Dominique Lapierre

Dominique Lapierre has found someone to look up to in South Africa.

“In 2006 I went to Cape Town to meet this white lady, Helen Lieberman, wife of a leading lawyer in South Africa. During the peak of apartheid this remarkable lady saved thousands of black children with food and medicine. She is the unknown Mother Teresa of the world,” says the celebrated French author of City of Joy. The octogenarian was speaking in his hotel lobby, flamboyant in a checkered shirt and red pants.

The result is A Rainbow in the Night to be published shortly. The book is also an ode to Nelson Mandela. “Here is someone, who, after being in prison for 30 years, does not call for vengeance on the Whites, rather he says there is going to be a ‘rainbow nation’ that will give the world a reconciliation of races,” said Lapierre, who was in the city to check out his philanthropic projects.

MIRROR EFFECT: A model of an “unending train” at the new exhibition gallery in Digha Science Centre. Picture by Aranya Sen

He warns his projects may soon shut down because of “a lack of funds”.

Lapierre is finishing India My Love, which will be published next year, first in Italian and later in English. He puts in the royalties from his bestsellers: Freedom At Midnight, City of Joy, and Five Minutes Past Midnight, into his India projects.

Lapierre left home when he was 17 to travel around the US in a second-hand 1927 Nash. He has an enduring love for vintage cars.

“I would collect an Ambassador and also a Nano. It is such a pity that the Nano was not made in Bengal,” he says. He owns a 1951 Rolls Royce and a 1960 Citreon.

However, he always carries with him a rickshaw bell that reminds him of “the voice of those who have nothing and yet can share everything, the poorest of the poor”.

He would like to be buried at a small cemetery in the south of France. On his tombstone would be inscribed the following words: “Citizen of Honour of Calcutta”.

On horseback

You had seen her carried atop trucks and Matadors. But this year goddess Kali had a brand new vehicle — a horse-drawn carriage. Instead of blocks of wood, comfy red velvet seats were placed and many idols of Ma Kali were seen on way to immersion on the shiny carriage. It must have been more comfortable, at least, for the humans travelling with the goddess.

(Contributed by Anasuya Basu and Saionee Chakraborty)