The heat, the bustle and cricketing legends

Arrived in Delhi to be met by the Landmark team headed by Lijin Thomas. My first surprise came at customs when the man checking my passport asked for an autograph. He then turned round and told his colleagues, 'It's Jeffrey Archer,' and half an hour later I managed to pass through. It turns out that in India, authors are like film stars, partly because the nation is so well-read - of a billion people, 200 million read and 50 million read books regularly.

After a quick turn around at my hotel (where my suite was larger than a cricket pitch) I went off to a lunch arranged by Lokesh Sharma; a wonderful occasion and such a variety of guests, including Nawab of Pataudi who was up at Baliol and captain of cricket just before I was presidet of athletics. Kapil Dev strolled in, followed by the Minister of Commerce, Kamal Nath, and they were supplemented by two former ministers, a judge and a Bollywood star. I was meant to sit down for lunch at 1pm, as my first interview with The Times of India was at 2pm, but we're in India, and I sat down at 1.50pm, for precisely 2 minutes before being invited to speak, so I didn't actually get any lunch (I'm glad I'm slimming at the moment).

My first interviewer was courageous enough to say that two distinguished Indian authors (and I choose my words carefully) were sacred cows you were not allowed to criticise, whereas in truth many people struggled with their books. All the interviewers were interested in my first impressions of India, but I had to point out that I'd only just got off the plane. However, I do have a few observations, mainly of bicycles being ridden the wrong way down one-way streets dodging the on-coming traffic, little green auto-rickshaws being driven at full speed in an out of traffic, no rules, no bus lanes, the occasional cow in the middle of the road and in major cities some 50 accidents a day. All in all, one would have to describe the Italians as cautious in comparison. I followed this with 4 more print and 3 TV interviews. Sunil Sethi of NDTV conducted a brilliant interview and I was full of admiration for the research he'd obviously done and his relaxed and professional manner.

I was rushed off to a bookstore on the outskirts of Delhi to find 700 people waiting for me. After I'd given a talk, the signing session lasted two and a half hours - and the only reason I escaped was because they ran out of books. Battered and hungry I said to my minder how surprised I'd been to find so many people there, and he replied, 'Oh, they're going to get a lot worse,' - by that he meant bigger crowds. From there, to a Twenty20 match between the Delhi DareDevils v King's XI Punjab. Sadly a rainstorm got in the way of any result, but what did strike me about the Twenty20 - about which much is written in the British press - is what great international players they have - I saw McGrath, Sehwag, and Marsh playing as if their life depended on it, and the crowd of 42,000 were screaming and shouting after every ball. I have a feeling this Indian experiment is going to be with us for a long time. Got back to the hotel very late, exhausted and hungry, but having enjoyed every moment.

The following morning I did 5 magazine interviews, then had a quick bowl of soup before being rushed off to the airport to travel to Lucknow. The flight was delayed by over an hour, so on arrival rushed straight to the Landmark bookstore to find another few hundred people waiting for me, as well as a group of 5 journalists from the local papers who interviewed me together. At least the bookstore had enough books in stock, so the signing went on for another couple of hours, after which I had to fit in a second interview with The Times of India and a different journalist because she'd missed her earlier slot. Back in my hotel room by 11pm - another early start tomorrow for a flight back to Delhi.