NEW DELHI, Aug. 23 -- In 1998, when I enrolled to study English literature as an undergraduate student at a college in Kolkata, I was a naive reading enthusiast, star-struck by Arundhati Roy, whose Booker-winning debut novel had appeared a year ago, and singularly unprepared to face the drudgery of the syllabus that was then taught by institutions under the University of Calcutta.
Although the curriculum wasn't uniformly dull, it was deadening in its overwhelming focus on white male writers from Britain. The only concession to Indian writing in English was R.K. Narayan; we hadn't ventured into the brave new world of translation studies yet. I don't recall a more cheerless chore in my intellectual life than having to write thoughtful essays...