Book by M P Joseph to be Launched at Kochi

KOCHI:
Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) and DC Books will organise a book launch of ‘My Driver Tulong and Other Tall Tales from a Post Pol Pot Contemporary Cambodia’ written by M P Joseph, at 5.30 pm on 23rd May 2017 (Tuesday) at the Bharath Tourist Home (BTH Hotel), near Durbar Hall Ground, Kochi.
Dr. Christy Fernandez will preside over the function and Ambassador T P Sreenivasan will release the book. Bose Krishnamachari renowned artist and curator of the Cochin-Muziris Biennale will felicitate. Noted actor and ad-filmmaker Sijoy Varghese will along with Bose Krishnamachari receive the first copies of the book.
M P Joseph, a first-time author, is a former civil servant from Kerala who left an indelible mark on the administration of Kerala when he held roles such as District Collector Ernakulam, Mayor of the Corporation of Cochin and Labour Commissioner, Kerala State.
The book is a fictionalised travelogue set in Cambodia where Joseph spent 7 years on a UN assignment.The book has thirteen inter-connected stories that bring alive the modern soul of Cambodia and its innocence of its modernizing people, who are yet recovering from the excesses of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge genocide. The book also brings out the strong SanskritisedIndian past of Cambodia, the land of the Angkor Wat and which is the Kamboja-desa of our Puranas, and the many surprising links that Cambodia has with Kerala, including its boat races.
This is the first time an Indian author has ever ventured to write on Cambodia.