Noted Indian writer Ved Mehta recently launched his newest book in the national capital. Humra Quraishi revisits an old encounter.
This week, I received an invite from Penguin Books for the launch of Ved Mehta’s latest, The Essential Ved Mehta. I marveled at this writer’s determination and his grit to go on – today, he is 80 years old, but he is still writing, and when he is visually impaired.
Five years ago, I had the chance to interview him here in New Delhi, when he was here at the launch of another of his books. He had spoken then of a meningitis attack that had left him visually impaired at the age of four, but that he had never let this setback get in the way of his writing.
His is an inspirational survival story. He received an early education at the Arkansas School for the Blind, Dadar (in Bombay), then moved to the Pomona College, Balliol College and finally to Harvard University. What is amazing is that he managed these major moves, especially one that meant shifting to the West in his early teens. He got American citizenship in 1975 and visits India regularly.
The 80-year-old writer has written 26 books, as also numerous short and long stories. For over three decades, from 1961 to 1994, he was a staff writer at The New Yorker. All along, there were murmurs about his ‘colourful lifestyle’, till the time he decided to marry. Marrying in 1983, at the age of 49, he chose for his life partner a woman much younger than he – probably on the lines of Aristotle’s philosophy, that for a marriage to be happy, a man must marry a much younger woman.
I had the chance to first interview him in 2009, and even today I remember the meeting fondly. This is how it went:
Are you currently working on some new book and what is it going to be about?
I am writing a new novel but I don’t like discussing my work till it is published. As of now all that I can say is that the protagonist is an Indian settled in the US. And no, it isn’t along autobiographical lines.
You are settled in the US and American foreign policies have triggered changes in the world scenario. What do you feel about this?
America should get out of Afghanistan, and Iraq was a total disaster, totally a fantasy of a kind, along the lines of what the US did in Vietnam and in Korea. I’m for non-violence and all for the policy of tolerance and I do believe in Aristotle’s philosophy vis-à-vis democracy, “You can only have democracy if a majority of people belong to the middle class.”
What changes have come in the world of writing and publishing over the years?
We are living in an odd world. In the publishing world the editors are playing musical chairs and as regards writing, I’m from the old school and thoroughly believe in the principles of integrity and honesty to oneself and to one’s readers.
Your wife seems much younger than you. Where did you meet her and how it all happened?
I married late when I was 49 years old and Lill is almost 20 years younger than me…Actually, Lill is a friend’s niece and I had first met her when she was about 11 years old. Years later, I had met her again at a party and this time I was drunk and kissed her. The very next morning, however, I wrote an apology note to her and she told me that from her side, too, there were feelings involved. It was then that we decided to marry. We married in 1983. And today she is my wife and we have two daughters.
Why did you re-launch your earlier books, Daddyji and Mamaji? You wrote these two books years ago, why the re-launch now?
Yes, I wrote these books decades back but I feel our history is important for today’s generation. People who live without history are no better than animals. History is important for today’s generation as it adds a dimension to life, just as children and wife add that extra dimension to a man’s life. Also, I feel that we should realise that our parents are not some authoritative figures but are as human as you and me. My parents – Shanti Devi Mehta and Amolak Ram Mehta were very private people and I wrote these out of affection for them and focussed on the everyday life of a family in the late 19th and early 20th century India.
Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.
(Pictures courtesy www.thehindu.com)
