And Thereby Hangs A Tale : Jeffrey Archer

One of the most enigmatic human beings I've ever met - his humility intertwined with his wit and infectious sense of humor make him a sparkling human being! We love his books but love the human being that he is lives up to the mental image one cherishes before one has actually met him. I was of course honored to have him write my story in his book 'And thereby Hangs A Tale' with such finesse & stealth but it is an even greater compliment to have him as a close friend. A friendship cherished and a person missed at all times, by the distance of him being far away from us.

A writer who writes nearly a book a year attracts hundreds of people in a pulsating audience wherever he goes like the pied piper of best sellers. A look at his avid audience and you might be at a rock concert.

My own first meeting with him was before my tenth board exams, over a latte, as I studiously poured late into the winter night, table lamp alight, book propped on bended knees. Jeffery might have had a hearty laugh, for nestled within the pages of the history tome was another history of two brothers, the ingeniously named Kane and Abel.

He is one author I have grown up reading apart from Somerset Maugham, Lawrence, and OFCOURSE Austen!

Cut to today, he is almost eighty but still quite a ladies’ man. His eyes are sharp with interest in all things around. He is lean, trim, (doesn’t eat dessert), sharp nose, twinkling eyes. I had met him at dinner many years ago and did not realize that ‘neath his interested queries I had done something highly unusual for the private person I am, I had unfolded to him, bits of events in my life and he had got out from me that much later linked themselves into a tale that he was to write as what he later called his own favorite short story. For me I’d made a friend forever but there was much more to unfold, “And Thereby Hangs a Tale’!!!

If I was to choose one person to have written my story it would be Jeffrey Archer. It is a great compliment that he has used my real name Nisha JamVwal and everyone in the book is by their real name, including my father. He’s said it like it is and I am moved. He's treated a somewhat poignant story with British understatement and ease. That makes it more easy for me to read it. I was outside the story and felt moved. When I look back I can hardly believe that I’ve lived this life, I seem to gloss over most happenings with non- chalance. And yet I feel my very dramatic story also has elements of urban racy India and its a happy thought that we are exposing this to the world than age-old bullock carts which surprisingly people still confuse India with. It's only a small part of India and I’m always hoping brand India moves beyond archaic stereotypical exotic visuals, so inadvertently if I'm part of something prestigious for India then great!

It is a rare compliment as I am the only person in India whose story he wrote after having traveled here often, and it is an honor. A journalist asked me if I was flattered and I said that while it is indeed an honor I do realize my life has been extraordinary in its roller-coaster ups and downs- once you read it you’ll realize that life has been very unpredictable and with great rapids and great highs. I just decided long ago to take life by the horns and live the speed breakers with gusto and make every disadvantage into an advantage and that it might not be leading into a comfort zone, and it is inconvenient to live one's dream, but we must make allies of our adversities. When I look back at my life I feel some like "did I really manage this?" I feel like yes I think it might motivate some of the women out there who give up and feel like life gave them a raw deal.

The thing is we come here and plan so much and then ‘life happens’ and then you either give up and sit down and say its ‘fate’ or you pick up and drive in fifth gear and make life happen and say you’ll make the summit.

Jeffrey saw that in exactly forty-five minutes through dinner and it takes a great storyteller to realize all this in so short a time, whereas here in India a lot of people just discount so much with tags and labels like ‘page three’ and in that forget to see the meat of the matter!!

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Nisha JamVwal