We blocked the evening of 18th of May 2009 of our calendar to get a glimpse of one of the finest story teller of our generation… Sir Jeffrey Archer.
As the day arrived we did keep our standard time of arriving 2quarters past the scheduled time of 7… rain was at the mercy of our blame along with the usual Bangalore traffic… some times wonder if the traffic really improves in our city …. We would have to find an as effective alternate reason for our lack of integrity… hmm….
Anyways Jeff seems to be with ease at the 500 odd crowd straining themselves to get a view of him. at the Landmark bookstall in the citymall.. …. Probably the visits to other Indian cities and the previous one to Bangalore has made him get used to our very exclusive desi crowd-pschology. The next one hour was an insight to his latest work ‘Path of Glory’.... Must say his sense of humor was laudable while talking of his books and dodging questions of the audience. He made quite a few references to the grt RK Narayan and the members of our cricket team (cricket being his fav sport)…. What probably saddened us was his astonishment that RkN's home town dint have a statue of the great man… hmmm…. how true never thought of it….. (trivia for those who r from Bangalore : RKN’s fictitious place “Malgudi” was supposed to be inspired from ‘Mal’leswaram and basavana‘gudi)’
What followed was a 3 hour loooooooong Q for his autographed bestsellers....thats like 500ppl multiplied by at least 2to3 books each along with the pics which he smilingly obliged...... admired the enthusiasm n patience the man seem to have at 70.... We got 4 of his works signed by him ... and a couple of pics :)
The day turned out to be gud.... its not that i am a celeb worshiper that i had to hop around....but jus that we had to spend the evening and this was worthwhile a task.... it gave us an experience how it wud be to meet the author of ur childhood classics .... (childhood??? he is one of those i read even now)... well bought back memories of the first book of his i read..."shall we tell the President".... probably my first after the likes of Hardyboys, Enid Blyton, Famous Five, Agatha Christe, not to forget the hours spent on the likes of Tintin, Astrix and the Archies and the Jugheads…and ofcourse tinkle…all thanks to my cousin ignited the reading (n thinking) habit in me.....
…. phew those were the days!!!!
Spent the night pondering over the various books ‘ve read along with the reflection of the those early years of reading …
Wonder what kids of this generation call their first book as ……(Harry potter???)
As the day arrived we did keep our standard time of arriving 2quarters past the scheduled time of 7… rain was at the mercy of our blame along with the usual Bangalore traffic… some times wonder if the traffic really improves in our city …. We would have to find an as effective alternate reason for our lack of integrity… hmm….
Anyways Jeff seems to be with ease at the 500 odd crowd straining themselves to get a view of him. at the Landmark bookstall in the citymall.. …. Probably the visits to other Indian cities and the previous one to Bangalore has made him get used to our very exclusive desi crowd-pschology. The next one hour was an insight to his latest work ‘Path of Glory’.... Must say his sense of humor was laudable while talking of his books and dodging questions of the audience. He made quite a few references to the grt RK Narayan and the members of our cricket team (cricket being his fav sport)…. What probably saddened us was his astonishment that RkN's home town dint have a statue of the great man… hmmm…. how true never thought of it….. (trivia for those who r from Bangalore : RKN’s fictitious place “Malgudi” was supposed to be inspired from ‘Mal’leswaram and basavana‘gudi)’
What followed was a 3 hour loooooooong Q for his autographed bestsellers....thats like 500ppl multiplied by at least 2to3 books each along with the pics which he smilingly obliged...... admired the enthusiasm n patience the man seem to have at 70.... We got 4 of his works signed by him ... and a couple of pics :)
The day turned out to be gud.... its not that i am a celeb worshiper that i had to hop around....but jus that we had to spend the evening and this was worthwhile a task.... it gave us an experience how it wud be to meet the author of ur childhood classics .... (childhood??? he is one of those i read even now)... well bought back memories of the first book of his i read..."shall we tell the President".... probably my first after the likes of Hardyboys, Enid Blyton, Famous Five, Agatha Christe, not to forget the hours spent on the likes of Tintin, Astrix and the Archies and the Jugheads…and ofcourse tinkle…all thanks to my cousin ignited the reading (n thinking) habit in me.....
…. phew those were the days!!!!
Spent the night pondering over the various books ‘ve read along with the reflection of the those early years of reading …
Wonder what kids of this generation call their first book as ……(Harry potter???)
