Bibliofile

One would have hardly expected the mild-mannered Amit Chaudhury to offend anyone, least of all a fellow writer. But offend he did, and none other than a novelist being celebrated with centrespreads on both sides of the Atlantic with the launch of his latest, Family Matters. Apparently Amit had made several uncomplimentary remarks about Parsis and their long noses and bad temper while reviewing Rohinton Mistry’s first book, Such A Long Journey, 10 years ago. Rohinton, for all his subsequent success, never quite forgot it. And brought it up in an interview to The Guardian, which recounted that when the two eventually met in London, Rohinton rounded on Amit with an angry "How could you have written that piece?" causing the guilty Amit to sidle out of the party without his dinner. But even the mild-mannered have their limits. Amit has written an angry letter to The Guardian in retaliation, saying he had nothing against Rohinton’s religion. His only reservation, Amit shot back, had to do with Rohinton’s writing.

And that’s not the only war of words. Another famous Indian writer who found herself at the receiving end of a blistering attack was Arundhati Roy. She was accused, among other things, of being shrill and vain, "grandstanding" in "the patronising tone of a tour guide for schoolchildren". No, it’s not Ramachandra Guha again, not even Vikram Seth who confessed one evening to finding her new avatar as activist-writer "irritating". It is The New Republic reviewer Ian Buruma who has taken her on this time.