the writer who spent four days in the wing that housed the viceroy takes it all in from the somewhat mediocre art to the millet farmstop the car says amitav ghosh to the driver of the gracefullyageing black maruti esteem its esteem elevated by the legend on the rear windshield bharat sarkar the writer tips out of the car and shouldering his lumix heads towards a group of bedraggled ponytail palms attended by cycads he takes a picture and hops back in theres a lot of ground to cover at the presidential estate 330 acres to be exact and ghosh is trying to tour as much of it in the four days hes here as a guest of pranab mukherjeethree years ago the president decided to host outstanding writers artists school teachers and scholars at the rashtrapati bhavan under a residency programme they were to be accommodated in the guesthouses on the estate and given a nearly free run of the grounds to take in the art the history dine straight out of the presidents kitchen gardens and be generally invigorated by the verdurea year ago ghosh author of several bestsellers including the indiachina opium trade saga the ibis trilogy received his invitation to raisina hill i was honoured says ghosh who with wife deborah baker checked in for an immersive four days its been a busy year for the writer whos set to promote his new work of nonfiction on climate change the great derangement and this is probably a welldeserved breatheroutside of watching wimbledon on the telly in his suite himalaya and attending a couple of social occasions ghosh has had plenty of time to explore the grounds with its neatly arrayed staff quarters vegetable farms stables grocery even a salon ghosh says it imitates a haryana villagetheres a pond that receives water cleaned by an elaborate recycling plant and a group of windmills signal energyefficiency this corner of the estate appears to have left a far deeper impression on the environmentallysensitive writer than the libraries or the artthe chinoiserie here is among the nicest in their art collection he concedes most of it is cabinetry but there are some early 19th century paintings not chinese high art but of a kind popular in the qing dynasty tablueax vivants depicting everyday life there was a huge production of this art in canton typically purchased by merchants and sometimes by ordinary people a lot of the other work he admits is mediocre random and terribly framed a trademark of most government habitations it appears along with striped maroonandbrown upholstery and stiff cushionsbut ghosh isnt pernickety he acknowledges it in the way one would the antiquated tastes of a fond but unchanging uncle if anything he talks up the experience referring to the gravitas and sense of pride the staff has in the places history my driver was telling me how and where the stone for the buildings was cut and transported via a specially