TPL0401A-10: Incorrect read and unable to write wiper position register

I am trying to read & write to the wiper register as per instructions in datasheet using i2c_read_device function in python pigpio library. The read command returns b'\x7f\xff\xff\xff....' instead of the powerup default expected b'\x40

I tried writing different values to wiper register (no error) but read command still returns the same response. Can anyone help me identify cause? Code as below:

import pigpio

pi=pigpio.pi()

handle=pi.pi.i2c_open(1,0x2E)

print(pi.i2c_read_device(handle,10))

I have 4.7k pullup resistors connected to SDA & SCL pins