Delhi University used to be more intellectually exciting than Oxford: Amitav Ghosh

New Delhi, Jan 6 (PTI) Delhi University was far more exciting “intellectually speaking” than Oxford when he went there to study in 1978, recalls Amitav Ghosh. But that was then.

To see it now feels like a tragedy, says the author who explores loss, memory and the fragility of a planet battling climate extremities in his latest book “Ghost-Eye”. Themes that also shaped his earlier works, including “The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable" (2016) and "The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis" (2021).

“Ghost-Eye”, the 11th novel from the author celebrated for both his fiction and non-fiction books, is also a love letter to Calcutta, the home of his childhood, the city whose language has quietly gone global, and whose intimacy he channels through his “Bengali storytelling voice”.

“Calcutta continues to go in the opposite direction from the rest of the world. It’s a very unique kind of identity: whatever everyone else is doing, Calcutta is exactly the opposite,” Ghosh said on Monday evening at the first worldwide official launch of his new book.

He was in conversation with writer Keshava Guha at Ambassador hotel-- a place filled with memories from his 10 years in Delhi, five as a student and five as a teacher.

"Delhi University in the 1970s and 1980s... was as good as any university in the world. I went from Delhi University to Oxford in 1978, and while I loved Oxford -- it was a wonderful place -- intellectually speaking, Delhi University was far more exciting. We had read more and engaged much more deeply with our subjects.

"To see the university now being literally destroyed in this way feels like a tragedy. What we see in the US and elsewhere is that institutions take a very long time to build, but they can be destroyed almost overnight -- and that is exactly what we are witnessing," the New York-based author told the packed hall.

In the freewheeling conversation, the 69-year-old dwelled at length on his many influences.

“Calcutta taught me to be sceptical. It taught me to be sceptical about the claims of modernity. And now we see how false most of those claims were," added “The Calcutta Chromosome” author.

This sense of moving against the current extends beyond the city itself, surfacing in the language and voices that travel with its people.

As Ghosh sees it, Bengali was long seen as a "language of intimacy" rather than reach and migration has quietly turned it global.

Today, it surfaces in unexpected places -- from the lanes of Venice, where he once heard his grandmother's 'Madaripur' dialect, to the streets of Brooklyn, where Bengali voices drift up from construction sites and neighbourhoods being remade.

"If I open my study window in Brooklyn, I hear Bengali, coming up from the streets. It's a strange thing. But still in the minds of Bengalis, Bengali continues to be a language of intimacy rather than a language, an international language as such. So there are always these strange sorts of experiences," he said.

In fact, it is this same sense of intimacy that shapes his craft, especially when he hits a writer's block. At such moments, the Jnanpith awardee returns to his "Bengali storytelling voice" -- somewhat akin to Hindi's narrative voice but markedly different from English -- often unlocking the story and allowing it to flow.

"Sunil Gangopadhyay was one of the greatest Bengali writers of the 20th century, and a very close friend. He used to say, 'That I write Bangla novels in English'. And I think that's in some ways a very apt description," he said.

Beyond this, Ghosh also frames the novel as a reflection on food and its deeper meanings.

"Food is the essential way in which we as humans relate to the earth... there's literally nothing more important than food... But for serious writers, food is not really a subject. That's because most serious writers, like you (Guha), live very much in their heads, and never bother with cooking or where the food comes from.” He goes on to suggest that this neglect is not accidental.

"I think one of the reasons why food gets so much sidelined in serious writing is simply because it's the work of marginalised women, you know. And that's, again, one of the reasons why I find it so interesting,” he explained.

His latest book follows Varsha Gupta, a three-year-old child, who one fine day wants fish for her lunch. The catch: her family is strictly vegetarian. Gupta insists she remembers a past life where she ate fish by a river. Her strange memories lead her family to psychiatrist Dr Shoma Bose, whose worldview is deeply shaken by Varsha’s case.

Decades later, the case resurfaces and draws Shoma’s nephew Dinu into a search that uncovers hidden memories and connections. Moving between 1960s Calcutta and modern Brooklyn, the novel explores reincarnation, memory, family, and humanity’s relationship with the planet.

Unusually for Ghosh, the book came together with remarkable speed and sort of "wrote itself", a sharp contrast to the three or four years his novels typically demand.

While reincarnation sits at the heart of the narrative, Ghosh said the idea was shaped by his extensive reading of the research on the subject, particularly accounts of children who recall earlier lives and are "absolutely haunted by the desire to eat from their past lives" -- an image that stayed with him.

His other acclaimed novels include "The Glass Palace", "Gun Island", "Sea of Poppies", "The Hungry Tide" and "Flood of Fire".

Ghosh will bring "Ghost-Eye" to readers across India, with stops planned in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata over the coming weeks. It is published by HarperCollins India. PTI MG MIN MAH MAH MAH