Makarand R. Paranjape (born 31 August 1960) is an Indian novelist, poet, author of '' Body Offering'', a former director at Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS),

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

, and former professor of English at the

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU; ISO: Javāharalāla Neharū Viśvavidyālaya) is a public research university located in Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

Early life and education

Makarand R. Paranjape was born in 1960 in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. He was educated at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

followed by a B.A. (Hons.) in English at St. Stephen's College,

University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

, in 1980. Thereafter, he joined the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

from where he received his M.A. in English Literature and, subsequently, a PhD, in 1985, on the topic ''Mysticism in Indian English Poetry''.

Career

Makarand Paranjape had started his career in 1980 as a teaching assistant at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

(UIUC) and returned to India in 1986 to join the University of Hyderabad, first as lecturer and then reader. In 1994, he joined the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at

IIT Delhi Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT- Delhi) is a public institute of technology located in Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology created to be a Centre of Excellence for India's training, research and developme ...

as an associate professor, and between 1999 and 2018, he served as professor of English at

, New Delhi.Makarand Paranjape, short Biography
Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris, (UIP).

IIAS

Paranjape was appointed as Director of IIAS in August 2018. In August 2020, charges of irregularities filed against him by another office-bearer, leading to a spat with the chairman and the vice-chairman at the institution."War Within: It's Right versus Right at Shimla's Esteemed IIAS"
''The Daily Guardian''. Utpal Kumar and Kunal Roy. 8 September 2020. Paranjape offered a rebuttal to his critics through an interview with ''The Wire'' in April 2021. However, it was later reported that he had violated the MoA (memorandum of association) of the institute as its Director and that it was not any clash with other specific individual heads at the institution.

Works and reception

In his coffee-table book of poems published in January 2022 as ''Identity's Last Secret'', Paranjape discussed how he "came out of a difficult relationship." In 2013, Makarand R. Paranjape published a novel called '' Body Offering''. The novel is a tale of a middle-aged man's extra-marital affair with a woman 25 years younger than him. The ''Sunday Guardian'' dubbed the book as one "that walked in the long shadow cast" by Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabakov's 1955 novel ''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...

''."Paranjape's Novel Is More Erratic than Erotic."
Aditya Mani Jha. ''The Sunday Guardian''. 10 August 2013.

Personal life

In 1987, Paranjape married Sarina, a graduate student at UIUC. In 2006, he married Devaki Singh, daughter of Arun Singh. They divorced in 2014. He is now married to Gayatri Iyer. No date provided to the current marriage in the source.

Honours

* ICCR Chair in Indian Studies, National University of Singapore, August 2010 onwards. * October–December 2014: Inaugural DAAD-Eric Auerbach Visiting Chair in World Literatures at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

Notes

References

External links

Makarand Paranjape Webpage at JNU