Can Ram Guha Be Nervous and His Book Launches Jocular? For Sarthak Prakashan, the Answer is Yes

“This is the eighth Indian language this book has been translated into, and this one is the best,” said Ramachandra Guha at the launch of Gandhi Pachhinu Bharat by Sarthak Prakashan, the Gujarati translation of his magisterial work India After Gandhi.

The translators are Urvish Kothari, well known on X over the past half decade for his satirical videos in Hindi, and a Gujarati journalist-columnist for 30 years, and the late Dilip Gohil, who worked as a copy editor with the Gujarati edition of India Today.

Guha has a limited acquaintance with Gujarati (he understands it if spoken slowly, he said). But he articulated two reasons why the Gujarati translation was special for him: M.K. Gandhi, of whom he is possibly the best-known biographer, wrote in the Gujarati language. And second, he met his wife (the influential designer Sujatha Keshavan) in Ahmedabad forty-something years ago.

I submit another reason for Guha’s love for the Gujarati translation without being able to read or write in the language: I have not seen a Guha book event punctuated with as many laughs as I heard on the evening of May 18 at the packed auditorium of the Ahmedabad Management Association complex (one of architect Bimal Patel’s early works).

Ram Guha addresses the audience during the book launch. Photo by arrangement.

Guha’s talks and events are marked by few laughs, all of them delivered on Guha’s cues because he is a superb public speaker – packed with substance, and well-chosen witty anecdotes. This is primarily because Guha mostly delivers talks and does few conversations, so to speak. Most interlocutors are in awe of his scholarship, and intrepid opinions.

Not the Sarthak Prakashan lot. Kothari and his colleagues made references to Sholay and Deewar – likely, another first in a Guha book event – although not directed at him. “I will now be Shashi Kapoor in Deewar,” said Kothari. “He had said mere paas ma hai. I say, mere paas Kartikbhai hai. With him in charge, I don’t have to care about whether the publication makes money or not. I just have fun.”

Earlier, Kothari’s colleague Dipak Soliya set the tone for the evening with a reference to Gabbar. He mimicked “aao, aao” in Gabbar’s style, adding, “Gabbar said it differently but I’m saying it with warmth and affection.”

Sarthak Prakashan was somehow both wholly unfazed by Guha’s aura, and entirely affectionate. Their irreverence, stemmed from their aversion for stage formalities, did not slip into disrespect. “That’s Saarthak’s house style”, said Kothari.

Guha himself, laughing frequently during the proceedings, appeared delighted by the occasion. When it was his turn to speak, the final talk of the 100-odd minute programme, he said he would not speak in his bad Hindi as he had planned because he would not have the same effect on the audience as Kothari and his colleagues. Nervousness had reportedly got to him.

Then he proceeded to speak in perfectly passable Hindi (certified by a Calcutta Bengali) for 90% of this 30-odd minute talk. He began with a well-chosen anecdote about speaking at the 93rd birthday celebration of the Kannada polymath Shivaram Karanth where Karanth, ecological scholar Madhav Gadgil and Guha were the invited speakers. After Karanth’s speech, which was received with voluble delight, Gadgil, a Kannada speaker who had planned to speak in Kannada, decided to speak in Hindi. And Guha, who had initially decided to speak in Hindi, decided to speak in English.

This evening, Guha said, had put him in a similar frame of nervousness.

L to R: Kartik Shah, Urvish Kothari, Ram Guha, Prakash N. Shah and Dipak Soliya. Photo by arrangement.

Guha’s talks are always enjoyable – for his deep scholarship and his wit – but in Ahmedabad, he chose a larger than usual number of superb anecdotes for his talk, likely in appreciation of the tone set by Sarthak and gang. My favourite was the one he related about Acharya Kripalani, the last and most senior of M.K. Gandhi’s associates who was alive when Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency.

Kripalani was the only one of her major critics whom Mrs Gandhi did not jail during the Emergency, but the man, then nearing 90 years of age, fell ill and was hospitalised in AIIMS, New Delhi, where a number of tubes were inserted into his frail form.

One of his friends went to visit Kripalani in hospital, and put his hand on his forehead. Kripalani then opened his eyes and on being asked how he was feeling, replied, “I have no constitution. All that is left are amendments.”

“This is the only quote in India After Gandhi that I could not find a credible source for,” Guha said, “although I heard this story from more than one person”.

Delighted, sustained laughter. Like much of the evening really, only this one probably rang longer than ever taking in the details of the superb anecdote.

It made me think of how the book launch itself felt like a standup comedy show. A thoroughly footnoted standup show. With one notable exception.

Sohini Chattopadhyay is a National Award-winning film critic and award-winning journalist. Her book The Day I Became a Runner: A Women’s History of India Through the Lens of Sport was published by HarperCollins India in October 2023.

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