Bibliofile

A Fan of Spies

Arindam Sen Gupta, ace editor, irreplaceable friend and above all a fantastic human being, who passed away suddenly after a brief fight with lung cancer last week in Delhi, was always into a book. His wife Swati remembers how they had actually met over a book all those years ago, though they had always been acquaintances. Once he lent her Umberto Eco’s alluring The Name of the Rose, which she read and loved, and their real courtship started while discussing it. ASG, as he was known to friends, had an eclectic taste in reading, picked up books of almost all genres, but his one longstanding love was John Le Carre and his spymaster hero George Smiley. ASG’s favourites among Le Carre’s works were Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Constant Gardener (he loved Gary Oldman’s TTSS film but hated Ralph Fiennes’s Gardener), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Smiley’s People, The Constant Gardener and The Tailor of Panama, which he reread many times. When they were shifting house, he and Swati had an argument as he wanted a full shelf for Le Carre’s books, even above Henry James or Jane Austen, which she had to relent to. In later years, ASG’s favourite author was Orhan Pamuk and he specially loved My Name is Red, which in a sense is somewhat similar to The Name of the Rose, as both subvert the thriller genre to a literary level.

Unblock Code

Here is Stephen Fry’s tip to writers with a block. Do what Graham Greene did. At the end of a writing session, always leave the last sentence unfinished. When you begin writing next, you can start off without mulling over it too much.