Book Reading - Strange case of Billy Biswas August 22, 2009

Book Reading - Strange case of Billy Biswas at Akshara. The Akshara book readings are halfway to being a play, with action, sets, music and lighting not just people sitting in a semi circle with a book in their hands. The readings present fiction generally by Indian authors, or at the very least, located in India, condensed to suit a reading. The Strange Case of Billy Biswas by the late Arun Joshi is a delightful book about a typically privileged young Indian, Billy Biswas, son of a Supreme Court Judge, educated at Doon School, St. Stephens and Columbia University, New York, who abandons an engineering degree in favour of anthropology and, on his return to India, is eventually seduced by the mystical and sensual lure of tribal life in the hills and jungles of Chhatisgarh. He throws up everything and vanishes into thin air into an amazing life of a sort of shaman. A decade later, he is found by his best friend who is posted as Collecter to the drought affected area. The conflict and the final denoument are shocking, tragic and uplifting. The whole book has a throbbing tribal allure, both supernatural and sexy, and a deja vu-like foretaste of the politics we see taking place in those very Chhatisgarhi hills today. The readers are Suneet Tandon, Momo Ghose and Jalabala Vaidya, directed by Gopal Sharman. The reading is followed by an interaction with the performers, over snacks and refreshments.

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