[Goanet-News] Tiny Goa seen to be "such a literary place"

[Goanet News]

Tiny Goa seen to be "such a literary place"

FN

Goa is "such a literary place", says one of the big names of
Indian writing in English, Amitav Ghosh, who currently has
set up base at the Bardez village of Aldona himself.

Amitav Ghosh was speaking at the Goa-launch of his new book
'Sea of Poppies', held on Tuesday evening to a elite
audience, a mix of locals and expats, at the Calangute-based
book boutique Literati, located at Gauravaddo.

Ghosh, now 52 and one of the current crop of prominent Indian
writers in the world stage, said: "One of the real pleasures
of being in Goa -- and one of the aspects of Goa that is very
neglected -- is that Goa is such a literary place."

"Dom Moraes, though not resident in Goa, is one of the
writers completely formative in my childhood and college
years," said the writer.

Dom's book, 'My Son's Father' was one of the greatest memoirs
to come out of India, in Ghosh's view. "He was to be the
greatest Indian prose stylist, with the most beautiful
sentences," said Amitav, even as Dom Moraes' aunt and the
sister of the late editor Frank Moraes, Dr Teresa Albuquerque
of Anjuna, sat on in the audience.

A small but growing number of writers and artistic persons
have based themselves in Goa in recent years too.

Ghosh said he had been coming to Goa for 30 years, and one of
the pleasures was "to have discovered the literary
tradition."

"I say this though I read neither Konkani nor Portuguese, but
what we can read through English is so interesting and so
vital," he commented.

He specifically pointed to the work of Victor Rangel-Ribeiro
('Tivolem'), Margaret Mascarenhas ('Skin'), F.N. Souza's
memoirs, the Goa-based writer Rahul Shrivsastav, and Konkani
writer's Damodar Mauzo's 'Karmelin' (now available in English
translation, which Ghosh termed "another discovery").

Ghose also was lavish in his praise of the Goa's writer's
group which meets in Panjim regularly. "The discussions I've
been to are some of the most interesting and informed
discussions on literature anywhere in the world," said he.

"It's such a pleasure to be here. To see so many friends,
neighbours...," said Ghosh, the 1956-born Indian-Bengali
author and literary critic known for his work in the English
language.

Ghosh lives in New York with his wife, author-editor Deborah
Baker. Online encyclopedia the Wikipedia says: "Ghosh has
recently purchased a property in Goa and is returning to India."

By way of background, in 1999, Ghosh joined the faculty at
Queens College, City University of New York as Distinguished
Professor in Comparative Literature.

He has also been a visiting professor to the English
department of Harvard University since 2005. Ghosh is working
on a trilogy to be published by Penguin Books India.

Ghosh's latest work of fiction is Sea of Poppies (2008), an
epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars which encapsulates
the colonial history of the East. He declined to spell out
how the book would work out in the following two volumes,
saying this would emerge as he worked on it.

His other novels, as noted in online websites, are The Circle
of Reason (1986, a vivid and magical story about a Bengali
master-weaver accused of terrorism), The Shadow Lines (1990,
touching on themes of emigration, exile, and cultural
displacement), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995, mainstream
thriller and science fiction novel), The Glass Palace (2000,
an epic novel of Burma and Malaya over a span of 115 years)
and The Hungry Tide (2004, set in the alluring but
treacherous Sundarban archipelago).

In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale
(1992) has been called "a leisurely blend of travelogue,
history and cross-cultural analysis".

Says the Library Journal: "Ghosh first read about a medieval
(12th century) Jew and his Indian slave while a student at
Oxford. He became fascinated almost to the point of
obsession. After studying Arabic, he enrolled at a university
in Alexandria, Egypt to perform further research. A professor
found him lodgings in an nearby village."

The Shadow Lines won the Sahitya Akademi Award, India's most
prestigious literary award. The Calcutta Chromosome won the
Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997. Ghosh has been awarded a
Padma Shri.

"Ghosh's fiction is characterised by strong themes that may
be somewhat identified with postcolonialism but could be
labelled as historical novels. His topics are unique and
personal; some of his appeal lies in his ability to weave
'Indo-nostalgic' elements into more serious themes," notes
the Wikipedia.

He has also authored Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma
(1998), Countdown (1999, a study of the psychology and
reality of India's and Pakistan's nuclear policies), and The
Imam and the Indian (2002, a large collection of essays on
different themes such as fundamentalism, history of the
novel, Egyptian culture, and literature).

His work on Cambodia and Burma looks at the first ever visit
of Cambodian Dance Troupe to France in 1906, Angkor Wat in
context with the present day Cambodia, and the contemporary
political process in Burma where outsiders often give
judgements before they understand the true nature of the
country.

A video recording of the Calangute event (by VM de Malar aka
Goanetter Vivek Menezes) is at available online at
http://amitavghoshingoa.notlong.com

Photos of the event:

The setting, Literati:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2607996255/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2607993943/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2608821426/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2608818618/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2608815360/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2607981659/sizes/o/

Amitav Ghosh signs copies of the book:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2608802158/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2608799316/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2608795912/sizes/o/