The Sea of Poppies writer Amitav Ghosh and his wife Deborah Baker have been spending time with the First family, and roaming the halls of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
On 8 July, Ghosh announced that he and his wife will be the writers-in-residence at the President’s residence.
President Pranab Mukherjee started the ‘in-residence’ programme at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2013. The programme temporarily invites writers and artists into life at the estate.
And from his tour around Mukherjee’s home, the writer tweeted out some rather lovely and intimate pictures of the estate.
We have often wondered what it must be like to watch the Wimbledon from one of these rooms, and we have Ghosh to thank for telling us.
Ghosh enjoys taking pictures of things he finds interesting. So when he spent time at the estate, his lens captured not the famous ‘Lutyen’ architecture but nuances that may go unnoticed otherwise.
The rooms provided to Ghosh and his wife overlook the Mughal Gardens. They stayed in the guest wing of the estate, a section usually provided only to heads of states.
He also spent some time with the President’s guard and staff.
Ghosh said he didn’t have any immediate plans to put his experience into writing, but it may find expression in his work “indirectly.”
It’s not everyday that we get an insider’s view of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan, and Ghosh lent us a window into life at the estate, one small detail at a time.
(With inputs from Scroll.in)
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