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To be able to write consistently and churn out some of the best woven tales isn’t really easy. But Amitav Ghosh has been doing exactly this for more than two decades. Right from 1986, when The Circle of Reason was first published. To be followed by The Shadow Lines (1988), In An Antique Land (1992), The Calcutta Chromosome (1996), Dancing In Cambodia and other Essays (1998), Countdown (1999), The Glass Palace (2000), The Imam and the Indian (2002), The Hungry Tide (2004). Now, of course, comes Sea Of Poppies, which is the first in Ghosh’s new trilogy of novels. Said to be Ghosh’s most ambitious work, it is set in mid-19th century, in the backdrop of the colonial rule. The book takes you on a voyage on a vast ship, ‘The Ibis’, which is carrying across people in turbulence. These men and women, from different backgrounds, are undertaking this voyage, from the Indian Ocean to the Mauritius. It comes as no surprise that Bollywood has shown interest in Ghosh’s works. To transport this tale from here to there, from these pages to the screen. It is just that the film producers would have to retain that basic format of sheer reality that runs through these pages. Is Ghosh himself wary of his tale Sea of Poppies being made into a film? In fact, when I asked him exactly this, he said he had no problems or apprehensions. He confirmed that several directors had shown interest in his works and to further comment on it would be rather too premature. And if sheer curiosity forces you to ask Ghosh what’s coming in the following two in this trilogy, he says with much calm "The process has not yet begun`85 no, not even in the mind `85no, I haven’t even thought what I’d be writing next" Of course, right now, he’s traveling — no, not on a vast ship — but flying from one stop to the next, to be with his readers. It has been few weeks since his book was officially released in New Delhi on June 16 last and one was taken aback by the sheer numbers who turned up to see and hear him and, of course, to have their copies signed. Yes, in the peak of this ongoing humidity and heat, a couple of hundreds fitted themselves at a luxury hotel’s rooftop set-up, to get a glimpse of him and the over-enthusiastic ones even managed to get their copies signed`85For almost two hours there was that crowd of people around him and he seemed to enjoy that. You know what I particularly liked about his style and with that about him is his uncomplicated approach. You could call it a rather simplistic, direct approach rather apparent in his writings and hugely reflected in the manner in which he speaks. In the short speech, he gave during the launch evening, he told the audience why his wife and children couldn’t make it for this launch and other similar details which made him get closer to those who had come to hear him. That sheer connectivity and rapport took off. And thereafter in an interview he told me that family is indeed very important for him and that he spends most of his time at home "leading a quiet life fairly private" Adding that writing is anyway a "solitary activity and it requires fierce discipline". What distracts him? "Even a phone call could distract yes, a phone call could be a huge distraction." And as he spoke of other issues, he seemed particularly concerned about the environment, rather what’s become of it, what a mess has been created because of modern day living. What also bothered him is the polarisation and the divides being created in the country because of the communal politics at work. And, he also spoke about the economic disparities, those wide gaps that stare In fact, now that he’s to be living here in India — in Kolkata and Goa — for most part of the year, one could hope to see and hear him at the launch of his next in this trilogy. Hopefully, it should be complete in a year or two for 52-year-old Ghosh has been writing so very consistently right from 1986 and comes up with a book, every two years or so.
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