Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 January 13 : autograph manuscript signed.

Thanking him for "the pullover and the pen" brought by Shashi from America; noting that her first use of the new pen was to write a letter of appeal to the Indian Film Censors [for "Bombay Talkie"]; musing on the processes and vagaries of the censors, the bureaucratic roadblocks-- "what a bore, what a drag"; admitting that she is "secretly not even wanting for the film to be released here"-- "the idea of it being seen & written about in India is not to me a joyful prospect"; wishing they could "keep it just to ourselves, hug it to ourselves as a precious dear thing that has to be protected from all those cold, bored, indifferent eyes"; lamenting the reviews she has read, where it seems "not one [...] says anything I can understand, that refers to the film as I thought it was"; despairing of the reports brought by Shashi of audiences who "yawned and fidgeted" during what she considers "beautiful, beautiful scenes"; feeling that Jennifer in "Bombay Talkie" is comparable to Maggie Smith in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," and that her own sense of alienation is now "complete"; asking "can I really be that far wrong, that far out? Should I deny all my instincts and say yes, I'm wrong and everyone else is right? Then I might as well be dead; such solitude and loneliness and alienation is insupportable. However, I'm not dead, and as far as I can see will have to come to some sort of solution for myself"; concluding that she will have to "affirm myself more defiantly than ever and more obstinately and firmly go exactly along the way I've always gone"; assuming that this course will "lead me in to a wilderness where no one will any longer buy my stories and no publisher will want to touch my books. I wouldn't be surprised and I'm trying to prepare myself for it"; saing that the fate of "Bombay Talkie" has prepared her for whatever is to come-- "In a way this whole episode has been like a death to me"; asking urgently for "two official MIP certificates" for tax purposes; saying Shashi's being in town has stirred up all these feelings about the film, and she can tell, under his "usual cheerful self," that "he too is sad"; telling him they "all listened to the 45rpm record of Usha Iyer singing 'Good Times, Bad Times'."