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The Rediff Interview/ Salman Rushdie

'If somebody is trying to shut you up, then you should try and talk louder'

The raging controversy over author Salman Rushdie’s visit to the Jaipur literary festival and the abrupt cancellation of a video link with the writer at the last minute on Tuesday evening refuses to die down. We reproduce an interview with Rushdie, when he visited India in 2000. The security arrangements at the Oberoi, New Delhi -- the sniffer dogs, a sanitised and vacant parking lot and a large posse of policemen at the main entrance -- gave away the secret. Such elaborate security arrangements were last witnessed for Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit when he visited the hotel early this month.

At the hotel's Nilgiri room, when Salman Rushdie made his first media appearance in India after 12 years, like all celebrities he seemed smaller in real life. Despite the tight security, he smiled readily at the wall of camera lenses and in his grey suit, he looked more like a corporate lawyer than one of this century's bestknown -- certainly its most controversial -- writers. Accompanied by his 21-year-old son Zafar, Rushdie seemed pleased by the fact that he had evaded the papparazzi during his week-long effort to renew "a broken relationship" with India.

When asked why he was hiding from the media, his eyebrows shot up in mock protest, "I did not tell the press that I am here. And just because I did not tell the press it does not mean that I was hiding. It's just that the press did not know about it."

His lawyer Vijay Shankar Das knew all his plans. He fixed the time for this interview. However, on Saturday morning, there was a change, a grim reminder that the novelist still lives under threat of execution after Ayatollah Khomeini's Valentine's Day fatwa in 1989.

At the Taj Palace hotel, the security was more discreet. A Rushdie press conference scheduled at the hotel was cancelled at the last moment for security reasons. His lawyer was nowhere in sight. Just when it seemed that Rushdie had gone back into his shell, a Delhi police officer confirmed to Dibang that his appointment has been rescheduled.

Though Rushdie was not booked at the Taj, James was ushered into Room 160. This time, he looked very Indian in a pink kurta and a white pyjama. Asked if he would like to be interviewed in Hindustani, he agreed and said it was a good idea.

Mr Rushdie, thank you very much for your time. Sabse pehle, is visit ke dauran sabse achcha apko kahan laga? (Which part of your visit did you like the most?)

Sabse jyada to mera ghar Solan main phir dekhna bahut khushi ki baat thi kyon ki yeh ghar mere baap ka tha aur unke baap ne banaya tha. Mere baap ne mujhe meri ekkiswan birthday par mujhe diya aur ab mein apne bete ke saath wahan aya. Woh bhi ekkis saal ka hai. Aur yeh bahut khushi ka din tha kyonke yeh ghar hamare khandan ke kabze se chhut gaya aur wahan ki local government ne kabza le liya. Phir humen saat salon ke liye lower courts mein silsila karna pada. Ab humen wapas mila to yeh bahut khushi ki baat thi.

(I was very happy to have visited my house in Solan. This house belonged to my father and was built by my grandfather. My father gifted me that house on my twenty-first birthday. I took my son there this time and coincidentally, he too is 21. Going back to that house was a very happy moment because we had lost custody of that house. It was taken over by the local government there. We had to contest the case in the lower courts for seven years till we won it. Now the house is back with us and we are very happy.)

Main wahan tha jab mein gyarah saal ka tha. Wahan main do din guzar saka. Woh bahut khushi ke din the. Magar Agra bhi, Jaipur bhi aur yahan Delhi mein bhi bahut khushi rahi. (Before this visit I had spent two happy days in that house when I was 11 years old. Besides Solan, I am also very happy to have visited Agra, Jaipur and Delhi too.)

Is dauran Hindustan mein aapne kis tarah ke changes dekhe? (What kind of changes have you observed to have taken place in Hindustan?)

Pehle to yeh ki bahut jyada paise hain aaj kal magar woh paise thode se logon ke hathon mein hain. Woh bhi purani baat hai. Ab technology ki baat hai. Woh badi cheez ho gayi hai yahan. Pechle dafe jab main yahan tha to ek hi channel tha, Doordarshan. Uske alawa doosra channel yahan nahin tha. Yeh computer nahin tha, ab yahan media aur computer bahut badi cheezen ho gayi hain. Aur phir government badal gayi hai. Congress zara decline par hai. Aur doosre tarike ki sarkar hai yahan. Yeh sab cheezen I had to learn, mujhe seekhna pada. Maine bahut se logon se baat ki aur samajne ki koshish ki ki kya ho raha hai. Log kya samajhte hain. Bus ab mujhe kuchh likhna padega about this. (He is doing an article for the New Yorker magazine)

(Firstly, there is a lot of money here, but that money is in the hands of a few people. But that is nothing new. Now technology is big news here. During my last visit, there was only one television channel, Doordarshan. There were no computers either. Now, both the media and computers are big things. The government has changed. The Congress seems to be on a decline and there are other, different types of governments here. I have had to learn a lot of new things. I have been talking to people to try and understand what is happening here. Now I will have to write something about all this.)

'A lot of things which people say I have written is not there at all in the book' The Rushdie interview continues

Photographs: Pana India

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