Not all authors add Hyderabad to their itinerary to promote their books, but celebrated writer Amitav Ghosh came to the city for his latest novel, River of Smoke, the second in the Ibis Trilogy because the first in the series, Sea of Poppies, which he released here had “A wonderful reception and a very eager, enthusiastic audience.”
Apart from a responsive audience, Telugu too could be another reason. In River of Smoke, the lead character Bahram Modi, a Parsi opium trader from Bombay keeps hearing the voices of boatsmen talking and singing in Tamil, Telugu and Oriya during his travels. Admitting that language is a factor that pulled him here, Ghosh explains, “In Singapore, in the 19th century, Telugu boatsmen were a major part of a group of boatsmen called Chulias.” And his current book has many Chulias in it.
The author’s city connection just doesn’t end with the language. In his earlier book The Calcutta Chromosome, which is about malaria, the central character Ronald Ross, did a lot of his research on the disease in Secunderabad.
