EVENING WITH AN AUTHOR AND MALLAIKA ARORA

Attended yet another programme organised by the CEO Clubs, Hyderabad chapter. This was after quite a gap because most of this crowd travels to cooler climes for two months or more. They are like those collective birds which migrate. Yes, they can afford it. Good for them.
Some of them have returned and so there was quite a decent crowd at the Drawing Room of the Park Hyatt. There was a dialogue between prolific author Manu S Pillai and Resident Editor, Deccan Chronicle Sriram Karri. Sriram also is an author and an orator.
The base topic was history with stories about valour, riches, intrigues from the kings of Deccan, Vijayanagara and Travancore Empires. Who does not like a little nugget on how the king slept with the queen. Well, apparently in separate rooms once their first mating was done under observation!
We were gifted with two books by Pillai and one of them was 'The ivory throne, chronicles of the house of Travancore'. After hearing the author talk, I have a feeling I am going to be engrossed. Apart from that Shobu Yarlagadda is also thinking of making into a series. Will we see topless women? Because if it is Kerala in history, topless women was natural and only courtesans wore blouses. We wait with bated breath.
Manu S Pillai has just completed his doctorate from King's College, London. And I really don't know how he did his defence for his topic, because this 31-year-old is silver tongued. He holds forth on any topic with an ease. He dots them all with anecdotes and I could have listened to him all evening, except that I was real thirsty.
His books have a huge bibliography, showing his dedication to research and studies. What I liked most about this young man was that he had reached a mental maturity and understood the word Perspective and that it could change.
Wow! That could make history into fiction and vice versa. But as I said he spoke with such comfort of having trodden these paths, either during research or when he visited these sites.
Sriram Karri tried to get him into an argument, but Manu had perspective on his side and the evening flew on the wings of exciting imagery and strong word play. Silver tongue.
The CEO Club makes its effort to invite people who are experts in their subjects, but not all of them talk well or communicate with a fire-side chat ability. The dialogue between Manu and Sriram was just that.
After the scintillating talk, it was time to get into groups, even as all the women said that they were so hungry since they eat so early. It was 9 pm on a weekend.
But we talked and after harrassing a few waiters and talking boldly about hard idlis we left to be drenched in the rain, even as the portico of the hotel stood agog because petite Malaika Arora was leaving the place after inaugurating a new pub. (This information from Driver Raju). Considering I caught a few beanstalks with funny hair, I thought it was a fashion show.
The rain continued and Park Hyatt's front gate was flooded, even as all the short dressed girls and guys with razor cuts stood waiting for their cars to come to them. Utter chaos, but perfumed. And every single girl there was in a shorter than short dress. Sure, it suits some.
But I smiled as I walked intoq the rain to reach the car because I had two books in my bag....