Think of Amitav Ghosh and the picture that leaps to mind is of a grave, sophisticated writer. He is all of the above. He's also what one would expect a visiting professor at Harvard and a recipient of the Padma Shri and the Arthur C Clarke awards to be. But what is delightfully refreshing are the stories the much-feted tells-some even more engrossing than the ones he writes.
Like how the research for his new book, Sea Of Poppies, had him watching old Bhojpuri films. "Oh, they're hilarious! There's slapstick comedy, stupid fun, the music is wonderful and the sound of the Bhojpuri language is so sweet... Of the many I saw, one title that comes to mind is Maa Jaisan Bhauji Hamar," he chuckles. Has he seen any of the latest ones? "With Manoj Tewari?" he asks, surprisingly well-informed on infra dig issues. "No. I hear they're typical Bollywoodish fare." So Bollywood doesn't appeal to him? "No, no... I used to love old Raj Kapoor movies, but the whole angry young man era didn't excite me. Of the recent movies I've watched, I thought Main Hoon Na and Khosla Ka Ghosla were great."
Not the sort of conversation one expects to have with the awe-inspiring Amitav Ghosh, he of The Calcutta Chromosome, The Hungry Tide and The Glass Palace fame. Ghosh laughs. "I've had three prominent Bollywood movie directors approach me about making The Hungry Tide into a movie," he says. "I'm open to the idea but nothing's been finalised."
As part of the research for the first in his Ibis trilogy (Ibis is the ship at the heart of the epic saga), Ghosh took a crash course in sailing so that he could get the hang of the sea. "I got on to a ship with a real English sea dog, parrot on his shoulder, and we sailed in the Caribbean for a week. How could I write the book without having actually sailed?" Wonder what sort of research J K Rowling did, one thinks aloud. "Oh, she probably went to magic school," he says, tongue firmly in cheek.
Ghosh's books are known to be rooted in history. "I'm fascinated by history, and it has always thrown up interesting stories," he says. "When I visited Mauritius to research Sea Of Poppies, I came across ID cards of early labourers in the poppy fields. They're still in good condition and have pencil scribbles in Bengali on the back. I was surprised and thrilled to see it there."
Ghosh has, naturally, a lot to say about the Opium Wars. "Opium is like fire-you need it but it has to handled very carefully. When used right, it's a miracle drug. It paid for the British empire and, at one time, was the single-largest commodity India was producing. In fact, the Indian economy itself was addicted to opium. From being a cottage industry, the trade became the biggest money-spinner for the country. We were so dependent on opium trade that I found a major conservative Indian newspaper actually saying that opium is terrible but financial losses are worse!"
Will the next two books in the trilogy bring him to modern-day narco-terrorism? "Considering that I only covered eight months in the first one, I doubt that very much," he laughs. "But who said it's a trilogy? Maybe that's how I saw it before I began writing. I write the kind of books I enjoy reading. And I can see myself writing this story for many many years."
Ghosh researched Burma in The Glass Palace. "And I am angry and outraged at how the junta mismanaged the effects of the cyclone. It was a very bad idea to politicise the whole thing. The situation there is depressing and when I think of my friends there, it upsets me to no end. But I have also made a very conscious effort to resist the temptation to speak for Burma. Too many people are ventriloquising Burma when what the country actually needs is a platform from where the Burmese can speak for themselves. In India we need to find a channel to create consciousness about the situation in Burma. But I don't know how that will happen," he trails off.
India, of course, is another story. "A marked change that I've noted from the time when I was young is the unleashing of an incredible energy in India," he says. "And it is sometimes misdirected but it's still a welcome change from the dead weight of bureaucracy that hung about when I was a young man." The times, they sure have changed. "It's great to be an Indian writer today. When I started, there was nothing happening in the publishing industry. Today, the world is our audience."
Amitav Ghosh's world, "when I'm not on a book tour", is his family. "I lead a very quiet life. I try and keep up with my kids' interests but cannot make head or tail of either fashion or computer games so they think I'm pretty uncool." Even if he does go sailing and watches Bhojpuri movies.
Like how the research for his new book, Sea Of Poppies, had him watching old Bhojpuri films. "Oh, they're hilarious! There's slapstick comedy, stupid fun, the music is wonderful and the sound of the Bhojpuri language is so sweet... Of the many I saw, one title that comes to mind is Maa Jaisan Bhauji Hamar," he chuckles. Has he seen any of the latest ones? "With Manoj Tewari?" he asks, surprisingly well-informed on infra dig issues. "No. I hear they're typical Bollywoodish fare." So Bollywood doesn't appeal to him? "No, no... I used to love old Raj Kapoor movies, but the whole angry young man era didn't excite me. Of the recent movies I've watched, I thought Main Hoon Na and Khosla Ka Ghosla were great."
Not the sort of conversation one expects to have with the awe-inspiring Amitav Ghosh, he of The Calcutta Chromosome, The Hungry Tide and The Glass Palace fame. Ghosh laughs. "I've had three prominent Bollywood movie directors approach me about making The Hungry Tide into a movie," he says. "I'm open to the idea but nothing's been finalised."
As part of the research for the first in his Ibis trilogy (Ibis is the ship at the heart of the epic saga), Ghosh took a crash course in sailing so that he could get the hang of the sea. "I got on to a ship with a real English sea dog, parrot on his shoulder, and we sailed in the Caribbean for a week. How could I write the book without having actually sailed?" Wonder what sort of research J K Rowling did, one thinks aloud. "Oh, she probably went to magic school," he says, tongue firmly in cheek.
Ghosh's books are known to be rooted in history. "I'm fascinated by history, and it has always thrown up interesting stories," he says. "When I visited Mauritius to research Sea Of Poppies, I came across ID cards of early labourers in the poppy fields. They're still in good condition and have pencil scribbles in Bengali on the back. I was surprised and thrilled to see it there."
Ghosh has, naturally, a lot to say about the Opium Wars. "Opium is like fire-you need it but it has to handled very carefully. When used right, it's a miracle drug. It paid for the British empire and, at one time, was the single-largest commodity India was producing. In fact, the Indian economy itself was addicted to opium. From being a cottage industry, the trade became the biggest money-spinner for the country. We were so dependent on opium trade that I found a major conservative Indian newspaper actually saying that opium is terrible but financial losses are worse!"
Will the next two books in the trilogy bring him to modern-day narco-terrorism? "Considering that I only covered eight months in the first one, I doubt that very much," he laughs. "But who said it's a trilogy? Maybe that's how I saw it before I began writing. I write the kind of books I enjoy reading. And I can see myself writing this story for many many years."
Ghosh researched Burma in The Glass Palace. "And I am angry and outraged at how the junta mismanaged the effects of the cyclone. It was a very bad idea to politicise the whole thing. The situation there is depressing and when I think of my friends there, it upsets me to no end. But I have also made a very conscious effort to resist the temptation to speak for Burma. Too many people are ventriloquising Burma when what the country actually needs is a platform from where the Burmese can speak for themselves. In India we need to find a channel to create consciousness about the situation in Burma. But I don't know how that will happen," he trails off.
India, of course, is another story. "A marked change that I've noted from the time when I was young is the unleashing of an incredible energy in India," he says. "And it is sometimes misdirected but it's still a welcome change from the dead weight of bureaucracy that hung about when I was a young man." The times, they sure have changed. "It's great to be an Indian writer today. When I started, there was nothing happening in the publishing industry. Today, the world is our audience."
Amitav Ghosh's world, "when I'm not on a book tour", is his family. "I lead a very quiet life. I try and keep up with my kids' interests but cannot make head or tail of either fashion or computer games so they think I'm pretty uncool." Even if he does go sailing and watches Bhojpuri movies.
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