Ajay Kamalakaran at the launch of his book in Kathmandu, Nepal.Kathmandu: The Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Kathmandu, on Tuesday, hosted the Nepal launch of author Ajay Kamalakaran’s book of short stories titled Globetrotting for Love and Other Stories from Sakhalin Island.
The book, which is a fictionalized account of life in the Russian Far Eastern oil and gas rich island of Sakhalin, was first released in Russia in July 2017 and has since been launched in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It is also on sale in the US, UK and Canada.
Nepalese literary figures, politicians, foreign diplomats, students and journalists attended the function.
“The book shines light on a hitherto unknown part of Russia at an interesting point of its history,” Vishnu Bahadur Singh, vice-president of Nepal-Russia literary circle said. Singh, who is an alumnus of the People’s Friendship University of Russia also suggested that the book be translated into Nepalese.
“It’s always interesting to see how an assimilated foreign citizen sees life in Russia,” said Anton Maslov, a Russian diplomat based in Kathmandu.
From 2003 to 2007, Ajay Kamalakaran was the editor of the Sakhalin Times, a weekly newspaper that was published in the Russian Far East. He is a Malayali with roots in Palakkad. He has also been the consulting editor of Russia Beyond the Headlines, a multimedia publication based in Moscow.
The book of short stories looks at the impact of an oil and gas boom in Sakhalin, which was isolated from the rest of the world during the Soviet days.
