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Award for Vikram Seth
NEW DELHI: Vikram Seth, one of the best known Indian writers in English, was on Tuesday presented the Government of India's `Pravasi Bharatiya Samman' 2005.
The Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs, Jagdish Tytler, presented the 53-year-old writer a medal and a citation at a function here in his office.
Present on the occasion were Mr. Seth's family members, including his father Prem Seth and mother Leela.
For 2005, there were 15 award winners, including Mr. Seth who was not able to attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2005 in January when the awards were given away.
After the ceremony, Mr. Seth said: ``It feels great to get an award from your own country.''
In a lighter vein, the writer, who divides time between London and New Delhi, said, ``but I don't feel completely pravasi.''
After four novels, five collections of poems, a picture book and a travelogue, Mr. Seth is working on a `double biography', which he expects will be out by October this year.
Titled `Two Lives', the book is based on the lives of his ``Indian grand uncle and German grand aunt.'' ``The book is set partly in India, partly in Germany and partly in other places,'' Mr. Seth told PTI here.
He said the process of writing the book began after the death of his grand aunt, when at his mother Leela Seth's insistence he began interviewing his grand uncle.``I interviewed him, giving him something to do. And I did it initially partly out of a sense of duty. But then I was very fascinated by his story and the book happened,'' the writer said.
The book is also based on letters written by his grand aunt to his grand uncle, who was a dentist and whose right arm was shot off in the war.
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