Dans le cadre de l'édition spéciale de Tehelka sur les habitudes littéraires en Inde pour l'année 2009.
Is there a book that changed or transformed your life? How - Why?
I shall mention two classics. I tend to read old books, perhaps because I have begun to feel my mortality. The first is the epic, Mahabharata, because it is about us. It is about how we deceive ourselves, how we are false to others, how we oppress fellow human beings, and how we are morally blind most of the time. Besides, I am currently reading Marcel Proust’s novel, In Search of Lost Time, in a new translation by the editor Christopher Prendergast and others (Allen Lane 2002). I am fascinated by the role of memory in the novel, beginning with the famous episode when the author eats a madeleine as a child, which opens up his entire past. Throughout there are many instances of memory being triggered by sights, sounds and smells. I read this French classic in college in Scott Moncrieff's translation, which was titled Remembrance of Things Past. I find this translation simpler, more satisfying.
In everything you have read, who would you count as the most inspirational character you have ever encountered and why?
In everything I have read, Pierre in Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Karna in the Mahabharata are the most inspirational characters I have ever encountered. They both wrestled with moral dilemmas that I have faced, indeed, all of us face. Their instincts are almost always deeply moral.
Is there any literary character you would have loved to be, or have unconsciously or consciously modelled yourself on? Who - Why - How?
I would have loved to be Shakespeare’s much admired Henry V and Arjuna in the Mahabharata. Both are winners, good Chief Executive Officer (CEO) material. The difference between them is that the much admired English king has no qualms about killing innocent women and children in war, whereas Arjuna does. Henry seems to me not very different from our modern leaders who do not give much thought to the deaths of civilians when they declare war. However, Arjuna does care.
Who is according to you the most romantic literary character you have ever read about? Why?
I think it’s Arjuna in the Mahabharata. He is universally attractive to women—this may be why every fifth Indian mother seems to name her son Arjun.
The funniest literary character?
For me the funniest literary character is definitely Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster.
What is the most disturbing book or scene you have ever read?
I have always found Chekov’s plays deeply disturbing. Uncle Vanya is particularly disturbing - it makes you face the sadness of the human condition.
A book or writer that changed your worldview? Or maybe that took you into a world you had never imagined?
I would say Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America changed my view both of democracy and of America. I understood why America became the first and greatest democracy, and I learned the dangers of the tyranny of the majority in every democracy.
Is there a book that changed or transformed your life? How - Why?
I shall mention two classics. I tend to read old books, perhaps because I have begun to feel my mortality. The first is the epic, Mahabharata, because it is about us. It is about how we deceive ourselves, how we are false to others, how we oppress fellow human beings, and how we are morally blind most of the time. Besides, I am currently reading Marcel Proust’s novel, In Search of Lost Time, in a new translation by the editor Christopher Prendergast and others (Allen Lane 2002). I am fascinated by the role of memory in the novel, beginning with the famous episode when the author eats a madeleine as a child, which opens up his entire past. Throughout there are many instances of memory being triggered by sights, sounds and smells. I read this French classic in college in Scott Moncrieff's translation, which was titled Remembrance of Things Past. I find this translation simpler, more satisfying.
In everything you have read, who would you count as the most inspirational character you have ever encountered and why?
In everything I have read, Pierre in Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Karna in the Mahabharata are the most inspirational characters I have ever encountered. They both wrestled with moral dilemmas that I have faced, indeed, all of us face. Their instincts are almost always deeply moral.
Is there any literary character you would have loved to be, or have unconsciously or consciously modelled yourself on? Who - Why - How?
I would have loved to be Shakespeare’s much admired Henry V and Arjuna in the Mahabharata. Both are winners, good Chief Executive Officer (CEO) material. The difference between them is that the much admired English king has no qualms about killing innocent women and children in war, whereas Arjuna does. Henry seems to me not very different from our modern leaders who do not give much thought to the deaths of civilians when they declare war. However, Arjuna does care.
Who is according to you the most romantic literary character you have ever read about? Why?
I think it’s Arjuna in the Mahabharata. He is universally attractive to women—this may be why every fifth Indian mother seems to name her son Arjun.
The funniest literary character?
For me the funniest literary character is definitely Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster.
What is the most disturbing book or scene you have ever read?
I have always found Chekov’s plays deeply disturbing. Uncle Vanya is particularly disturbing - it makes you face the sadness of the human condition.
A book or writer that changed your worldview? Or maybe that took you into a world you had never imagined?
I would say Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America changed my view both of democracy and of America. I understood why America became the first and greatest democracy, and I learned the dangers of the tyranny of the majority in every democracy.
