Bengaluru and Hyderabad

Well, the India book tour is over. Sad though I am, it has been a really tiring couple of weeks. And now, nine events, dozens of press interviews and gazillions of signed books later, I'm back off to London tomorrow.

Bengaluru was the big one on my itinerary because it features so heavily in Geek Nation. I gave two talks to the staff at the enormous offices of Tata Consultancy Services (they have 28,000 employees in the city!), followed by a packed-out event at the British Library that featured me in conversation with the fabulously geeky Samhita Arni (a real-life child prodigy, who wrote her first book at the age of twelve). I know I shouldn't have, but I used the opportunity to vent about a particularly sexist reporter from The Week magazine who had told me last week that I had "the profile of a chick-lit author" (not sure whether that's because of my engineering degree or my years as a serious journalist...). On the whole, though, reporters here have been lovely, and if you'd like to see some of the brilliant coverage and reviews check out my website.

Last night took me to Hyderabad for a book event at the Saptaparni Theatre in Banjara Hills (picture above). It's a beautiful spot but, unluckily for me, it was also outdoors... which meant a feasting session for the mosquitoes. I was in conversation with the famous Indian bioscientist, Dr P M Bhargava and the writer Chandana Chakrabarti, who once both co-authored a book about post-Independence science in India, which is now out of print. This is the first time I've been able to get the reaction of the Indian science elite, and so it came as a relief that they loved Geek Nation. Chandana said she managed to zip through two-thirds of it in a day. But to be honest, I was so busy scratching my leg that I missed a lot of what else happened.

So finally, thanks to all of you who came out to see me over the last fortnight. I've had a blast, and am so happy to see Geek Nation appearing on bestseller lists across India. I promise I'll be back soon! If you would like to stay updated on other events around the world, please join the Facebook group (315 fans and counting).