Vikram
Seth
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Born in Calcutta in 1952 to Prem Seth, a shoe company executive, and
Laila Seth, a judge, Vikram Seth is the oldest of three children in
the Seth family.
He was sent away to Doon school, a prestigious boarding school for
boys, at the age of six. As a young student Vikram was very shy,
"Incapable of looking people in the eye," he says. But what he
lacked in sociability, he more than made up by excelling at his
studies.
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Did
you know? |
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In 1992,
Vikram was invited to Doon School to give the Founder's Day speech.
In his speech, Vikram confessed "I had a terrible feeling of
loneliness and isolation during my six years here………….I was teased
and bullied by my classmates and my seniors because of my interest
in studies and reading, because of my lack of interest in games,
because of my unwillingness to join gangs and groups." |
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passing his 'O level' exams with distinction, Vikram won a scholarship
to Tonbridge School in Kent, U.K. From Kent he soon went to the
prestigious Oxford University on another scholarship and earned degrees
in philosophy, economics, and politics. Not content with all this, Seth
went to study at the Stanford University in the U.S. for a Ph D. in
Economics. He spent the next 11 years "not getting the degree", as he
says. Two of those years (1980-1982) were spent in China, where Seth
studied poetry and languages at the Nanjing University of China. It was
while in China that Vikram realized he was "more interested in poetry
than economics." |
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Fundu
Fact |
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One day
he was just browsing in a bookstore when Vikram Seth happened upon
Russian poet Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin', a novel in sonnets.
Seth was impressed, as he himself had earlier toyed with the idea of
writing a novel in the verse form. The book inspired him enough to
write 'The Golden Gate.' |
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In
1986, while still at Stanford, Seth produced a novel entirely in
rhythmic verse (sonnets) called 'The Golden Gate', a story
about life in San Francisco.
Vikram had been discouraged by many of his friends who felt that the
book would never sel,l but he didn't mind their comments, even
included them into the text - "Drivelling in rhyme's all very
well/The question is does spittle sell?"
'Golden Gate' was widely appreciated when it was released and sold
over a 100, 000 copies.
Seth's next novel 'A Suitable Boy' was published in 1993 and shot
him to instant world fame, selling over a million copies. The novel
is the story of an Indian mother's search |
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for a
suitable match for her daughter, set against the backdrop of life in
India in the 1950s. With 1,349 pages, the book is the largest single
volume novel in English. In his introduction to the book Seth urges
potential readers: "Buy me before good sense insists/You'll strain
your purse and sprain your wrists." |
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Did
you know? |
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Seth
wrote the first hundred pages of 'A Suitable Boy' and then lost
momentum - he decided that he didn't know enough about the period he
was trying to re-create and spent the next year researching!!! He
read old newspapers and records of legislative proceedings,
interviewed old freedom fighters and musicians and even went to live
for a while in a remote village where he spent time with leather
workers. |
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Seth's second novel 'An Equal Music', released in 1999, was a
love story among members of a music quartet. It deals with the
feelings of Michael, a professional violinist who never recovers
from the loss of his only true love, a pianist he knew as a student
in Vienna. |
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Works of
Vikram Seth |
Poetry -
Mappings, All You Who Sleep Tonight, The Humble Administrator's Garden,
Beastly Tales from Here and There, Three Chinese Poets: Translations.
Libretto - Arion and the Dolphin.
Travelogue - From Heaven Lake.
Novels - Golden Gate, A Suitable Boy, An Equal Music. |
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