The best thing I love about Seth’s writing is his mastery over verse. However, I have not read any of his works except The Golden Gate I am reading presently. In fact, I never intended to read any of his books, given my hatred for him after knowing that he is a gay and thinking childishly about what a gay will have to teach me. (Yuck!)
However, when I came to know about The Golden Gate that it is a novel written in verse style like the famous Russian novel in verse Eugene Onegin, I could not resist my excitement to have the book and read it. Blissfully, I am loving each and every page written by Seth as much I loved reading Amitav Ghosh (Shadow Lines). Now, I like Seth’s verses as much as I love Amitav Ghosh’s power of prose writing.
In past, there have been occasions I fell into drawing a contrast between him and Amitabh Ghosh, two of the most famous contemporary Indian writers in English. I would rather elaborate whatever rough thoughts I have about both the writers.
- Both were born in Calcutta (now Kolkata).
- Both studied at the Doon School. Ghosh was junior to Seth. Being at school, Seth had advised Ghosh to strengthen his verse style of writing, which indicates that Seth carries strong inclination for poetry since childhood.
- Seth masters the art of writing verse, while Ghosh is too immaculate when it comes to prose writing.
- Travel (for example, his From Heaven’s Lake, Tibetan travelogues, was widely applauded and won an award from the house of Thomas Cook) and poetry are two very powerful forts of Seth, while Ghosh thinks too deep about nationalism and historical insights and put his thoughts in perfect language and sentence in which he writes is quite well-mannered (unlike Seth).
- Sex is an important element for both the writers. The one (Ghosh) emphasize relationships between man and woman, while the other (Seth) talks greatly about homosexuality, particularly man- to-man relationship.
- The one (Ghosh) is happily married (blissfully his wife is also writer) with two kids and lives in the same apartment in Brooklyn, while the other (Seth) has proclaimed to be a gay and has been in relations with men.
- Historical insights and nationalism, particularly of his own country (India) is palpable in most of the Ghosh’s works. Meanwhile, Seth cares little about such writing elements and focuses much on westernization.
Having an intention to compare the two and choose the best among would be injustice. Both have different genre to deal with in their writing and the one is as good as another is. Shouldn’t we be happy weighing that the both authors, no matter how many days they live each year in India, give Indian writing in English a strong reason to cheer. Both in very conspicuous manners benefit Indian English writing.
