Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, Mumbai, India, 1970 April 22: autograph manuscript signed.

Noting that Ismail Merchant tends to be in a good mood before a trip; telling Ivory that letters from Merchant that she was expecting haven't arrived and asking whether he has actually sent them; relaying a message from Nirad Chaudhuri that he may be traveling to England from June until December and if they wanted to meet it would have to be either before or after that trip; telling him that a young woman from Bengal (not named in this letter) who showed "great literary promise" has come to stay with Chaudhuri; commenting on the young woman's appearance; replying to a message he sent via Shashi Kapoor in the form of an unspecified adage; responding to his question about why she gets impatient about scripts; analyzing their different opinions about scene 2; asking whether he might contribute something about making films in India to "The London Magazine"; wondering whether he resents "that you had to come here to make another film when you would rather have made one elsewhere" and whether that resentment has transferred to "India and Indians"; affirming that the "friendly feelings" he has for "Tom and Peter" [possibly "Bombay Talkie" cast members Tom Reeves and Peter Howard] are "surely quite natural" because Ivory is out of his usual environment and Tom and Peter represent a more familiar culture.