The unimitable K Chettri writes: "V. S. Naipaul, the Oxford-educated British writer, born in Trinidad to an immigrant family from North India." From North India, eh? How about from our own dear old Nepal? In his Nobel acceptance speech, this is what Naipaul himself told the world: "I know nothing of the people on my father's side; I know only that some of them came from Nepal. Two years ago a kind Nepalese who liked my name sent me a copy of some pages from an 1872 gazetteer-like British work about India, Hindu Castes and Tribes as Represented in Benares; the pages listed - among a multitude of names -those groups of Nepalese in the holy city of Banaras who carried the name Naipal. That is all that I have." Source: - http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2001/naipaul-lecture-e.html Here's some additional masala: "What is Nobel Laureate Vidia Sagar Naipaul?s ances-try? Dare we say Nepal? A century or so ago a mass of indentured labourers from Bihar and what was then the United Provinces traveled to the sugarcane plantations of the West Indies, Fiji and Africa. As a result, Trinidad today is full of Gangetic surnames such as Kanjai, Kallicharan, Ramadhin, Ramprakash, Ramsumair, Chanderpaul, Asgarlai ? Naipaul. Interestingly, there is no surname in the Ganga maidaan today that comes close to ?Naipaul?. On the other hand, we know this was one variation of the spelling the British used then for Nepal ? Nipal, Nipaul, Nepaul, Naipaul... As for tradition, many Nepalis do take on Nepal as a surname even today (Madhav Kumar Nepal is the head of the Unified Marxist-Leninists of Nepal), and it is used by dalit families who want a neutral identifier. Vidia Sagar, who is a fourth generation Trinidian (and hates it, evidently), had this to say about his ancestry in a speech delivered in 1990, ?We were an agricultural immigrant community from India.? Per-haps you are wrong there, Sir. And Nepal has always wanted a Nobel Laureate, and this would be just a little more in-terested than being listed in the Guinness World Record Book for this or that exploit, no?" Source: - http://www.himalmag.com/november2001/media_files.htm Enjoy, oohi ashu