Literary tryst in Rome

Author Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi was recently in Rome for the Massenzio Festival, considered a top ticket

literary event in Italyu00a0-- which writers like Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh have attended in the pastu00a0-- where he had the pleasure of meeting Nobel Laureate Dr Amartya Sen.

It was a kind of theatre, replete with a video installation and kickass electronica. It was like walking into a dream but with a script in hand. As far as reading before an Italian audience is concerned, one never distinguishes between audiences, national or otherwise, so long as they enter the narrative with curiosity and concentration.

Professor Sen read a speech that attested to formidable scholarship; his annotations must have been bigger than a phone book! He awed me with his virile curiosity for ideas, and the lightness with which he wore his legend. It was as if he was genuinely surprised at the great good luck of being astonishing.

After our reading, at dinner, he spoke warmly of Parmeshwar Godrej, whose devotion to the cause of AIDS in India impressed him. I read my short story, Lila, about a model's descent into cocaine addiction after a failed marriage and many affairs, a literary illumination of the perversions of wealth that has blinded modern India.

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