Salman Rushdie was in UB tonight... part of the Distinguished Speaker Series for this academic year. At about 6pm, before his scheduled lecture in Alumni Arena at 8:00 pm, there was a small reception for some of us V.I.P guests (a big thanks to Steve, Shaokang and the rest of the GSA for the invite!) at the Marriott Hotel. I was excited to meet him, imagine that... briliant, controversial writer with a deadly fatwa (a legal opinion or ruling issued by an Islamic scholar) placed upon him more than a decade ago & being one of the significant novelist in the reception scene in Bridget Jones's Diary. We got pictures taken with him by a professional photographer... which reminds me... I had better find out how to get my hands on a copy of that. Oy to Ollie... don't forget... we want that picture!!
Meanwhile.... here's an attempt of a decent picture of Rushdie from my camera during his lecture... I wondered why didn't I take close up pictures when I met him earlier at the reception?? Well, I had a drink in one hand and a plate of strawberries on the other... I could not have possibly put the drink down let alone the strawberries going to waste!! Gimme another pair of hands and maybe I could have gotten more pictures... anyway, Mr. Rushdie was whisked around the room by the event coordinator and photographer :P
Mr. Rushdie's lecture was inspiring... he was great... lots of laughs among the crowd and amidst all that laughter.. throw in a couple of bits of critical thoughts. He portrayed a very comical side of himself... shared some of his earlier works which were very funny. One of my favourite moments from his lecture was taken from one of his books, The Moor's Last Sigh which he considered as an accomplishment to have even penned down a love scene. Managed to also nicked a couple of autographed books of Rushdie; Midnight's Children, The Moor's Last Sigh and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. My summer reading list... not forgetting ofcourse, the 6th installment of Harry Potter!!
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