The story of an editor who shines a writer

Guha, who has divided the book into seven parts, has listed the first meeting with Rukun in the first part, in alphabetical order. Guha is a good cricketer and perhaps because of that, he graduated from the well-regarded St. Stephen's College, Delhi. His schooling was in Doon School Dehradun, his parents were in government service for a long time and most importantly he was a good cricketer so he may have reached St. Stephen's. This book is a different kind of memoir because it only covers the writing, publishing, editing, cover, design, process of taking the book idea to market and the events surrounding it.

Guha said – Most of the editors and publishers appreciate the writer and say that their work is known because of the writer. However, for Guha, Rukun had the ability to recognize the writer in him, and because of his feedback, strength, encouragement and guidance, he was able to write several books, so he dedicated this book to his beloved editor Rukun. Often memoirs don't contain the bitter, the embarrassing, the embarrassing, the sweet, the complicated, and are filled with self-praise and lists of stories, achievements, and accomplishments. Guha has been successful because of his assimilation of reality, acceptance of weakness, the habit of taking the feedback of other contemporaries positively and the ability to accept different opinions.

Guha Rukun is two batches junior to Advani's batch. Not participating much in class, he is eager to play cricket and is known as a cricketer. In Guha's own words, Advani was very studious, having achieved the highest marks in English subject up to that year and was known throughout the college. English was a subject whose professors were very strict and greedy to give marks, it was not uncommon for Advani to score the highest marks in such a subject in a college with such a long history.

Guha has written that Advani must have looked at Guha with disdain in the first meeting - the reason may be the ugly cricketer's dress he wore and the assessment that he is not studious because he is a cricketer. Guha admits that Advani's assessment was correct – he studied less and played cricket more and spent his time doing that. Guha admits in the latter part of the book, that if he had not met Rukun Advani at his college friend's wedding, he probably would not have become a writer, and if he had, he would not have become a writer at all. This shows Guha's respect and goodwill towards Advani.

While studying sociology at IIM Calcutta, Guha was interested in environmental history. As his father was an officer of the Forest Research Office, he had access to sufficient materials for research. Also because of the popularity of the Chipko movement, his research was based on social conflict in the forest. His relationship with Rukun Advani, an editor at Oxford University Press, became closer when Advani offered to publish Guha's scholarly research through his press, and that proved to be the turning point for Guha to become a good writer. Advani doesn't just publish his research, he gives thorough analysis and feedback, corrections and revisions, as if it were his own book. Guha is very impressed by Advani's erudition and does whatever he tells him to do, not only in the first book but in all the other books.

Guha talks to Advani with one book proposal after another without publishing the first book. In the second book, Guha writes about cricket, for which Advani had full support - the reason may be Guha's passion for cricket. The book titled 'Wickets in the West' was unsuccessful in being published by a publishing house like OUP, but with that book, Guha gained recognition as a cricket writer. Guha admits that Advani's assessment of cricket's books has failed. Similarly, while writing the autobiography of the sociologist Verrier Alvin, Advani made Guha make many revisions.

so much so that from the very beginning they made me write in a different style and because it was an autobiography, I made them write it in a different way than the sociological way. Sent the full draft back to Advani and got back a draft with green ink scrawled in countless places, with the final comment, 'Alvin as a scholar and intellectual is fine but where is the personal Alvin?' Again Advani responded, 'Alvin's character as a son, brother, friend, father and husband is fine, but where is the portrayal of Alvin as a writer and one who prefers to engage in controversy?' And, Alvin's autobiography was passed on to editor Advani, again giving some stylistic feedback and asking for final revisions on how to make the book more readable. Guha works accordingly and in 1999, the book titled 'Savaging the Civilized: Varier Alvin, His Tribes and India' is published by OUP. After nearly 20 years of working in OUP, Rukun Advani had to leave the publishing house, which, in Guha's words, was caused by colonialism. Advani's wife Anuradha Roy also worked together at OUP, in design. Suddenly, OUP India decides that husband and wife cannot work in the same department in the same organization, which makes Advani uncomfortable as husband and wife were working in the same department in the UK headquarters. Advani leaves OUP and starts his own publishing house, Permanent Black, in the remote hill village of Ranikhet.

Advani never pressured Guha to publish the book from his publishing house. Sometimes he would respond that it would be better to print from Penguin. Advani was the editor of Guha's books regardless of where they were published because he was the person Guha could trust the most. The St. Stephen's College professor considered Advani a reclusive scholar, which Guha later believed to be correct. During research in 2019, he reaches Ranikhet and tells Advani that he has come close. Advani welcomes them and together they have a long talk over dinner – history, literature and writing.

Advani says that he wants to spend some more time with Guha, but Guha says that there is not enough time and asks for leave and later thinks that he did the right thing by letting Advani live in his nature.

The book is helpful in understanding characters like Shashi Tharoor, Amitabh Ghosh, Ram Guha. However, Ramachandra Guha mostly discusses only the writers who passed out from St. Stephen's College, which he studied, which seems narrow. Because there are plenty of intellectuals in India who have studied in many other institutions and write quality articles.