For a foreigner reading Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’ – it will be a commentary on India, at least the North of India, Calcutta (now Kolkata) included. For an Indian reading the same, it is but a slice of life. The story is not infused with Indianness merely from the top and one just cannot remove it from the setting of India and place it anywhere else only by changing the names of the characters.
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