And here's a wonderfully warm and personal response to 'The Last Wave', from someone who spent his growing up years in Port Blair...Came over email just yesterday!
Dear Mr. Sekhsaria:
"I just completed your book "The Last Wave" and wanted to congratulate you on writing it! I lived almost all my childhood and teenage years in A&N islands - Port Blair specifically- and was happy to revisit many of the locales and memories through your writing...have been in the US many years now and was happy to see A&N receive pride of place in a work of fiction!
Although a physician and medical researcher, I have been interested in and had actually myself attempted a write-up on the Jarawa "coming-out" story, even making a weeklong trip to Baratang- in ~1999 if memory serves...this was at a time Tanumei was still recuperating at GB Pant. As older kids growing up in PB, a few of us did vigorously discuss and share some of the concerns / conflicts you enumerate in the book (a small group, albeit!).
There were also a lot of intersections for me personally in the book: our landlady for many years was a Karen lady, the old State Library was a frequent haunt of mine, the Jarawa interest obviously, and I can even appreciate some of the "local born" sentiment expressed in the book (although I was "10-year category" technically). Also, despite growing up there, your book provided better explanations and back-stories for the many vague word-of-mouth stuff we kept hearing as kids, and for that I am thankful.
Over the very many years I have read fiction, it felt a little surreal to find that degree of proximity and connection in a book!
Thanks,
F. Francis, MD PhD
Dallas, TX, USA"
Sept 20, 2016
Dear Mr. Sekhsaria:
"I just completed your book "The Last Wave" and wanted to congratulate you on writing it! I lived almost all my childhood and teenage years in A&N islands - Port Blair specifically- and was happy to revisit many of the locales and memories through your writing...have been in the US many years now and was happy to see A&N receive pride of place in a work of fiction!
Although a physician and medical researcher, I have been interested in and had actually myself attempted a write-up on the Jarawa "coming-out" story, even making a weeklong trip to Baratang- in ~1999 if memory serves...this was at a time Tanumei was still recuperating at GB Pant. As older kids growing up in PB, a few of us did vigorously discuss and share some of the concerns / conflicts you enumerate in the book (a small group, albeit!).
There were also a lot of intersections for me personally in the book: our landlady for many years was a Karen lady, the old State Library was a frequent haunt of mine, the Jarawa interest obviously, and I can even appreciate some of the "local born" sentiment expressed in the book (although I was "10-year category" technically). Also, despite growing up there, your book provided better explanations and back-stories for the many vague word-of-mouth stuff we kept hearing as kids, and for that I am thankful.
Over the very many years I have read fiction, it felt a little surreal to find that degree of proximity and connection in a book!
Thanks,
F. Francis, MD PhD
Dallas, TX, USA"
Sept 20, 2016
Also check: https://www.facebook.com/groups/489802387817340/
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