ … and there was ‘Fire’ too … the third novel in the Ibis Trilogy is called ‘Flood of Fire’  … and amazon has a picture of the book jacket … I think it is the cover photo of the American edition, and it is a little dry for my liking  … I liked the vibrant jacket designs of the Indian hardback editions of Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke and I hope when the Indian hardback edition of Flood of Fire releases, it would be as beautiful as the book jackets of the first and the second novels … those of you who want to read more about Flood of Fire, you could check out this link … http://www.amazon.in/Flood-Fire-Novel-Ibis-Trilogy/dp/0374174245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420700315&sr=8-1&keywords=flood+of+fire … but for now, I am waiting with only this photo of the book jacket for company …  

Amitav Ghosh and an admirer...

There are some things that I am not confident of writing about, though they are very close to me, almost like vital parts of whatever is my intellectual make up... though I have written two posts on Amitav Ghosh, these are mostly external to his works...I enjoy Amitav-da's novels tremendously and derive great joy and satisfaction after reading them...I have my favourites and at present they are In an Antique Land, The Calcutta Chromosome, and Dancing in Cambodia, At large in Burma...and Sea of Poppies will soon join this list...there are various reasons why these books have become my favourites...I have read his other novels and liked them and enjoyed them immensely...there is this reverence that I have for Amitav-da as a writer, which I slowly discovered growing in me over the past 10 years...I don't know why...He is great story teller...no doubt about it...and even before I had seen him for the first time and heard him speak, I somehow felt that Amitav-da was a very soft-spoken person and a powerful and dedicated writer...his writings has a very different quality...and, even though at some point of time I felt that I should maybe write a paper on one of his novels, I could not bring myself to even start work on this little project... therefore, meeting him and hearing him talk was a big experience for me... especially this time, I wouldn't have made it if my cousin Shubha (Chennai) hadn't come forward to help Shruti, when Shruti was frantically hunting for passes... I feel happy when my family and friends indulge me, but it is also a tremendous feeling of responsibility...

I can share my reading experiences of Amitav Ghosh's novels with you, I can talk about his novels...things that I liked... but I will never be able to write about his novels...maybe I am a mad fan ... but, as long as there is a method...I am ok with it...

An evening with Amitav Ghosh

Hi...

Yesterday, June 24,2008, was a wonderful day...I met or rather saw my literary idol Amitav Ghosh...heard him speak and read out from his latest novel Sea of Poppies... this was the second straight time that I was attending a 'reading' by Amitav-da... the first time I heard and saw him was when he had come to Hyderabad for the launch of The Hungry Tide...I must thank Shruti profusely for running around and trying and succeeding to arrange an invite for the event...She was really furious at me for making her run around, when Vinod told us that invitations are not required as the organisers had announced the event and venue in the papers...and that he just walked in...

I don't have to tell that I was very happy...and even mustered enough courage to stand up and make an observation about the bhojpuri songs that Amitav-da had included in his novel...and also about my experience of reading the novel with the missing pages...I also videographed a small portion where Amitav-da is reading from Sea of Poppies...I will treasure this video...

I must thank Shruti, without whose efforts and support, I would not have made it to the reading yesterday evening...she also patiently took photographs when I went up to Amitav-da to get my copy of the novel autographed...

Thanks to ITC Hotels Kakatiya for arranging this beautiful book-reading evening in the sparkling Hyder Mahal hall and thanks to Penguin for bringing out a good looking book and for their excellent production values...

First encounter with Amitav Ghosh's new novel "Sea of Poppies"

Hi folks…
I’m back…I was away on a short vacation and visited Gaya (Bihar) and Ranchi (Jharkhand)…Gaya is where Shruti’s parents live…and this time, the visit, though short, was memorable…for many reasons…I felt more comfortable this time around…I was visiting Gaya for the third time…and the visit to Bodh Gaya was extremely satisfying, more because this time we had our own camera…the soaring tower of the majestic Mahabodhi Temple fascinated me no end…I will give out details and photos in subsequent posts…

A few days before I left for Gaya, I was so busy wrapping up things at my college that I found no time to post…it is stale news now, but when it happened I was eager with anticipation…I had bought my own copy of Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies…the cover was so beautifully designed and light coloured that I realised that it would become dirty very soon and as is my usual practice, I covered it with a transparent polythene sheet…I started reading immediately…and was soon engrossed in the lives of the novel’s various inhabitants…but I couldn’t read much…I thought I’d be travelling soon and it would be a good thing to read the novel on the train…soon, the day of our departure to Kolkata (en route Gaya) arrived and I eagerly returned to the Sea of Poppies…so many reviews have already been written by eminent critics and writers and they are all available on the net… I won’t go into the details…I was enjoying the wonderful multi textured world that Amitav Ghosh had created and most of all I liked the way Amitav-da used different tongues – laskari, bhojpuri, the international sailors’ argot, the Anglo-Indian patois, etc., to take the reader into a different world…a different time…I have always admired Amitav-da’s ability to seamlessly weave in uncommon research-based topics (malaria research in The Calcutta Chromosome, cetology in The Hungry Tide, opium trade in Sea of Poppies, 12th century India and modern Egypt in In an Antique Land and so on) into the narrative of the novel…with such ease that you don’t see the effort…but more than this, it is Amitav-da’s favourite themes that one sees delineated with great concern here…

I have to get back to what I wanted to write today…I was reading the novel with great pleasure…and enjoying the reading very much…Amitav-da is a master storyteller …and if you have read The Calcutta Chromosome and The Hungry Tide…you know that he is a master of suspense too…I was somewhere after page 300 and as I finished a page on the left and looked up to start the page on the right…I felt odd…something was wrong…the previous page had ended with a full-stop…and now this page began mid sentence…I realised what was wrong and looked down to see the page number…after 314 it was 283… these things happen (I am reminded of a similar incident with another celebrated book…next post, ok?) and I flipped the remaining pages to see if 315 onwards occurred later…instead it was 283 to 314 once again and the novel resumes from 347 on…I was frustrated, disconcerted, and terribly irritated and all this in the train…it was evening around 7.00 PM…Shruti, always practical, asked me to call up the bookshop, Book Selection Centre, Secunderabad, and inform them about this damaged copy… we wouldn’t be back for another 15 days and who knows what the bookwallah will say…and I was mentally scanning my study trying to locate the bill/receipt…I dialled the number and the phone on the other side was ringing…nobody was picking it up…I tried again…and again…the Book Selection Centre people don’t delay answering the phone…then it dawned on me that it was Sunday and the shop would be closed…the frustration and irritation remained…then Shruti told me that it is only a matter of 30 pages and in such a large novel nothing much would have transpired…I was unenthusiastic…and continued to sulk…and then with nothing much to do and with a scowl, I went back to the novel…I started reading from 347 onwards and completed the novel…but the feeling of having eaten curd rice without pickles still remained… and we reached Gaya the next day…and sometime midday, I called up Book Selection Centre and told them about this problem…they told me that they would replace the book…I was relieved…then, another thing started nagging me…I had written Shruti’s and my name on the inside title page and date of purchase and had covered the book with transparent polythene…I was wondering whether the shopwallah would take back such a copy…this thing kept coming back and harried me no end…we returned on the 28th evening…it was late in the evening and I was tired…I decided to go to Book Selection Centre on 30th (Monday) and return the flawed copy of the novel…and that’s what I did on Monday evening…I went sheepishly with a silly smile to the counter and showed them my copy of the novel…he (after almost 15 years of purchasing books from Book Selection Centre, I still don’t know the names of the owners there…shame on me…but I know them and they know me…that’s enough, no…?) promptly said that he would replace the copy and proceeded to do so calling his assistant…I said that I have covered it…he said, ‘no problem, sir’…I said, I have also written my name, will that be a problem…he said, ‘no problem, sir, we will replace the book…’ I was so happy and relieved…and then he proceeded to very carefully (with a paper knife) remove the transparent polythene cover that I had stuck with a tape to the hard cover of the book…after removing it, he then proceeded to cover the new copy with it, again very carefully…I was touched with his gesture…I told him, I’d do it once I’m home…but he insisted and I didn’t know what to say… I was more than happy…

I am going to read Sea of Poppies once again…and thank the good people at Book Selection Centre while sailing on the Sea of Poppies…