Get together with Patrick French

I landed in Delhi this afternoon. On Saturday I had hosted the cocktails and dinner at a get together at The Taj Bengal Chambers to meet and greet British historian and biographer Patrick French on behalf of Prabha Khaitan Foundation in association with the British Council.

This was Prabha Khaitan Foundation’s the first event with the British Council since the signing of a memorandum of association to conduct cultural events in Kolkata.

I had invited selective individuals to interact with Patrick who is in Kolkata to participate in a workshop with Amit Chowdhury to help youngsters develop writing skills.

At the get together Patrick read out a passage from his latest book India: A Portrait that led to the topic of Arushi murder case as there were many questions from the guests.

Among those present were Sujata Sen of British Council, Nayantara Pal Choudhuri, Suman Ghosh, Arindam Sil, Anandi Ghosh, Saira Halim, Soumyojit Das and Sourendro Mullick and others.

Patrick made an interesting comment during the get together that “…my hunch is that India’s next Prime Minister would be somebody we are not expecting.” Patrick also said that after V S Naipaul he would like to write a book on Mamata Banerjee. The event was a very well attended one and truly representative of the culture that Kolkata is. ess bee