A longing for the past and the lost homeland has inspired much of Salman Rushdie’s writing. Returning to where it all began and picking up the pieces of fragmented memories is a theme that permeates the acclaimed author’s works.
In ‘Imaginary Homelands’—the title piece in a collection of essays originally published in the London Review of Books on October 7, 1982—Rushdie begins by describing an old photograph that hangs on the wall of the room in London where he worked. It is a picture of his house in the city that was then Bombay, he writes. The sepia-toned photo was taken a year before he was born—1946. A few years before he wrote the essay, he had visited the house. Overwhelmed by the sight of it, he wanted to restore the past to himself and reclaim a history he felt was his despite the many years spent abroad.
Around the time the picture of the Mumbai home was taken, his father Anis Ahmed Rushdie had bought another house in the Civil Lines area of Delhi. Unlike the Mumbai home, Rushdie probably has little memory of the Delhi house. He never lived there. However, it is a house with its own story to tell—a property suit that has dragged on for close to five decades, which could very well be the oldest civil suit in the Delhi High Court.
Denne historien er fra December 31, 2023-utgaven av THE WEEK India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra December 31, 2023-utgaven av THE WEEK India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI