‘Spending the night in a hotel room named after me was a surreal experience’

In 2008, I was on a fellowship in Montreal, Canada. Bored with books, I decided to take off to Provincetown for the weekend. Looking for affordable hotels, I chanced upon the Carpe Diem Inn.

The unusual name rang a bell. Greek and Latin poets used the phrase to talk of how life is short and death inevitable, so one must enjoy oneself to the fullest, without guilt. By the Middle Ages carpe diembecame a motif with pagan and epicurean overtones.

It’s not surprising that the hotel-owners chose this name: Provincetown, on the shores of the Atlantic in Massachusetts, has acquired a reputation of being a gay holiday destination. The streets are full of happy men holding hands and smooching as they walk, living the carpe diem dictum, seizing the day without qualms.

In the here and now

When I reached the inn, I found that the rooms are all named after gay writers. Thus, there are Harry Kemp and Eugene O’Neill rooms, Tennessee Williams, Emily Dickinson, Rilke and Dorothy Parker rooms, Robert Frost, Oscar Wilde, Auden and many more.

It was early May and freezing, with cold winds from the Atlantic almost blowing us off our feet. The holiday season was yet to begin, and the hotel was empty. The rooms are decorated after the culture of the writers’ countries. Thus, the Tennessee Williams room has a South American flavour, while the Wilde room is all English.

That’s when I stumbled upon a room with Indian decor, with a statue of Ganesha in the centre. Imagine my shock when I found that it was named after me — the Raj Rao Room!

I told the hotel-owners that I was Raj Rao, and they could not believe I had actually come all the way from India. Taking it as an honour, they offered me the room for free. My companion — an American of Indian origin — was given the adjacent Ruan Ji room, named after a contemporary gay Chinese writer. I discovered that Ruan Ji and I were the only Asian writers after whom rooms at Carpe Diem Inn had been named.

I asked my hosts why they had named the room after me. They said they had googled the words, ‘Gay’, ‘Indian’ and ‘Writer’, and the first name that cropped up was mine. I told them there were at least three others who deserved the honour more than I did —Vikram Seth, Mahesh Dattani and Hoshang Merchant. They disagreed.

Spending the night in a hotel room named after me was a surreal experience. Sleep eluded me. There was my portrait on the wall, and all my books neatly arranged on a shelf.

It is now 10 years since I stayed at Carpe Diem Inn, but my memories of the place linger. The Raj Rao Room still exists: I feel happy that the people who stay there get to know a little bit about me, my country and my work.

What is more relevant, however, is the carpe diem philosophy, which believes in the here and now. Most religions exhort us to live austere lives today, so that we can seize the day tomorrow. The Hindus speak of rebirth and moksha. The Christians believe in the hereafter.

The carpe diem philosophy pooh-poohs these beliefs. It says not to bother about an uncertain tomorrow, but to live life to the full now.

Perhaps it is writers more than non-writers, and gay people more than straight people, who truly exemplify the spirit of carpe diem.

The writer’s latest book is Crocodile Tears: New and Selected Stories.