There was this grand-uncle of ours who had a reputation as an accurate reader of palms. We young ones would beg of him, “Uncle Sonny, please look at my palm and tell me what you see.” One day he did take a look at my outstretched hand and the first thing he said was, “You will have seven children.”

The relief and the pleasure you get when you complete the book that you are writing, is like the final moments in a dalliance with a pretty woman whom you have been able to get into the bedchamber. I had just finished writing ‘The Suicide Club’ which deals with the pre and postcolonial era of life on the plantations.