13 December 2004

On 13 December 2004 the blogger and his partner were driven in a Ford Escort from Chennai to Kumbakonam in connection with the latter’s research for a novel centered on Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematician from that town. They were hosted to lunch, served on banana leaves, by the officials of SASTRA University, then taken to see Ramanujan’s house and school. On their return, an hour or two before dusk, their driver stopped in Gangaikonda Cholapuram, where–through a fortuitous series of events–they were given a private tour of the great temple there by archaeologists from Chennai. It was one of those experiences that makes a life.

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David Leavitt, The Indian Clerk (2007) – Dust Jacket of the UK Edition (Front)

Postcard and Book from the Collection of the Blogger