Upamanyu Chatterjee
Upamanyu Chatterjee
Upamanyu Chatterjeeis an Indian civil servant who currently serves as Joint Secretary to Government of India on the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board. He is a 1983 batch Indian Administrative Service officer from Maharashtra Cadre...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionPublic Servant
CountryIndia
book writing thinking
I don't think I would do better books if I wrote full time. I write for amateurish reasons.
lying government two
Governance is complex, difficult, and on the whole, thankless - why ever should the Bright Young Things leave the management of their hotels, newspapers, banks, TV channels and corporations to join, like fleas on a behemoth, the government? Wherein lies the difference between the two worlds?
delhi horrible knows
Anyone who has grown up in Delhi knows it's horrible.
comedy
For me, comedy is richer and larger than anything else.
home india absurdity
I feel completely at home in the absurdities of India.
headache more-money hassle
It's a huge headache - the more money you have, the more hassles. I find money very uncomfortable.
should-have people bombs
People should have literary and cultural taste and should not bomb hotels.
writing airports paper
So much better to write pen on paper; you can do it anywhere, say, while stuck at the airport.
mean dark looks
Well, life is dark, isn't it? Mostly, it's dreadful. At the same time, death is funny too. I mean, look at the fuss we make of it.
heartbroken mean way
Advances don't fundamentally interest me. It sounds terribly naive, but money doesn't really mean anything to me. If a lot of money came my way, I'm certainly not going to say no. But it hasn't come my way as yet, and I'm not heartbroken.
being-free splendour clutter
Amidst one's daily clutter, one doesn't usually reflect on the splendour of being free because - naturally - one has to get on with the business of living.
ambition men people
We are men without ambition, and all we want is to be left alone, in peace so that we can try and be happy. So few people will understand this simplicity.
language terrorist knows
The more languages you know, the less likely you are to become a terrorist.
book hero character
I need to have some depth in my characters. That's why they are all Bengalis. I can't imagine writing a book with someone called Saxena as the hero.