Asia-Pacific
Mulk Raj Anand
95 Years Young
He is often described as the “grand old man of Indo-Anglican literature.” Mulk Raj Anand turned 95 in December, yet says he feels like a young man. The author of countless books, he is now working on his seven-volume autobiography and spoke to Humra Quraishi of New Delhi’s centrist Hindustan Times about his stamina. And even after a two-hour conversation and two television interviews, he showed no signs of fatigue. He writes four to five hours a day, travels extensively, and loves to meet people.
“Writing is therapy,” Anand says. Most of his writings are inspired by women he once knew—he now is married for the third time. He has suffered three nervous breakdowns—one of which brought him face to face with Sigmund Freud in Vienna in 1927. The father of psychoanalysis diagnosed Anand as being fixated on his mother.
Anand decided to take up writing to ease his state of mind. He says that the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, whom he met in the 1930s, have changed his perceptions of life. “[Gandhi] allowed me to stay in the ashram, only after I had taken three vows—never to look at a woman with desire, never to drink liquor, and to clean the toilets,” he recalls. He was eventually dismissed for disobeying. “There is so much violence and hatred, and all this pains me,” concludes Anand. “I have given this call to declare Mahatma Gandhi as the man of the millennium.”
