Dasupta began the evening lauding Anita Desai for her latest achievement. "The Sahitya Fellowship should serve as redemption for the elusive Booker Prize you failed to secure but certainly deserved."
He went on to note that the three novels selected for re-release represent Desai's stages of development as an author.
"Your early novels explored notions of solitude. You demonstrated the ability to fully map an individual's psyche, particularly as it relates to ambition, success, disappointment and happiness.
"But Clear Light Of Day represents a change; you broaden your scope and focus. The family becomes the primary component, instead of the brooding individual.
"Then, In Custody moved things further, towards issues of community and its role in identity.
"Finally, in Baumgartner's Bombay, you shift towards a foreigner's experience and interpretation of India. As you broadened your stroke, the novels approach epic-status, telling the history and culture of an entire people."
Desai explained that she did not intend for her career to follow this trajectory; she simply followed her interests and instinct.
"I never intended to write an epic. To be honest, I never had the enormous energy and ambition necessary to attempt it. But it is true that my focus changed over time. I felt that I had resolved and explored certain issues sufficiently and that it was time to move on. As you said, those impulses of mine are reflected in the three books that we’re discussing today."
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