Thinker | Posted on
V S Naipaul, whose full name is Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, died on 11th August at the age of 85, in England. He was a British writer, born in Trinidad, who wrote novels and travelogues on diaspora and third world all his life.
Often taken as a contemporary of Salman Rushdie, V S Naipaul wrote extensively and vehemently about his life experiences as a person away from home, but writing about home. In the 1880s, his grandparents had migrated from India to work as indentured laborers on the sugar plantations. His father was an imminent journalist in Trinidad. V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2001.
His writings evoke the feelings of nostalgia and remembrances in readers, urging them to feel the plight of all those who are unjustifiably categorized as Third World, and have nowhere to call home. Among his most famous novels are Among the Believers, House of Mr. Biswas, Area of Darkness, and A Bend in the River.
Below are his oft-quoted lines, which inspires and motivates all readers alike:
• “The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.” ―In a Free State
• “Non-fiction can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies.” ― A Bend in the River
• “The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.” ―A Bend in the River
• “Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.”
• “It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling...” ―Magic Seeds
(Courtesy: news.sky.com)
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