Ghosh says he will NEVER be accepted as a Goan even if he lives in Goa for
2,000 years. Sad commentary, indeed. Something to think about. Have some of the
rich and famous settled or at least own a house in Goa been accepted as Goans?
Below are relevant excerpts from his interview.
Eugene
---
M magazine (National newspaper, Abu Dhabi) 28.2.2009
A PASSAGE FROM INDIA
Amitav Ghosh, the Booker-nominated Indian author, will appear at the Abu Dhabi
Book Fair next month.
Helena Frith Powell meets him in Goa to talk about life, literary prizes and
the influence of Arab writers on his work
--
Amitav Ghosh's book, Sea Of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize last
year. He didn't win. But as we sit down at his favourite beach restaurant in
Goa to order lunch, he tells me it doesn't matter.Ghosh is married to the
American writer Deborah Baker, the author of In Extremis: The Life Of Laura
Riding (which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize) and A Blue Hand: The
Beats In India. They have two children, Lila and Nayan. The children are being
educated in the United States and so Ghosh divides his time between their home
in Brooklyn, a home in Calcutta and one in Goa. It is India where he feels most
at home.
"I never think of New York as a place I am really living in," he says. "I
always think of myself as an expatriate there. I will come back to India full
time one day; I'm already here most of the time."
Goa reminds Ghosh of the India of his childhood, but he will always keep his
Calcutta home "because even if I live to be 2,000 years old I will never be
accepted as a Goan".
Ghosh may never be perceived as a Goan but he is certainly at home there. He is
well known among locals and very popular. He does not set himself a strict
working pattern when it comes to writing his novels, but prefers to work in the
morning and does most of his writing lying down on a day bed in his study. He
writes by hand on beautiful notebooks he orders online from Cairo. Then he
transcribes the text on to a computer. He doesn't see it as double handling.
