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Mehta, Ved (1934- ) Indian essayist and autobiographer.
Born in Lahore, Punjab, he was partly educated in the USA and
Britain, and as a young man worked for The New Yorker,
where many of his essays have first appeared. Although he has
written a short satirical novel, Delinquent
Chacha (1967), he is best known as a shrewd and observant
commentator on Indian society. His most distinguished work is
highly autobiographical. Face
to Face (1957) describes his childhood and his early struggle
with blindness. Walking the
Indian Streets (1963) deals with a journey round India after
his years abroad. A more ambitious journey resulted in Portrait
of India (1970), an epic travelogue in which public figures
such as Indira Gandhi alongside ordinary people. Mehta explores
the intellectual life not only of India but also of Europe and
USA in Fly and the Fly Bottle
(1963) and John is Easy to Please:
Encounters with the Written and Spoken Word (1971). Daddyji
(1972) and Mamaji (1979),
touching studies of his parents, have been followed by more volumes
of autobiography, now collectively titled Continents
of Exile: The Ledge between
the Streams (1977), Sound
Shadows of the New World (1986) and The
Stolen Light (1989). He has also published a study of Gandhi
(1977). Though some critics have dismissed Mehta as a high-class
journalist, it is likely that his work will survive as a testament
to the human spirit as well as a penetrating account of contemporary
Indian life.
Ved Mehta takes
no responsibility for and makes no claim of accuracy for any information
on this Web site that is not directly written by him. |
