Thread by @subyroy

The attempted murder of #SalmanRusdhie #Rushdie deserves to be punished with all severity...
Rushdie & I had a meeting at Senate House London c 1974 when he was about 26, I 18/19. I’d done a good job as a reporter on the London Univ student paper “Sennet” (?) on a story about

https://twitter.com/subyroy/status/1558658967852552192

the Greek military coup, or revolt or whatever, and the extreme leftist demos outside the Greek embassy.... I recall a formidable bunch of bulky bearded Macedonians (they made clear they were Macedonians not Greeks) came to the paper’s office to check on

what we were going to say about them as they were leaders of the leftist demo -- (these, incidentally, may have been the core of the Nov 17 terrorist group later!)...
I had to leave but the editor insisted I stay as Salman Rushdie (who’s he? I asked) was due in the office too

after the Greek leftists left... The editor thought it would be good for me an Indian to meet Rushdie a Pakistani, with the Dec 1971 events still fresh.
Rushdie charged in in due course, nattily dressed, said he had just come down from a visit to Cambridge.

Rushdie learning I was Indian, and the son of a diplomat at that, started with a vicious anti-Indian tirade; I sat thru silently assuming he was a Pakistani (which he was I think); the Dec 1971 defeat of Pakistan was still fresh;

he then started a critique, perhaps a bigger critique, of Pakistan & ended saying he was in process of becoming British; the meeting ended sweetly with him saying he had a flat and a phone -- both rarities back then, gave me his phone no in sweet Big Brotherly (dadagiri) fashion,

invited me to call for help anytime; a few years later when I'd left London for Cambridge I did call him in London, as I needed a place to "doss" the night, but he couldn't put me up...

Decades later I found myself writing the definitive review of his most notorious book independentindian.com/2001/12/22/the…
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