Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 April 26 : autograph manuscript signed.

Adding a note at the top of the first page: "Shashi is a treat! He's completely omitted Zia's name from the publicity-- it's always, starring Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendal, Aparna Sen, Utpal Dutt"; enclosing "your interview"; describing an ad for "Bombay Talkie night," which she had cut out and intended to send, but has now lost; saying Jennifer refuses to attend the premiere, and "as a result, Shashi is carrying on like Ismail and saying that 'you & Ruth make these disasters and then sit at home and leave us to shoulder them'"; defending her decision to shun public appearances and "this time I'm not only not going to any premiere but I don't want to go to see it at all with an audience"; noting that she saw "Guru" three times in the theater, "but this time I can't face it"; telling him she saw "Woodstock" and giving a long analysis of what she disliked about the film and its subjects; imagining what would have happened if "we'd had had [sic] a chance to make a film on a news-worthy subject like that, what a failure we'd have made of it. Because we'd have looked at the whole thing sardonically"; identifying this sensibility as the root of their projects' failures; expressing her disgust for "mass man" as opposed to individuals; noting, "I'm working myself up into a vile mood and had better stop"; noting that she is sending him "the paragraph I wrote for the publishers on which they can base their blurb," and describing it; passing on news that Jennifer's father Georffrey Kendal saw Nirad Chaudhuri on television, when he "went into sulks" during a panel discussion; assuming the reason was "a discussion on Bangla-Desh"; admitting "It's horrible here just now-- just as it was during the China & the Pakistan wars: the air is thick with lies, and everyone is taking up lying postures"; describing the "the paper & the news bulletins-- I won't tell you, such cynical lies which everyone knows can't possibly be true like Bangla Desh forces are making tremendous advances against the enemy-- what forces? what advances? poor starved peasants in torn dhotis getting themselves blown up while these people here, on the safe side of the border, egg and cheer them on"; stating that the only protesting voice she has heard regarding this is Chaudhuri's, and she sees no other voice that might replace Chaudhuri's when he's gone-- Naipaul being "too self-centered"; asking if Ivory has the negative for "that picture you took of me in Dig," because she wants to use it for the cover of "An Experience of India"; noting that "It sums up the book-- a human being overwhelmed, swallowed up by India"; observing that "The jackal reviews will be oout on Sunday and for your sake-- for my own I certainly wouldn't bother to read them-- I'll gather them up and send them to you."