storyteller extraordinaire lord jeffrey archer is nothing short of a protagonist of a compelling life story in himself he was recently in chennai to promote his new book only time will tell and one couldnt help but make comparisons of him to f scott fitzgeralds beloved character benjamin button who grew younger with every passing yearour warmup query concerning the secret of his fountain of youth had the 70year old robust briton waving a finger at us getting down to business quite literally he completed 20 pushups backtoback to our wideeyed amazement returning to his armchair he nonchalantly asked now where were we oh yes the elixir of youth and fitness i think energy is a godgiven gift not something you can buy for discount at the nearest supermarketturning his focus on the ongoing cricket world cup he remarks energy is something i find seriously lacking in the indian cricket team you have the best team in the world armed with the greatest batsmen but where you falter is in your tendency to get run out and in your poor fielding the author who has visited chennai twice before and shares the citys gusto for the willow goes on to add i think the world cup is long drawn out and well be asleep by the end of it for me cricket comes alive only through test matches give me a dose of v v s laxman and rahul dravid batting against australia for an entire day and then going on to win the match the next day and id be a happy manhe believes that chennai and south india have great things going for them and he tells us you guys are big readers devouring literature of all kinds i personally am a great admirer of the works of r k narayan and the last time i came to india i made it a point to catch up with his brother r k laxmanlike many chennaiites jeffrey too is a patron of the theatre and movies in fact he beams with pride as he lets us in on his latest moviegoing experience saying i really loved watching the kings speech and i thought colin firth and geoffery rush did a fabulous job i was quite moved by christian bale in the fighter as well he has only one rant against indians which he rues as india is the only country in the world where educated drivers drive their vehicles between the vertical white lines right in the middle of the road and not on either side of them