Praise the Lord

While we are waiting for the last act of India’s political thriller,aka elections,to unfold,Lord Meghnad Desai has written the beginning,middle and end of a British political thriller and even celebrated it with a dry martini. On Thursday,Desai’s friends gathered at the launch of Desai’s Dead on Time (HarperCollins India,Rs 399). This is an airport thriller by the well known economist and the launch was suitably free of erudite conversations between the writer and a celebrated critic.

“This is not a literary book,” said Desai in a powder-blue linen suit,“It hasn’t been written for awards. I want you all to pick this up at the airport. I assure you that it is a pacy read and if you’re into football,you’re going to have a darn good time. For now,please drink and be merry.”

Dead on Time visits a day in the life of Harry White,Britain’s charismatic prime minister as he juggles a busy schedule stuffed with a lunch invitation from the media lord Matt Drummond,while simultaneously battling a parliamentary rebellion as well as an urgent call from the White House about a crisis in Libya. But it is his final item on the schedule that sets the scene for murder: the Old Firm football game between Rangers and Celtic,the traditional Scottish rivals.

The fictional death of a British prime minister was received with martini sips,pink cosmopolitans and some good old Boney M that had even Desai shaking a leg. If the book is half as fun,then Desai has a winner.