Patrick French and British deputy high commissioner Simon Wilson at the launch of The World Is What It Is at Oxford Bookstore

The secret chambers of Sir V.S. Naipaul’s mind were brought under the spotlight one more time as his authorised biography, The World Is What It Is, was released in Calcutta.

The discussion between Naipaul’s biographer Patrick French and Prof Supriya Chaudhuri at Oxford Bookstore on Thursday touched upon the incidents and emotions, among other things, that have shaped Sir Vidia and his fictive characters.

“Most modern authors are born in middle class backgrounds, but Naipaul has risen from a lower-income group.... He took pride in his Indian ancestry, but the condition of the country hurt him and that made him angry,” said French, an award-winning writer with several books on India and Tibet to his credit.

The World Is What It Is begins with Naipaul’s family shifting to Trinidad and then traces his literary journey, his bond with his father and the women he loved.

Much of the book follows Naipaul’s troubled relationship with the two women in his life — his first wife Patricia and his mistress Margaret, and how “each fed his literary passion”.

“He needed Patricia to write, he would read out everything he wrote to her and she would offer comments. Margaret satisfied his passion. And he treated them both badly,” said French, prompting Chaudhuri to comment: “In a way, that makes him so much the conventional Indian man, brought up to depend on women to do things for him.”

The biography ends with Patricia’s death, probably because French feels that with her changed the way the Nobel Laureate used to write.

The launch included the screening of a preview of the BBC Arena documentary The Strange Luck of V.S. Naipaul.

British deputy high commissioner Simon Wilson, governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and writer Amit Chaudhuri were present on the occasion.

Paritosh Sen with Suvaprasanna at Crossword Bookstore. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

A painter takes to pen

The portrait of an artist as a young man is how one could describe Suvaprasanna’s book, Sheth Aashwo Aar Yasmin O Onnanno Probondho.

The collection of essays was released by Paritosh Sen at Crossword Bookstore on Friday. Joy Goswami, Bratya Basu, Koushik Sen and Jogen Chowdhury were also present at the launch that saw Sudipa Basu and Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee read out excerpts from the book.

Sheth Aashwo holds within its covers accounts of Suvaprasanna’s experiences, thoughts, fantasies, his childhood, friends and idols.

Suvaprasanna discloses the genesis of his famous crow series of drawings and paintings in the essay, Amar Kak, Amar Ted Hughes. It reveals how the painter’s visualisation of crows as fearless scavengers always on the watch found a distant echo in British poet Ted Hughes’s work.

The author-poet also discusses his intimacy with writer Shibram Chakraborty.

Some of the other essays dwell on Paritosh Sen, Günter Grass, Jainul Abedin, Ramkinkar Beij, Amar Mitra and even Rizwanur Rahman.

The invitation card named Anandarajar Patrika

Twist in the tale

When homemaker Elia Das thought of doing something innovative for her seven-month-old daughter Debadrita’s rice-eating ceremony (annaprasan) last month, a lot of eyebrows were raised among friends and family.

Paying no heed to them, Elia landed up at her drawing teacher’s door and requested him to create an invitation card that’s “out of the world”.

Artist Ranajit Roy Chowdhury didn’t disappoint his student. The invite is a replica of Anandabazar Patrika, with a twist. Roy Chowdhury designed a mini four-page newspaper, named it Anandarajar Patrika and filled it up with jokes and jibes. Debadrita’s picture and the invitation were the high points.

“It’s a caricature of the March 30 issue of Anandabazar Patrika. And I have put in some hilarious advertisements in the classifieds section,” said Roy Chowdhury.

The card has caught the attention of more people than Elia had invited to her daughter’s ceremony. “It is the most talked-about topic among my relatives and neighbours now,” says the happy mother.

(Contributed by Poulomi Banerjee, Sebanti Sarkar and Kushali Nag)