Life in Calcutta

I grew up in Calcutta, and graduated with an honours degree in Political Science, Sociology, History and English from Calcutta University’s St Xavier’s College. Growing up in Calcutta helped me learn Bengali and Hindi in addition to English and Tamil, which is my native tongue.

After my graduation, I worked for “The Statesman”, also a large English-language newspaper, in Calcutta for several years before joining “The Hindu” in 1984.

My first editors at “The Statesman” were British, who not only taught me the substance and style of a truly fascinating language, but also fine journalistic ethics, a sense of justice and fairplay and, above all, the discipline of time and the value of space.