I suffered a cardiac arrest on January 6, 2004, but luckily, as I was in a hospital setting and with Cardiologist Dr. B Soma Raju, I was resuscitated in time. A month later, on February 6, I was operated upon by heart surgeon Dr. M. Gopi Chand. On the eve of the surgery, Mr. Madhu Reddy, the Managing Director of the Universities Press publishing company, which had published Wings of Fire, visited me and gifted me the book The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. I completed reading it while recovering after the surgery, even before I was discharged from the hospital. 

The Glass Palace follows the intertwined stories of Rajkumar, an Indian orphan, and the Burmese royal family, spanning several generations and locations, during the British invasion of Burma. The novel explores the themes of exile, displacement and the impact of colonialism on various societies, highlighting the struggles faced by individuals caught in the crossfire of political and social chaos. The book’s message is that the legacy of colonialism continues to shape societies and individuals, leaving lasting scars of displacement and social change.

Ghosh expertly weaves the personal tales of the people with meticulously documented historical events. The vivid landscapes and many cultural tapestries of Burma, India, and Malaysia come to life in his writing, which catches the spirit of each time and place. A profound sense of the interdependence of human lives across geography and time remains with readers as the novel comes to a close. The Glass Palace is proof that stories may transport audiences to another time and place while simultaneously shedding light on our history.

This novel left a big impression on me. After recovering, I met the Ambassador of Myanmar in New Delhi. I then visited Myanmar with Cardiologist Prof. P Krishnam Raju on a mission to develop an exchange programme introducing interventional cardiology there. During my stay there, I visited the Palace in Mandalay. Standing in the courtyard of Kuthodaw Pagoda on a nearby hill, I saw from a distance the jail where Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was confined for six years, during which he used his time in exile to write the Gita Rahasya. I would later write a modern interpretation of this book.

After this trip, I also accompanied President Kalam on a State visit to Myanmar. In the following years, more than 100 doctors and nurses were trained at the Care Hospital, Hyderabad, as part of the exchange programme we have developed, which became a notable accomplishment. When I reflect on such things, I wonder whether things are already predetermined and whether what we think we are doing is happening through us. What if Mr. Madhu Reddy had given me some other book? What if I had not read the book? What if Prof. Krishnam Raju had not been able to spare time to travel to Myanmar?

This book remains very special to me, and I often read its passages to unwind.

“But if it were true that his life had somehow been moulded by acts of power of which he was unaware, then it would follow that he had never acted of his own volition; never had a moment of true self-consciousness. Everything he had ever assumed about himself was a lie, an illusion. And if this were so, how would he find himself now?” (Chapter 36, p. 461)

I consider Mr. Amitav Ghosh the best historical fiction writer of our time. He is our own V. S. Naipaul and Joseph Conrad in this genre of literature.