Just midway through a gruelling cricket match at Pachaiappa's College (not because of the opponent, but courtesy heat), I got a call from my wife that there is a book reading session at 7 PM at landmark stores, Nungambakkam by none other than Jeffrey Archer on his latest book 'The prisoner of birth'.
We decided to somehow make it even though my limbs were slightly aching after playing in the hot sun for little over 2 hours.
We parked at a safe place and walked to the venue and true to the personality of the author, it was crowded. If we had gone by 5 PM, we would have got a comfortable seat and got to him much closer. Anyway, we cramped ourselves in the middle of two book shelves and got to see and hear him.
I had just finished his 'False impressions' and my favourite is 'Kane and Abel'. But I never knew he had such witty one-liners and amazing sense of humour. He kept the audience delighted through out his speech.
The best part according to me was when one of the audience asked about whether he follows Indian newspapers and how much he is up to date with what is happening. He said that the first 6 pages are about Bollywood and next 6 pages is about 20-20. What followed next was unexpected, but very true. He said "20-20 is not cricket. Cricket is VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid playing and defeating Australia in Australia" which received a thunderous applause.
