LIFE-SHAPING EXPERIENCES

Girish Karnad was one of modern India’s greatest cultural figures: an accomplished actor, a pathbreaking director, an innovative administrator, an erudite thinker, a public intellectual, and the most gifted playwright of his times. This Life at Play, translated from the Kannada in part by Karnad himself and in part by Srinath Perur, covers the first half of his remarkable life from his childhood in Sirsi and his early engagement with local theatre, his education in Dharwad, Bombay and Oxford, to his career in publishing, his successes and travails in the film industry, and his personal and writerly life. Moving and humorous, insightful and candid, these memoirs provide an unforgettable glimpse into the life-shaping experiences of a towering genius, and a unique window into the India in which he lived and worked.