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A Self-Portait

An excellent translation of a delightful story in which the author plays pranks on the characters, manipulates them to his liking, talks to them...all the while looking for a story to write

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A Self-Portait
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Govardhan’s Travels
Chowringhee

Famed for his serials Hum Log, Buniyaad and Mungeri Lal Ke Haseen Sapne, for his many novels, stories and journalism, Joshi needs little introduction. In this short narrative, he returns to his home in Kumaon, where he encounters Khashtivallab Pant, otherwise known as Professor T’ta, a man in love with the English language. The writer rapidly sets T’ta against a man he hates, and who has superseded him to become principal (not headmaster!) of a school. The hilarity, however, soon turns into a dark, somewhat philosophical reflection, as much on the characters, as on the pretensions of the writer who believes that "the world was peopled either with writers or with lumpens who existed for us to write about".

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