BIB_ID
453940
Accession number
MA 23840.965
Creator
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, 1927-2013, sender.
Credit line
Gift of James Ivory, 2021.
Description
1 items (2 pages) ; 26.7 x 20.3 cm
Notes
Year from postmark.
As of 2025 the Divine Life Society is still in operation; the "boy swami" Jhabvala refers to, however, is unidentified.
Aerogramme addressed to Mr. James Ivory, 400 East 52nd St. (Apt. 12-G), New York 10022, N.Y., U.S.A.; postmarked November 25, 1971.
As of 2025 the Divine Life Society is still in operation; the "boy swami" Jhabvala refers to, however, is unidentified.
Aerogramme addressed to Mr. James Ivory, 400 East 52nd St. (Apt. 12-G), New York 10022, N.Y., U.S.A.; postmarked November 25, 1971.
Provenance
James Ivory.
Summary
Recapping which of Ivory's letters she has received to date, and wondering if he has received her letter from Jerusalem yet; saying again that she hasn't heard anything from Merchant but is "expecting him daily. Perhaps he will turn up over the weekend"; wondering what Merchant is doing in Rajasthan, but sure he's not taking a vacation since he says he's shooting, and referring to an interview with him in the "Statesman" where he claims to be shooting a "documentary for the BBC (?) on famous houses of Rajasthan"; describing her dismay when Tony told her he expected Merchant to stay in India "till just before or just after Xmas" because she worries about Ivory being alone in New York for all that time; debating whether she's right to feel that way, and whether the separation is good for either or both of them; noting Merchant's lament "that he's not being allowed to do anything creative, that he's confined only to menial tasks"; feeling this is "wrong"; wishing she could have stayed with Ivory in New York for longer; asking about the financing for "Savages"; asking if Nirad Chaudhuri's faculty appointment in Texas has "come off"; wondering if Chaudhuri will like it there, but "I know what he wouldn't like, and that is the presence of those other 2 Indian writers there, Rama Rao & G.V. Desani"; admitting that she feels "a bit let down by Nirad" because he doesn't want to return to India; also admitting that "I have no choice" but to stay in India, and that right now "my energies are concentrated on guarding against the familiar post-Europe depression"; reminding Ivory of "that boy-swami who was in New York," and telling him the boy is now back in India with his organization, the Divine Life Society, who recently demonstrated outside the Times of India, where there was a confrontation where "one constable was killed & a chowkidar [i.e. watchman, gatekeeper, security guard] seriously injured."
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