PEN events
Email invitation from the PEN All-India Centre:
A reading from his novel, A Blind Man’s Map of Mumbai,
by VIVEK TANDON
Date: 30 July 2009 (Thursday)
Time: 6.15 pm
Place: Theosophy Hall (3rd floor), 40 New Marine Lines
Churchgate, Mumbai 400 020
Vivek Tandon is a writer who has worked in several genres. He is the author of a book of poems, Climbing the Spiral, and has written a play that was selected for Royal Court Theatre London’s prestigious International Residency Programme. His comic verse will soon appear in a Sahitya Akademi book of children’s verse. Tandon, who works as a creative consultant in advertising in Mumbai, is also an actor whose appearances on the Mumbai stage, especially in The Seagull, Once Upon a Tiger, Insulting the Audience, Karna, and Aftermath, have been warmly appreciated. For more on this author, please look up www.vivektandon.com.
A Blind Man’s Map of Mumbai is a thriller for readers of all ages above 10. It is a Scholastic India ‘Book of the Month’. The recovery of a diamond-encrusted, Mughal-era gold box draws together a blind street musician, a young schoolboy and a young policeman. But what the box is reputed to have contained is even more valuable, and there are dark forces that will stop at nothing to recover it. Contemporary problems and secrets from the past surface, as the unlikely allies grapple with a mystery that gets more twisted and murky as the narrative progresses. A world-famous art dealer, his snooty daughter, an influential MLA and an astrologer join Tandon’s diverse cast of characters. “Hafiz’s description of the city through his senses makes for enjoyable reading,” notes Time Out Mumbai. Tom Alter, writer, actor and sports enthusiast, says: “Tandon’s book delights even as it entices… shimmering with the tide of the Bombay sea, and shivering with sudden and most unexpected suspense… the climax is sudden and fraught.” One of the novel’s central themes is Mumbai’s role as a sanctuary for vastly different individuals and communities.
*****
Also 6 August 2009 (Thursday)
PEN@Theosophy Hall
Chandrahas Choudhury, reading from his novel, Arzee the Dwarf
Theosophy Hall, 6.15 pm
