Kolkata,said African-American author Arthur Flowers,reminded him of New York. In his blog,he described the city as New York Times Square squared. On his first visit to India,the only word that sums up his experiences in various cities of the country is magic. Jaipur was magical,I met so many writers and we bonded well. Delhi reminded me of Washington DC,it is so well-organised,but Guwahati felt like home, said Flowers on his maiden visit to the city. Guwahati reminded him of his hometown Memphis,especially peoples fascination for the Brahmaputra. I grew up next to the Mississippi so I could relate to that. People were so proud to talk about the only male river in the country, said Flowers. A professor of English in the New York State University,Flowers likes to call himself the literary hodoo man,as he considers himself a part of two traditions - the Western written tradition and the ancient African oral tradition. Thus,his books and his talks revolve around magic. His works like Mojo Rising and Arthur Good Loving Blues have a lot of what he calls magic realism - something common to the works of most African-American writers. Magic realism is a big part of the works of African-Americans. There is a notion that we have kept alive the magic while mastering the cutting-edge technology. There was a time when we would be ashamed of it,when Christianity saw magic as evil but not now, he said. Now,he calls African-American writers literary magicians. His India tour took him from the dunes of Rajasthan where the Jaipur Literary Festival is being held to the Kolkata Book Fair. And his sojourn,he said,has made him realise that India is somewhere between a developed country and a third-world country and that they (Indians) are seriously in love with their books. There are book stores in every corner and I feel so good because I love books, he said. Of course,like most Americans Flowers too is looking forward to Obamas presidency. Earlier,we would be ashamed to say we were from the US but now we say - Go Obama. It is a relief that the era of Bush is over. But now that the euphoria is over,the real struggle is about to begin. The right wing is hoping that he will fail. I know that he will disappoint me because there is a difference between idealism and realism and as a President he has major constraints. He cannot be the African-American President but has got to be a President for everybody.
