30 January - 3 February 2025 | Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur
Amit Chaudhuri is the author of seven novels, the latest of which is Friend of My Youth. He has had two new books out this year: Finding the Raga, a work of non-fiction, and Ramanujan, a collection of poetry. Among the awards he has won are the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Infosys Prize. He is also an essayist, a singer in the Hindustani classical tradition, and composer of, and improviser in, 'non-fusion' music. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Ashoka University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Honorary Fellow of the Modern Language Association.
Acclaimed musician, novelist and critic Amit Chaudhuri’s latest book, Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music, is an immersive journey through the rigorous beauty and cosmology of Indian classical music and its synergy with western music and the world at large. Drawing on both Western and Indian sources, Chaudhuri weaves together an intricate narrative on the process of finding the raga between life, music and art. Chaudhuri’s books include Friend of My Youth and Calcutta. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds the titles of Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia and Professor of Creative Writing at Ashoka University. Academic and writer Katherine Butler Schofield is a historian of Hindustani music and Mughal India. She is currently working on her upcoming book Music and Musicians in Late Mughal India: Histories of the Ephemeral, 1748–1858. In conversation with Schofield, Chaudhuri reflects on his understanding of the tone and melody that has shaped his life and worldview.