This is the first biography to be written on Charles Correa (1930 – 2015), architect, urban planner, film-maker, and true-blue ‘Bombaywallah’. He was a man of many talents, and one of the most globally honoured architects of his time.
"Nehru was equally at ease in Hollywood and Disneyland, attending film premieres in India and hobnobbing with the glitterati of his time. His interests were wide as his curiosity was deep. Only a generalist by temperament could have dared to write books like Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India while in prison.
What is this generalist mindset? It is one that accepts – even while seeking to know as much as possible – the limitations of knowing everything. One important trait is a discomfort with certitudes, and the courage to accept tentativeness as a state of being.
Another is the wisdom to know that there are multiple ways of looking at any one thing, and the realization that the present is the result of several iterations of history."
First published in the National Herald.
