Matter of Rats , livre ebook

139

pages

English

Ebooks

2014

Écrit par
Kumar Amitava Kumar

Publié par
Duke University Press

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139

pages

English

Ebooks

2014

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

10 mars 2014

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780822376453

Langue

English

It is not only the past that lies in ruins in Patna, it is also the present. But that is not the only truth about the city that Amitava Kumar explores in this vivid, entertaining account of his hometown. We accompany him through many Patnas, the myriad cities locked within the city-the shabby reality of the present-day capital of Bihar; Pataliputra, the storied city of emperors; the dreamlike embodiment of the city in the minds and hearts of those who have escaped contemporary Patna's confines. Full of fascinating observations and impressions, A Matter of Rats reveals a challenging and enduring city that exerts a lasting pull on all those who drift into its orbit.Kumar's ruminations on one of the world's oldest cities, the capital of India's poorest province, are also a meditation on how to write about place. His memory is partial. All he has going for him is his attentiveness. He carefully observes everything that surrounds him in Patna: rats and poets, artists and politicians, a girl's picture in a historian's study, and a sheet of paper on his mother's desk. The result is this unique book, as cutting as it is honest.

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Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

10 mars 2014

EAN13

9780822376453

Langue

English

A Matter of Rats

A M I TAVA K U M A R

A Matter of Rats

a s h o r t b i o g r a p h y o f pat na

Duke University Press Durham 2014

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper∞ Designed by Courtney Leigh Baker Typeset in Whitman by Copperline Book Services, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kumar, Amitava, 1963– A matter of rats : a short biography of Patna / Amitava Kumar. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn978-0-8223-5704-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Patna City (India)—Description and travel. 2. Kumar, Amitava, 1963– 3. Patna City (India)—Biography. I. Title. ds486.p26k862014 915.4'123—dc23 2013041901

for my parentsandfor rahul, who wanted a book about the Power Rangers instead

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acknowledgments ix introductionThe Place of Place xi

The Rat’s Guide 1 Pataliputra 15 Patna in the Hole 29 Leftover Patna 45 Other Patnas 63 Emperor of This World 73 EmotionalAtyachaar 85

epiloguePlace of DeathPlace of Birth/ 103 notes 109index 113

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book was written between July 2012 and May 2013. My thanks to the people who spoke to me and the journalists who helped me. The term “emotionalatyachaar,” the title of the last chapter, could be translated as “emotional oppression”; it is borrowed from a song by the same name sung by the ﬁctitious band “Patna ke Presley” in the Hindi hit ﬁlmDev. D. My thanks to Anurag Kashyap, the ﬁlm-maker and my friend, for afﬁrming the swagger of the vernacular. The reader will notice that several statements made in Hindi or Urdu are followed by their English translation, but in a few other places Hindi words have been left untranslated. I didn’t think it use-ful to translate words likekachoriorjalebi, though I would like the reader to eat his or her ﬁll of such Patna delicacies. Where it seemed necessary, names of individuals have been changed. This is a work of nonﬁction. In recent years we have seen an in-crease in nonﬁction writing and sales of books in that genre. There is repeated talk at literary festivals and other venues about the pub-lic’s hunger for truth. We are told that a reading public—turned off by television propaganda and disenchanted with ﬁction’s ﬂimsy pretensions—is famished for hard realities. I’m exaggerating, of course, but this argument on behalf of incontestable truth is now

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