They came from South Africa, and England, and Toronto, and Goregaon, and Pedder Road: Post-Mumbai Launch notes
So it’s over.
The Crossword Kemp’s Corner launch of Armies of Hanuman was yesterday and I’m typing these words on the morning of Friday, 17 June 2005.
It’s always difficult to sum up such events.
Often, it’s like writing itself.
You sometimes write (or at least, I do) in the most undesirable circumstances, feeling rushed and pushed and otherwise pressured, and you’re convinced that what you’re producing is utter tripe. And yet, when you read it later with a cool head, you’re shocked to see it’s actually pretty darn good.
And on other occasions, when you’re most relaxed, in your favourite nook, aircooled and comfortable as a bear can be in winter, with a gold-plated Parker and writing paper as smooth as a baby’s backside, and you think you’re producing masterly prose or lyric…and later, when you read back through what you wrote, you see with a sinking feeling that it’s…utter tripe.
As they say in Hollywood: Who cares if you’re happy making the film. All we care about is whether the audience is happy watching it!
But sometimes, life gives you both in one neat package.
That’s what the Crossword Kemp’s Corner AoH launch was like: both good feelings and good results.
The turnout was good. Not great. Not as massive as I hoped for, and perhaps expected. Some people who’d said they’d be there didn’t turn up. Some people who did turn up didn’t seem to belong there.
But the former were few, and the latter were even fewer.
In short, it was a sizeable crowd, if not a massive mob, and it was an enthusiastic, attentive one.
They seemed to enjoy the reading (which I didn’t enjoy at all – I never do, I can never understand why books which are written to be read silently should be read aloud, although Anahita Uberoi, my co-reader, was simply marvelous, especially in comparison with my fumbling attempts)…they seemed to enjoy the Q&A, which I did too, since it’s about talking one-on-one (as those of you who were there must have noticed I always note names of speakers and always remember them) and about things that interest me hugely (my books, the puranas, writing and publishing), and even seemed to tolerate the long line waiting for their books to be signed.
There were a few snafus I must mention. For even the finest chocolate cake has its occasional bitter bits (sometimes those are the best part!).
For starters, I need to apologize to those who came early expecting me to do the same.
The truth is, I got caught up in last-minute media interviews which kept stretching longer and longer.
That could certainly have been avoided, had Crossword agreed to let me do interviews in the days preceding the launch.
But they were very particular about that point: they wished me to do interviews only in the store, only on the evening of the launch.
This was also the reason why the Q&A session was cut short, the microphones removed from my table like the disappearing mike in the Oscar Ceremonies, and the signings rushed through to accomodate the mediapersons waiting for interviews.
I’m sorry about that. I feel very strongly that media interviews are apart from the business of a book launch.
The only focus of a book launch should be on the readers attending, their queries, their (often rare) opportunity to ‘meet the author’ and the signing of their books and the little interchanges that occur over those signings.
I’m sorry to say that these most vital parts were rushed through and that even I was left feeling unsatisfied.
Several people who were very keen to meet me were unable to do so.
Several people left messages later that they took one look at the throng of mediapersons waiting to interview me and didn’t have the heart to wait.
Several people were forced to walk away disappointed, either with their books unsigned or without being able to meet me personally.
Now, those things are just not on.
I accomodated the media as best as I could – I had no choice. If I hadn’t, they would have eaten me alive the next day.
And as we all know, books and authors get far too little mediaspace in today’s film-dominated world anyway.
(Happily, though, my other film project, which ‘hijacked’ a couple of other newspaper articles, didn’t disrupt the launch evening, perhaps because I’d made it clear that this evening was about the book launch, not my other projects.)
At the end, in a supremely ironic twist, even Crossword was unable to get me to sign their stash of books, the ones they keep in their ‘signed copies’ section.
But those complaints aside – and I admit I’m a crotchety man at times – all in all, it was a good evening. I enjoyed the company of those genuine Ramayana fans who turned up. As well as those well wishers who came and bought books for the first time, or expressed interest in doing so.
In particular, thank you, Atharva Dandekar.
Thank you, Akshay Bhasker.
Thank you, Jaideep Varma (author of Local) and friend Murzbaan (hope I have the spelling right).
Thank you, Elvis D’Silva and Sonal.
Thank you, Sanjay Khare.
Thank you, Vaibhav Jain, Pragati, Maa, Saumyaa.
Thank you, Ayush (my son, who was covering the event with our Handycam), Yashka (my daughter), Bithika (my wife), for being with me in all I do, and without whom I couldn’t do a thing.
Thank you, Bharti Jaffri. I’m so sorry I couldn’t get to meet your historian friend…but we’re going to all see Parineeta together. It’s a promise!
Thank you, Lalith Khanvilkar and Satish, for coming from so far for an event that must have seemed so alien to you both.
Thank you, to all those whom I didn’t see clearly (apologies) or whose names I’m neglecting to mention here.
Thank you to all those Ramayana fans who were passing through Mumbai from their homelands in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Toronto, UK, USA and I don’t know where else.
Thank you for the wonderful things you said about me and the books.
Thanks for being there, and for buying the books and taking the time to listen and share your views.
Thank you, Vijji, for being a wonderful hostess and one of the first fans of the Ramayana.
Thank you, Bhaktawar, for doing a great job of coordinating the event as best as you could. And for lugging piles of AoH copies around for the video shoots.
I’ll even thank Priyanka and the rest of the Crossword staff for doing their best to make the event a success.
Perhaps next time, you’ll separate the media and the reader events, and let interviews be done before the event, so a few more people can be informed (through the media) that a launch is taking place. (I’m continuing to receive hugely disappointed emails and smses from fans who only found out after the event, most through the TV news reports done last night.)
And perhaps next time, you’ll let the book launch be about an author and his or her readers, not about sound bytes and schedules.
But all that said and done, it was a great evening. And everyone did their best.
Including myself.
So love you all. And see you next, when I see you. Which, I’m sorry to say, will not be for a long while in Mumbai at least, not for another year, perhaps longer.
But whenever that does happen, we’ll try to make it even better.
This entry was posted on Friday, June 17th, 2005 at 10:55 am. It is filed under Ashok.
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