There I 'see' you again Madam - blimey. What? Me giving a session on prose to Mr Upadhyay? But wouldn't that be akin to following the maxims of this rather intriguing turn of Nepali ukhan? Indra ko agaadi swarga ko bayaan, or something to that effect. :-) And there is one more: alpa gyaan bhayankaar. Very dangerous that is - little knowledge. :) As for the "dogged obedience to old elitist views". Blame it all on me and my puny head as I once used to think, only works by Novel laureates were worth any read. How preposterous that was, I know. And I did actually try and read only them - the laureates. Remember this was after I had safely advanced from my teenage years - those years of reading Mills & Boons and loads of Prakash Kovid. A bad case of alpa gyaan there again, I am afraid! :) Yes, I agree, not all those from the subcontinent have been reviewed in the West or elsewhere as vigorously. Perhaps it all comes with the vagaries of them living in or writing about a place where the writing medium viz English is less accessible to the general readership; it appears to be more pertinent to us lot. There ought to be only a fraction of urban dwelling Nepalis who would have heard the names of or read Samrat Upadhyay and Manjushree Thapa. I might perhaps add a vew names to your list after Naipaul et al: the two Oxonians in the shape of Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh. There are other 'great' writers, the likes of Nirad Choudhuri (another Blighticised Indian!), Mulk Raj Anand etc, who would in my opinion equally deserve a place in the world literary canon. Oh, and Delhi's ubiquitous Dirty Old Harry - Khushwant Singh. Why not! Choudhuri's essays are a class act and so are Anand's short stories/novels. Kolkata's own 'Cine Poet' imminently comes to mind - Satyajit Ray. But people would remember him more for his cinematic genius than for his writing prowess - I have read a few of his short stories. BTW, I just read an Upadhyay interview on Samudaya - cracking. He's said a lot of things that I wanted to say in this forum. His answer to the last question aptly addresses the issue of ownership of Nepalipan and its 'authentic representation' in literary prose, especially by those writing in English. You might want to have a try if you have not already read it. Okay enough woffle. Have a good day. ************** Ashu, Thanks for the info - look forward to reading the review in NY Times in due course. Carpe diem