Name Me a Word: Indian Writers Reflect on Writing

486 Pages·2018·1.601 MB·English

by  Meena Alexander

Name Me a Word
Name Me a Word
Indian Writers Reflect on Writing
Edited by
MEENA ALEXANDER
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Philip
Hamilton McMillan of the Class of 1894, Yale College.
Copyright © 2018 by Meena Alexander.
All rights reserved.
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Designed by Sonia Shannon.
Set in Fournier type by Integrated Publishing Solutions.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958267
ISBN 978-0-300-22258-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For
my mother, Mary Alexander,
and in loving memory of my father,
George Alexander (1921–98)
Name me a word
Great, simple, vast as the sky
A word that has, like the intimate hand
Of the woman I have loved forever,
Washed the dirty innards of history.
—JIBANANANDA DAS,
“Name Me a Word” (“Amake ekti katha dao”)
Contents
Preface
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Letter
From Boyhood Days
From Final Poems
“Sickbed 21”
“Recovery 4”
SAROJINI NAIDU
To Arthur Symons
From a Letter to Edmund Gosse
To Rabindranath Tagore (1912)
To Rabindranath Tagore (undated)
PREMCHAND (DHANPAT RAI)
“Two Autobiographical Sketches”
NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI
From The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
From “My Birthplace”
From “The English Scene”
From “The Englishman in the Flesh”
JIBANANANDA DAS
“The Professor”
“Name Me a Word”
“Poetry”
“The Windy Night”
R. K. NARAYAN
From My Days: A Memoir
VAIKOM MUHAMMAD BASHEER
From “Pattumma’s Goat”
RAJA RAO
“Entering the Literary World”
LALITHAMBIKA ANTHERJANAM
“Childhood Memories”
AGYEYA (SACHCHIDANANDA VATSAYAN)
“The Signs”
“Words and Truths”
“Three Words to Make a Poem”
“The Revolving Rock XVI”
“The Revolving Rock XXV”
UMASHANKAR JOSHI
“My Four-Sided Field”
From “The World of Birds”
Acceptance Speech for the 1968 Bharatiya Jnanpith Award
SAADAT HASAN MANTO
“First Letter to Uncle Sam”
ISMAT CHUGTAI
“We People”
AMRITA PRITAM
“To Waris Shah”
From The Revenue Stamp
My Sixteenth Year
A Shadow
NISSIM EZEKIEL
“Background, Casually”
“Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”
MAHASWETA DEVI
“So Many Words, So Many Sounds”
NAYANTARA SAHGAL
“Rejecting Extinction”
QURRATULAIN HYDER
“Beyond the Stars”
JAYANTA MAHAPATRA
From an Autobiographical Essay
“Grandfather”
“The Abandoned British Cemetery at Balasore”
“Hunger”
A. K. RAMANUJAN
“Elements of Composition”