The writer Amit Chaudhuri, someone whose works I have long admired, recently gave a short interview to The White Review where he discussed his new work Calcutta: Two Years In The City. The interview, conducted by Anita Sethi, takes place, we are told…
…almost 5,000 miles away from Calcutta: we meet in central London one freezing cold day in February.
And yet she claims that despite the distance – in geography, experience and I would argue urban imaginations, Chuadhuri’s conversation allows them to be…
…imaginatively transported into the heat of Calcutta, the central character of the new book, which the author explores in all its complexities and contradictions. One can almost see, smell, taste and touch the life of the city’s streets and its inhabitants.
What follows is a fairly ordinary interview – probably commissioned as a result of Chaudhuri’s publisher’s efforts to get him exposure for his new work in the all-important market of the UK, where he discusses his thoughts of the Indian modern, literary influences and his reasons for writing the book.
What was really striking about Chaudhuri’s responses was that all his references – whether literary and others, were Western. There is no non-European here, let alone an India, an Asia or even something remotely related. Details »
