Of course it was a full house. In the country to deliver Penguin’s Annual Lecture 2014 in New Delhi, controversial and bestselling author Dan Brown ensured the city turned up in large numbers.
Mr. Brown proved less than five minutes into the lecture that he speaks like he writes — each word gripping and intelligent.
Titled ‘Codes, Science and Religion’, Mr. Brown’s lecture began with an insight into the author’s childhood. Growing up with a deeply religious mother and a passionately scientific-minded father, Mr. Brown said, holding up the old number plates from his mother’s and his father’s cars (KYRIE and METRIC), the age old battle between science and religion was squaring off right in his garage.
Punctuating the lecture with anecdotes, Mr. Brown spoke on the differences, and ultimately similarities, between science and religion.
“Science and religion are partners. They are two different languages telling the same story... While science dwells on the answers, religion savours the questions.” The question, Mr. Brown added, was how to become modern, scientific-minded people without losing on religion.
With a promise to come back to India as soon as possible, Mr. Brown ended on a hopeful note, admitting that the hero of his series Robert Langdon is going to be “very much around” in his next book.
