After all the fun and partying for Nine Lives, William Dalrymple now plans its sequel

William Dalrymple’s latest Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India is a departure from his earlier works in many ways. For the first time, India’s literary ‘Orientalist’ has stepped aside to let the characters take the centre-stage—unlike in From the Holy Mountain and In Xanadu. The book, conceived as “a collection of linked non-fiction short stories”, has been an instant hit in India—sitting pretty on the bestsellers lists for last two weeks. What’s most important is that the making of this book has been a pleasurable experience for Dalrymple.

“It has been a pleasure working on this book—no taking notes or visiting libraries at 9 am. Instead, I hung out with baul singers till late in the night. It didn’t feel like real work. My last two books—The White Mughal and The Last Mughal—involved lots of hard work,” says the author, who launched his latest work in Mumbai on a wind-swept evening at Taj Land’s End yesterday.

As he narrated the tales of extraordinary people leading ordinary lives in remote corners of India, the audience listened in rapt attention. When he took a break, Susheela Raman’s animated rendition of Tamil hymns filled the air. The author’s year-long book promotion tour has artists like Paban Das Baul, Raman accompanying him. “If a book can be a party, then why not?” he says. Nine Lives strings together tales of a Buddhist monk atoning for violence by hand-printing prayer flags; a Jain nun testing her powers of detachment; the life of a jail warden who turns temple dancer for two months in a year; and a woman in Kolkata who quits her job to find fulfillment as a tantric.

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