VIKRAM SETH ALIAS AMIT

I first heard his name when 'A Suitable Boy' was published. The opening sentences referred to this lady who was a widow, she was choosing her sari from an almirah, in order to attend a family wedding. She was making a choice between a shiny tissue sari and other more pastel shades, worrying whether people will criticize her for wearing a shiny colour.  I remembered my grandmother, who used to say similar things. The entire time that I had known her, she was a widow and never wore bright shades. I wondered about the author Vikram Seth, thought he must be a  keen observer, otherwise this very detailed debate in a widowed woman's mind would not have appeared in his write up.
I was delighted to discover his sensitivity, as I read through his entire repertoire 'An equal music', 'Two lives' 'From Heaven lake', I went more and more into the soul of Vikram Seth, I wished to  meet him!

So I did in the year 2014!  Well, meet him is a misnomer, I saw him, or rather heard him speak. He was there in the Bangla Academy auditorium (Dhaka) for the inaugural of the Hay's festival.

Vikram Seth came to the dais. He started his speech with brilliant eloquence. "I am very indebted to Bangladesh. If Bangladesh had not been there, I wouldn't have been born." The audience listened inquisitively. How could the country influence his birth?

"It is only because of the Bangladeshi influence that I was born. My Mamu lived and worked in Jessore. My grandmother lost her husband at a very early age. My mother was her only daughter. She sent her daughter to a missionary college in Darjeeling, hoping to set her in the right path of education and character building. There my mother took on a special liking to the lives of the Sisters and decided to go for Sisterhood! My grandmother was alarmed. She packed her off from Darjeeling and sent her daughter to Jessore. My mother spent a few months in Jessore, loved Bangladesh and gave up her idea of becoming a nun, and agreed to marry my father. Hence, the Bangladeshi influence brought me to this world!"
The audience laughed.

"My actual name is Amit, the favourite character from Tagore's 'Shesher kobita'. Although I am known worldwide as Vikram Seth, to you Bangladeshis, I appear as Amit."
Again the audience wondered why Vikram should be Amit…

"When my mother was carrying me, she was reading Tagore's 'Shesher Kobita'. I was born in a clinic in Kolkata and my father was not present. The clinic records will show that I was named 'Amit Seth' after birth. That very day, my father heard the news of my birth and called. He cancelled this name because every first born in my father's family had to be named with V. Hence, I was named Vikram. Thank God, I wasn't named Vivek or Vineetth!  However, if I may, to you I am Amit."

I was very much charmed by the speech. I read in Abbasuddin Ahmed's autobiography that he was cajoled by poet Kazi Nazrul Islam to join him in meeting Poet Rabindranath Tagore. Abbasuddin was scared to death and ran away, avoiding meeting Tagore, much to the disappointment of Nazrul Islam. Abbasuddin wrote that he was afraid that his image of Tagore and that in real life may not tally. He would be disappointed if the real 'Tagore' was any different from what he had conjured. None of this happened to me! The real Vikram Seth and the author all added up. Thank you Amit.
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The writer is an 
academic, Nazrul exponent and writer.