Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, New York, New York, [1965] October 30 : autograph manuscript signed.

Saying she has "a hundred boring letters and checques to write" but she would rather write to them; describing the "peculiar state" she has "sunk" into, where all she wants to do is "sit under trees and look at birds"; still supporting shortening "Shakespeare Wallah" but feeling responsible as the screenwriter for the fact that so much needs to be cut; feeling they made fewer mistakes on "The Householder"; saying Shashi and Jennifer were there last week and they are expecting Shashi again for the premiere of "Jab Jab Phool Khile," and Catherine Freeman is hoping to spend an afternoon with Jennifer and possibly see "Shakespeare Wallah"; passing on gossip from Shashi and Jennifer about Leela Naidu and her American Sanskrit scholar boyfriend, then riffing on "a certain type of 'emancipated' Indian woman"; asking Ivory not to send any more pictures of her to her mother, as the last batch upset her so much, then telling them that Kushwant Singh wants to use that same photograph as the frontispiece for his translation of "The Life of a Retired Courtesan" and joking that the more appropriate title might be "Seven Years as a Mental Patient"; reminding them to invite her long-lost childhood friend to a screening of "Shakespeare Wallah"; assuring them that Jennifer has "calmed down now about everything" regarding Madhur and Foo (Jennifer Kendal) and the film.