Sudipta Datta
When poet and writer Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy was first published in 1993, with a gorgeous Varanasi silk sari on the cover and gossamer pages, the excitement was palpable. It had been in the works for eight years, and whispers of a phenomenal advance added to the buzz. Seth mentioned the length — it runs into 1,349 pages — and the price tag (₹500 at the time), in his rhyming word of thanks: “Buy me before good sense insists/ You’ll strain your purse and sprain your wrists.” Twenty-seven
