He was not sure what to write about
“My beginning was simply to try to find out what I have to write about,” said Nobel laureate Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, widely known as VS Naipaul.
One day in a dark corner of a BBC room, he suddenly discovered that he began to write something.
“It was a bit of magic,” Naipaul shared his experience with a packed audience in the city's Bangla Academy last evening, while taking part in a conversation.
It was part of the 6th Dhaka Lit Fest 2016 that began on Thursday.
The 84-year-old Trinidadian-British writer is the key attraction of the festival which sheds light on works of literary talents from around the world.
The panel conversation titled “The Writer and the World: VS Naipaul” focused on his literary career.
The conversation was moderated by festival co-director Ahsan Akbar while the writer's wife Nadira Naipaul accompanied them on the stage and also responded to some questions to describe his works.
About taking up writing as a profession, Naipaul said it would have been awful for him had he not been an author.
“I'd have nothing to do. It could have been too awful.”
In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel to see the presence of suppressed histories”.
The Nobel Foundation said nothing sustained him afterwards except the determination, often close to despair, to become a writer.
On their visit to Dhaka, Nadira said it would not be possible if she had not loved Bangladesh.
“We are happy to be here,” she added.
Naipaul was born in August 17, 1932 in Trinidad. A scholarship to Oxford at the age of 18 took him to England. He has published more than 30 books, both fiction and nonfiction.
He was married to Patricia Ann Hale until her death in 1996. He had dedicated his “A House for Mr Biswas” to her.
In 1996, the writer married Nadira, a former Pakistani journalist.
Visitors thronged the festival yesterday, the second day of the three-day event, as it was a weekend. Several literary sessions and cultural events were held on the Bangla Academy premises.
Apart from literary sessions, the festival also features cultural programmes, folk performances, poetry recitations, an editing workshop, children's programme and screening of films.
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