Vir Sanghvi is a veteran journalist who was the editor of
Hindustan Times from 1999 to 2004, before being promoted to editorial director, a post he held till 2007, after which he continued at the paper as a columnist. His television career has included several award-winning shows on the Star TV network, NDTV, Discovery and other channels. He has a parallel career as India's leading food and travel writer.
"Reading his work is always insightful, sometimes sobering, occasionally rude and certainly never boring" - Dr. Shashi Tharoor
Vir Sanghvi's has been an interesting life - one that took him to Oxford, movie and political journalism, television and magazines - and he depicts it with the silky polish his readers expect of him. In his autobiopgrahy, A Rude Life, he turns his dispassionate observer's gaze on himself, and in taut prose tells us about all that he's experienced, and nothing more for he's still a private man.
He unhurriedly recounts memories from his childhood and college years, moving on to give us an understanding of how he wrote his biggest stories, while giving us an insider's view into the politics and glamour of that time.
This is an explosively entertaining memoir that details one of the most eventful careers in Indian journalism. Studded with a cast of unforgettable characters like Morarji Desai, Giani Zail Singh, Amitabh Bachchan, Dhirubhai Ambani and a host of other prominent political and cultural figures, A Rude Life is a delicious read.
Do not treat this book like yet another celebrity scribe's yarn. Sanghvi reminds us of kinder, reasonable and vulnerable times when prime ministers complained about taking barbiturates, or drove all the way to a TV studio to explain an energy deal important for the country, or vented to a young editor about a womanising, conniving president. A Rude Life is a memoir of one of India's best-known journalists, warts and all.Vir Sanghvi's memoir is like an extension of his commentaries; crisp and business-like, with enough gossip and wit to keep you turning the pages at speed.Vir Sanghvi is easily one of the best-known editors of his time, and a memoir that takes you into his "wildly entertaining world" is impossible to resist.A juicy autobiography on five decades of 'new India'.Vir Sanghvi's memoir is an easy and entertaining readVir Sanghvi's memoir is an engaging account of the life and times of friends in high placesVir Sanghvi's memoirs are more about a lost India than celebrity encountersSanghvi plays the navigator, taking you through some of the most defining moments in Indian politics while his life story is played out in the backdrop of a professional roller coaster. Someone who defined the art of interview in the Indian news media, the author brings stories from his personal encounters.An insightful look at politics, then and now
