Chicken soup for the single gal~!

Dick Cheney has a pacemaker, while Paul Theroux was talking to us after travelling across half the globe in trains and tuk-tuk's. Both were in grad school at the same time.

After making such a strong case, could anyone be unconvinced that the average travel writer has more health, morale and fun than most people?! Well, there is always the diplomat who is paid for visiting places and talking with people. But then, luck is fickle!

An evening with Theroux and two great book lovers, also colleagues, was quite like chicken soup for the single gal who is facing the maternal whiplash for having attended too many friends' weddings but refusing to have one of her own in the very-near future.

Theroux the gentleman helped by being completely charming.....he had looked up all the Medford-Madras connects and took us through many including our Ice House, which stored ice from places such as Theroux's hometown of Medford, since the 1830s. Globalisation a la two frozen atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen!

How does it feel not to be recognised with awards?

Theroux the artful dodger: Oh, governments dont like their writers, they always like second-hand writers. And Nobel Prize is more like the Swedish lottery.

So Sir. Vidia Naipaul, your mentor, was one?

There are always exceptions and he is a great writer.

Theroux on writing tips to nubile writers:

Read a lot, leave home, travel, love people and find someone other than your parents who would encourage your writing. And most importantly, never refuse an opportunity to write anything. Book review? Yes. Op-ed? Yes. Blurb? Yes.

Any thumbrules?

Write what you believe and feel strongly about.

Is writing a tough job?

It is a picnic when compared to picking prickly pineapples.

What do you want to write about?

Someday about the British, the way they write about the rest of the world.

On the whole, Theroux was trying to cover up for his relationship-gone-sour with Naipaul and refusing to be rude to anyone. He after all was now a grown man and not the punk who helped a political opponet of Hastings Banda escape to Uganda.

But when the city's social do's coincide with your lean week shift, its delightful, particularly with brownies being served. The city's US consulate sure knows how to draw a crowd.

A former colleague now with them gave J (book lover 1) a painstaking introduction with Theroux. But J simply kept her lips glued. When asked later as to why, she of all, was so tongue tied, she simply said...."he doesnt suffer fools~!"

P.S: I caught an old pal, now with IE, who was getting back home after reporting....I mean what about filing copies and all that? Oh...I can do that from home, she says. The new world of cyber journalism beckons.