About the Book Nirad C. Chaudhuri: Many Shades, Many Frames is the story of this famous writer, narrated by his eldest son Dhruva N. Chaudhuri. Words and photographs come together to create a charming picture of the prolific author whose The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, published in 1951, put him on the shortlist of great Indian English writers. This book covers Nirad Chaudhuri's early years, his struggle to find work, his stint at All India Radio, going on to highlight his years in Oxford, where he died at the age of one hundred and one.
This is the story of an author who was certainly not destined to remain an Unknown Indian. The dramatic photographs and rare documents bring this illustrated biography alive.
About the Author Dhruva N. Chaudhuri is a renowned photojournalist. He began his career with The Statesman in Delhi and Kolkata at the age of eighteen. He has worked with leading dailies and magazines in India, including The Illustrated Weekly of India. His photographs have been published in several foreign newspapers and magazines. The Millennium Book on New Delhi showcased over forty photographs by him. Dhruva N. Chaudhuri's book, Delhi: Light, Shades, Shadows, also published by Niyogi Books, captures the spirit of the capital city and was very well received.
He is deeply interested in wildlife photography and is also reputed for his knowledge of architecture and understanding of nature.
Foreword Nirad Chaudhuri was the most outstanding intellectual had the privilege of befriending His encyclopaedic knowledge about everything that mattered has become legendary I you wanted to know anything about history, literature (any country), science, natural phenomena, art, culture, etc, without having to wade through tons of reference books, all you had to do was to ask Nirad Babu to get the right answers. I have yet to meet another person, with as much information stored up in his brain. Despite that, have never heard him brag or indulge in self-praise.
Another unique feature of Nirad's was his style of writing. It was flawless and grammar perfect. Everything he wrote was a sample of lucid prose, evocative and challenging Many critics questioned his assumptions but none could fault him on his basic theses, or his relentless logic.
Nirad Babu was an extremely conservative man, dedicated to his wife, regarded marriage as a sacrament and observed Victorian decorum in the society of women. Once, when returning home from one of my parties, he looked around for his wife and asked, "Where is that big boiler, which keeps this little engine going? Another time when I was going abroad he came to see me to get formal permission to call on my wife when I was away.
He was also a man of rectitude. Although he was on straitened circumstances most of his life, twice when I tried to put money in his way he turned down my proposals. One was from the Government of India to work on a booklet on the plight of East Pakistanis fleeing to India in large numbers; the other a generous offer from Mr. Birla to give him any amount of money in any currency for the rest of his life. Nirad Babu rejected the Government's proposal with contempt and Birla's offer with a polite note saying 'no thank you".
Preface I hope all my readers will understand that it was more than a difficult task for me to write the text of this illustrated biography of my father, once The Unknown Indian. Nirad C. Chaudhuri had reached the pinnacle of his fame by writing no less than three of his own biographies in English as well as two in Bengali. In addition, my mother Amiya Chaudhurani, then well into her eighties in age. published the first two volumes of her own biographies where she described her married life and other interesting details about i my father. While all these seven books written by my parents proved to be invaluable as 1 attempted to present Nirad Chaudhuri's life. once again to my readers, I thought of making the photographs, mostly taken by me, as well as reproductions of a few rare documents, as important as the written text. I hope this view will be acceptable to all including many of my father's admirers.
Now, having made my objective of doing this biography somewhat clear, I would like to thank my late parents from whom I drew all the inspiration to complete this book express my heartfelt thanks to the famous author, and almost a mentor to me.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
