Celebrated Indian writer Amitav Ghosh has canceled a planned trip to Romania after being insulted by an official while going through the visa formalities. The incident occurred at the Romanian Consulate in New York, where the writer currently lives, and the planned visit was part of a tour promoting Ghosh's new book, River of Smoke, a sequel to his novel Sea of Poppies, which was short listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2008.

“I just had the worst experience,” said Ghosh, who added that the official at the Romanian consulate was “really insulting” and shouted at him constantly. The reason given for the visa refusal was irregularities with health insurance, according to Ghosh's editor Adelina Patrichi.

Amitav Ghosh was born in 1956 in Calcutta, India. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the Arthur C Clarke Award for Science Fiction for The Calcutta Chromosome and the prestigious French literary award Prix Médicis Etranger. Ghosh has also won the Indian Sahitya Akademi Award.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

photo source: Amitav Ghosh on Facebook by David Shankbone