Sightings

THIS book launch had the trappings and ambience of a Hollywood show. And if your co-author is a little boy who has actually thought up the storyline and the plot, you're bound to create a stir. Sam Celeste and Jacquiline Lundquist, the son-and-mother team who together authored what promises to become a fairly successful book for kids, There's a Mouse in Roosevelt House, told their audience at the book's launch in Delhi that the impetus behind the book "was a mouse that made its appearance at the most embarrassing moments" in the U.S. ambassador's residence. However, strangely enough, it vanished after Bill Clinton's visit to India, leaving little Sam to presume and actively pursue the idea that the mouse had hoped into Air Force One. The book is a picture book version and while the already well known Lundquist basked in the limelight, son Sam preferred to make his getaway soon after his mother's little speech.

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IT is not everyday that India's best known sexologist gets down to writing novels based on life and its experiences. So when Sudhir Kakar read excerpts from his new book Ecstasy, he had people in the audience betting on the contents. Of course, Kakar, in his rather breezy, matter of fact style, informed them that ecstasy in Greece was a state of being outside oneself and insisted that life should be about experiences rather than explanations. Good going so far. But what about the book? Well, as it turned out, it's the story of two protagonists who are different from each other. The book deals with their spiritual quests and conflicts. Thrown in are references to mystics. Does that mean he is a believer? "I believe there is a lot that cannot be explained and I am sceptical of explanations, not experiences," he adds.

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ONCE India's ace tennis player, he later went off to form his own television company. Vijay Amritraj, decided early on in life that his role would always be that of a winner whatever he did. And now in his new avatar as UN messenger of peace, Amritraj has once again pledged himself to help serve the needy. He said that his job would be to represent the secretary general of the UN throughout the world and to help highlight issues of peace that the UN has been crusading for. In India his first stop was Bhuj, where he went armed with soccer balls among other equipment. "I think sports should form part of the curriculum. It is important to realise that rescue operations need to go beyond providing the obvious," said Amritraj.

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Here is the haven that Delhi artists have been dreaming of, a place they can call their own and also exhibit their works over endless cups of coffee, glasses of juice or salads. Diva Art Cafe, billed the first of its kind in the city, managed to achieve the rare distinction of having the grand old man of Indian art, B. C. Sanyal, inaugurate its portraits and spend time chatting with other artists. Now in his 90s, Sanyal is an institution in the Indian art scene and has lent his early works to the cafe to set up their first exhibition.

SUCHITRA BEHAL

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