The leather woman.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

One evening The Delhi Walla sighted his most beloved Delhiite – author Arundhati Roy. She was in a black leather jacket and black Levi jeans.

Ms Roy was at the India Islamic Center, Lodhi Road. She was to speak on Spontaneous Protests and Complicit Silences.

The hall was filled with a variety of faces – old, young, bearded, clean-shaven, brown, white. It was warm inside. Ms Roy took off her jacket revealing a white embroidered shirt underneath.

The author of The God of Small Things spoke for more than an hour. Her talk was peppered with the following:

Sri Sri Sri Sri Sri
Ambedker
Indonesia
Gulag
Monty Python
Mao
Different Imagination
Hyderabad
Denounce (She said it was a Stalinist term and she would never use it)
Afzal Guru
Caste
Jantar Mantar
Taliban (She said she could never be with that group)
Kashmir
Salman Rushdie
Suryanelli
Islamists
Justice
Nelson Mandela
Heart

Responding to a question, Ms Roy said, “I’m working on a new novel.” The next moment her nose ring glistened and she looked as if she was no longer present in the room — she had left us.

She was wandering in some other world. Perhaps.

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