I lived in Calcutta for five months in 1999. While I was there, I read many journals, diaries, collections of letters and histories.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I went to India, lived, and studied.
Calcutta is like another world. People there are very special and grateful.
I am very interested in human-interest stories emerging from modern India. I get my inspiration and daily dose by reading the 'Hindustan Times.'
My parents' relationship with Kolkata is so strong. Growing up, the absence of Kolkata was always present in our lives.
I grew up in a small town in India, but through books I knew the world.
I grew up in Kolkata in a traditional family. We had friends who lived in mansions just like the one in 'Oleander Girl.' Growing up, I was fascinated by the old house and the old Bengal lifestyle.
I left Delhi in 1989 and remember very little of how life used to be then. Increasingly, in my recent visits to Delhi, I've started to realize that the city has become intellectually very lively. It makes me want to discover the city over and over again.
It's easy to set a story anywhere if you get a good guidebook and get some basic street names, and some descriptions, but, for me, yes, I am indebted to my travels to India for several of the stories.
I lived in Wales back in 1982 and 1983. I studied journalism at South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education just off Newport Road in Cardiff.
I was well acquainted with the Calcutta literary circle since I was 17, when I lived in Bangladesh and published and edited a little magazine called 'Sejuti,' for which young poets from both Bengals wrote. If you look at my life, there is no question of using anyone for anything. I have only got banned, blacklisted and banished.