On Wednesday, the London Launch of Food of Love, cooking up a life across gender, class and race was in the Nehru Centre (The Indian High Commission) in Mayfair .
I was assisted by the delightful actor/singer Kamal Khan. His family saga crosses 4 continents. Kamal is adept at connecting cultures. He played Tony in West Story for the National Youth Theatre and has played Romeo too. His performance of this song by Elvis was enthusiastically received by the audience on Wednesday. He is accompanied by tabla and other non-western instruments. https://youtu.be/jnQj_DumSDA
Kamal has the biggest ‘South Asian’ inspired radio station in LA. In Hollywood, he has, unsurprisingly, played lots of medics but he recently had a non-stereotyped lead role in a No 1 Netflix hit. His English accent helped.
http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-kamal-khan-iamkamalkhan-downtown/
Kamal has recorded the audiobook of Sculpting the Elephant and we want to have an international zoom launch at the end of June. He’s brilliant at all the voices, Indian, British and American. Who better to read Gangabharti – the intriguing Bollywood backing singer in the novel!
Retired CEO Karin Stoeker was in the audience & not in the least bit biased! She emailed,
“I wanted you to know I thought you were fabulous!! Great presentation, and lots of food for thought!’
Attending the launch was the talented Indian artist Bharti Jain. She has an exhibition currently at the High Commission. I love her sensual and elegant paintings and took a pic in front of one of them.
The pic behind Katie Isbester, the Canadian CEO of Claret Press is of the Headington Shark (Oxford). To me it means ‘expect the unexpected’. Katie also has a transplant story to tell.
