Story of the Week

I was at the flea book-market hoping for a windfall. There I found an award-winning author rummaging through a pile.

One early morning in April 1878, a 20-something Polish youth climbed into a boat to board a British ship, James Westoll, moored some distance from the shore. As the boat neared the liner, a husky voice from the deck above growled: “Look out there.”

Those three simple words were enough to touch the young man’s heart and bring tears to his eyes. It was the first time in his life that someone had addressed him in English–the language of his “secret choice”, of his “future”, of his “very dreams.” The world was to remember him as Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad.

I travel on impulse. At one short notice, I headed for the holy city of Ujjain. Great distance away. To meet monks at Kumbh Mela. I met one on the bank of river Shipra.

It’s not widely known that once when struck by a tragedy–the sudden demise of his wife, just five years after his marriage—R. K. Narayan (1906-2001), the Indian writer par excellence, had decided to give up writing.
“The writer’s personal tragedy,” said Graham Greene, “has been our gain.” Greene couldn’t have been more right. Narayan’s self-imposed exile didn’t thankfully last for long. After a gap of few years, he wielded the pen once again, this time with a much surer and greater hold.
“To comprehend a nectar / Requires sorest need”, wrote Emily Dickinson. R. K. Narayan, who was particularly fond of the English language right from his childhood, and who is now reckoned as one of the major writers in the language, had once, in a university entrance examination (1925), failed in English.

I couldn’t immediately determine how long I sat in morning meditation when my eyes fluttered open.
Instantly I became aware of its presence: a rearing cobra, few meters away, standing on its tail with its curved hood.

Last month (21 March), the news of Parsi New year being celebrated brought to mind the gifted Parsi writer Nergis Dalal (born 13 June 1921) who I met at her residence in Dehradun one and a half decades ago.
Exactly four months after I interviewed her, she wrote me a letter: “I really marvel at your enthusiasm and energy in conducting all the interviews with writers in India… I look forward to meeting you again some time.” I visited Dehradun a few more times after that maiden meeting with Nergis, but the second meeting with her somehow never took place.

I’ve a penchant for one particular gazebo in Mussoorie. Most of my concerns dissolve once I chug my way up there.

I cherish the freedom
To be left alone in a total switch-off mode
In a cafeteria overlooking
An aha-moment-inducing lake.

Past the tunnel
The Pullman stops dead on the track.

The train was about to arrive. I went to station bookstall looking for the day’s paper.
One hand clutching the daily, the other pulling a trolley, I sat on a bleacher with difficulty. There’s hardly any space anywhere, so crowded was the platform with people returning to Kolkata from Puri.