This book is a mix of fact and fiction. I am now on the last sprint before the curtain comes down and I
wanted to write what I feel.
Why an ‘unrelieable memoir’?
Well, this book is kind of a mixture of fact and fiction. One can choose to believe it or not. Or as Mark Twain had famously said: ‘The older one gets the more vivid the recollection of things that have not happened.’
Were the publishers scandalised with the original draft?
Of course! I openly talk about my sex life, the way certain Bollywood heroines courted me, as well as my run-ins with many famous people. The publisher wanted to scale it down, but I stayed put. I am now on the last sprint before the curtain comes down and I wanted to write what I feel.
What do you remember the most about your life?
Well, a lot of things: My first sexual encounter, which was sadly not very promising; my first taste of alcohol— gin; my encounter with the English class system which is not much different from our caste system.
How different was life in London?
Suddenly new vistas opened up—in terms of knowledge as well as the opposite sex. While I experienced the culture of the country and also enjoyed hospitality of well-to-do friends, I also did odd jobs to manage my finances: I washed dishes; cut out newspapers and magazines and supplied clippings to business houses; worked in a post office sorting mails. But there were small rewards too. For example, I developed a taste for beef—porterhouse cut, besides, snails in garlic and butter sauce; and of course, managed to get lucky with girls.