Book take: Just Being by Romila Thapar

This tome of a little more than 700 pages details the pre-eminent historian`s life of formidable achievements in the nine decades of her life, all of it driven by a curious uber-intelligent mind, the privilege of being able to follow her own drum, wide-ranging interests like travel (for work and pleasure), music, theatre, good food and better wine, her garden, and the constant desire to find out more connections between India`s past and its present.

It`s a life filled with learning, accolades, bouquets and yes, brickbats from the RW lot. She clearly revels in the recognition and tries her best to shrug off the vile abuse, (political slander, she calls it) she has been on the receiving end of, for decades now.

And yes, she counters, if `counters` is the word I am looking for, those accusations of being a Left-leaning Marxist historian, even as she comments about our current times, on Hindutva, on class, on economy, on the archaeological-historical link, on the communal interpretation of Indian history. But I`ll leave you to read it in the book.

Intimations of mortality begin to make their presence felt all through the memoir. Memories, Romila Thapar writes, become quieter and gentler over the years like silent companions; the chatter goes out, the angst is less angular and one sees them as an integral part of one`s being.