November 2007
WRITERS AND POLITICS, The Hindu
I have been reading the correspondence of the American polymath Edmund Wilson. Wilson was the most influential literary critic of his day, whose essays and reviews could make or break a writer’s career. He was [...]
THE KLEPTOCRAT AND THE DEMOCRAT, The Telegraph
In September I was in the United States, travelling around the cities of the East Coast. The exiled Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto had been there a few weeks previously, visiting the same cities and frequently [...]
THE LUCK OF THE SOUTH, The Hindu
One of my all-time favourite places is the temple of Somanathapura. It is less visited than other famous Hoysala shrines such as Belur and Halebidu, in part because it lies off the beaten track. The [...]
RECALLING AN EARLIER FAILURE, The Telegraph
On my first trip to New York—back in the mid 1980s—I made a visit to the United Nations, an institution then held in somewhat higher esteem than it is now. In the plaza outside a [...]
October 2007
A STORY OF DASGUPTAS, The Telegraph
On my last trip to Kolkata, I had what can only be described as a uniquely bhadralok experience: I bought a book by a Dasgupta about another Dasgupta, which was sold to me by a [...]
SIDELIGHTS ON NIRAD BABU, The Telegraph
In his new book, A Writer’s People, V. S. Naipaul reflects on the work of, among others, Nirad C. Chaudhuri. Naipaul praises (with some reservations) Chaudhuri’s two volumes of autobiography, but is dismissive of his [...]