An Arc In Time – Saleem Peeradina

Description

Widely known as a poet, with six books of poetry, and editor of the famous anthology Contemporary Indian Poetry in English: An Assessment and Selection (1972), Saleem Peeradina, has over the years, written a fair amount of literary journalism in a culturally thriving period in post-Independence India—a lively environment of theatre in four languages, cinema, art, literature, music, and the beginnings of Doordarshan. The writings in this compilation of essays, articles, reviews and interviews, which date back to the late sixties and continue until 2020, show the breadth of Peeradina’s interests, passions and perspectives on subjects as diverse as education, literature, cinema, creative writing, travel, the lives of women in the real world and in books and movies, art, religion, urban decay, cultural conflict, and more. The book comes with an added element: Peeradina’s paintings and pen-and-ink sketches of a fishing village in Mumbai as he saw it, circa 1960, bringing to the literary map the now bustling Andheri–Versova from a quieter, more peaceful time.