Guided by Ganesha

When Wilbur Smith visited India not so long ago,he carried back with him a jade-gold statue of Ganesha. Now,the lord of good fortune sits pretty on the author’s table as his latest book,Those in Peril,tops the list of Indian bestsellers. This trip was planned on his Tadjik wife Mokhiniso Rakhimova’s request as she had never been to India before. “I have been to India several times in the past. But this is her first India visit,” he says. A road trip,gorging on Indian curry and extensive shopping later,Smith is now enjoying the success of his latest novel in India.

The spate of pirate attacks in recent times forms the base of the novel. The owner of an oil corporation finds her yacht hijacked by Somalian pirates and her daughter kidnapped while cruising in the Indian Ocean. The well-travelled author says that writing his 33rd book was not tough as he is “familiar with the area and had undertaken several cruises there”. The news reports on pirate attacks provided fodder for its plot.