[Reader-list] Dilip D'Souza, first posting

[Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai]

Dear Zainab and Aditi,

Thank you for the welcome exchange on my proposal, something I didn't
at all expect! First of all, Zainab, there's no need to apologize, and
I am quite happy for you to project your ideas on my proposal.

Let me say this: I've never been much good at posing the larger
research or academic questions (I think I first realized that when I
failed my PhD exams). What I think I can do reasonably is write the
stories of people I meet, and use those stories to ask questions or
touch on broader themes. When I look back on the stuff I've written,
this is the pattern I see, and it's the only way I know how to write.

So my proposal to Sarai was, in essence, this:  I want to write those
stories -- about Bombay's villages, in this case -- so will you give
me the funding?

no facetiousness meant.

What questions those stories will pose when I write them, we'll have
to see, and my readers will have to tell me.

As for humanity: perhaps I used the word for want of a better one. I 
have no use for the romantic view of people's interaction, for the
assumption that we are all really good-hearted do-gooders at heart.
Though two things interest me in that vein: the dark things that
people do, and the way people survive and live through them anyway.

But with this project, what I hope to get some handle on is what makes
up those large issues -- secularism, poverty, development, those
things. We debate them, but how do they translate into everyday lives
(or do they translate at all)? Again, when I look back at my writing,
it's the times that I've had conversations with ordinary individuals
when I've gained some better understanding of themes. Not the papers
I've read, or seminars I've attended. So I hope to keep on with that
over the next six months.

I don't know if I've done anything better than a stream of
consciousness reply to you both, nor if it has clarified anything. But
I thank you again for thinking about what I wrote and for letting me
know your thoughts; for giving me things to think about. Any other
thoughts always welcome.

cheers,
dilip.