Of dull skies and ‘not so dull’ London
6 Dec 2014 11:24 PM GMT
The launch was followed by an in-depth conversation between the author and Sen. Prof. Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee, former Director of National Book Trust and presently Director, Niyogi Books summed up the proceedings.
The book, published by Niyogi Book, highlights the struggle that an Indian student faced in post-war London—between two cultures, two value systems, two ways of life—and love. “We’re the lost generation,” he cries in anguish.
The author emphasizes that the fifties heralded a swinging era and brings out on how a naïve Indian student copes with this over-heated milieu. It is one of the few books from the subcontinent to explore post-war England through the eyes of an Indian who grew up under British rule.
The Copper Sky is the story of Amar Das who arrives to study at the London School of Economics in 1950s. The release from the war-torn skies and the daily threat of death had unleashed a tide of unprecedented pleasure-seeking, which swept over hidebound English society.
Amar realizes that gone was the Victorian prudery the British rulers had exported to middle-class India, as he stumbles over coupled bodies in his walk through Hyde Park.
Casting a dark shadow over this, though, are his bitter memories of British rule and anguish at having been treated as second-class citizen in his own country.
The author, Abhijit Gupta retired from a multinational and a subsequent HR consultancy firm submitted to a lifelong desire to write, creating a novel influenced by the three eventful years he spent getting his degree at the London School of Economics. In those years he found a new intellectual and emotional liberation and grew to love London for it.
The book, published by Niyogi Book, highlights the struggle that an Indian student faced in post-war London—between two cultures, two value systems, two ways of life—and love. “We’re the lost generation,” he cries in anguish.
The author emphasizes that the fifties heralded a swinging era and brings out on how a naïve Indian student copes with this over-heated milieu. It is one of the few books from the subcontinent to explore post-war England through the eyes of an Indian who grew up under British rule.
The Copper Sky is the story of Amar Das who arrives to study at the London School of Economics in 1950s. The release from the war-torn skies and the daily threat of death had unleashed a tide of unprecedented pleasure-seeking, which swept over hidebound English society.
Amar realizes that gone was the Victorian prudery the British rulers had exported to middle-class India, as he stumbles over coupled bodies in his walk through Hyde Park.
Casting a dark shadow over this, though, are his bitter memories of British rule and anguish at having been treated as second-class citizen in his own country.
The author, Abhijit Gupta retired from a multinational and a subsequent HR consultancy firm submitted to a lifelong desire to write, creating a novel influenced by the three eventful years he spent getting his degree at the London School of Economics. In those years he found a new intellectual and emotional liberation and grew to love London for it.
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