Last night I really enjoyed interviewing my new friend Manoj Raithatha in front of an audience at York University. Manoj had travelled up from Watford by train and it was tremendous fun to introduce him as an ex-Bafta Award Winning TV writer, ex-Hindu, ex-Property Tycoon. I then read from a 10th Sept 2005 Daily Telegraph article on Manoj by Angela Pertusini. The headline was “A Vision of the North”
“Manoj Raithatha makes it all sound so reasonable. Why wouldn’t you buy 209 apartments in a yet-to-be-built block in Leeds? Why not spend £35million on one big day out? He shrugs, he smiles, he makes perfect sense. I begin to feel a bit sheepish that I haven’t thought of doing it myself. Although his purchase at Crosby Homes, Clarence Dock, in Leeds, is thought to be the biggest single deal in the North this year, such shopping sprees, even on this epic scale, are becoming increasingly commonplace for Manoj.”
Anyway, I hope that whets your appetite and if you don’t know Manoj’s extraordinary conversion story, then I won’t spoil it for you. You can get hold of his autobiography “Filthy Rich”, but suffice to say it was a great night. I interviewed Manoj for 45 minutes and then did a brief gospel preach off the back of it, and 2 people responded.
Earlier in the day I spoke at a lunch bar, titled: “Was Jesus just a good moral teacher?” at James College, York University. We had some good questions afterwards and I met someone who’d become a Christian recently after listening to my talks on the bethinking website. That was hugely encouraging.