# Mappings

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2015/07/19/mappings/
- Published: 2015-07-19T18:33:54+00:00
- Author: admin

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**Description: **
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**Author:** Vikram Seth
 **Pages:** 72 **Year of Publication:** 1981, 1991 (second
edition) **Price:** HB Rs 100, FB Rs 80 **ISBN:** HB 81-7189-138-1 (8171891381) 
FB 83-7189-139-X (837189139X)

**_ About the Author:_**
 Since Vikram Seth needs no introduction, given below is
his authorial profile as it was recorded when _Mappings_, his first book, was brought
out in 1981:

“Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta in 1952. He was schooled in India, and took his
undergraduate degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics in Oxford University.
He is currently working towards his Ph.D. in Economics in Stanford University. His
subject is the economic demography of China, and he will be in Nanjing, China, in
1982-83 on a research project examining the Chinese birth control programme. He 
was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing at Stanford University.”

**_Teaser:_**

_Sea and Desert_

How do I merit such happiness? To have
 The moon, the Pacific, and you beside me,
waking At three to sudden cold — dew, the stiff breeze Along the headland; I have
been watching you, Your face lit in the full moon, restless, still, As out beyond
the strip of loam near the crags Below, the moon lights up a calm yet shifting Track
on the ocean. Your face with its Clean lines and tousled hair is beautiful And it
is hard to believe that even in This stark and lovely place it is the cause Of so
much of my peace. You sleep again, And I know this unusual beauty, that you’ve Neither
aimed for nor deserved, will recur Again and again for me with sea and moon, An 
image changing with these changing things, Distracting me from neither, enhancing
both, A gift you could not help but give, something I too have neither aimed for
nor deserve.

**_Contents:_**
 Panipat / 9 Sea and Desert / 11 A Winter Word / 12 Departure Lounge/
13 Quaking Bridge / 18 Switching Off / 19 Sonnet / 20 Grand Canyon / 21 To a Fellow-
Traveler / 22 Rakhi / 25 Tomatoes / 26 Home Thoughts from the Bay / 27 Rain / 28
From the Memoirs of Babur, First Mogul Emperor of Hindustan / 29 To Manijeh / 31
The Walkers / 33 Time-Zones / 34 After Three Years / 35 From Mount Tamalpais / 36
Thoughts while Traveling at Night / 37 Aubade / 38 The Yellow Cricket / 39 The Sultan’s
Turret / 40 At Evening / 41 Moonless Night / 42 Guest / 43 The Balcony / 44 Even
Such / 45 Close of Play / 46 Last Night / 49 Party for the Retirement of the Oldest-
Serving British Museum Reading Room Book Attendant / 50 Dubious / 51 Bagatelles /
52 The Tale of Melon City / 53 Six Octets / 57 Distressful Homonyms / 59 Progress
Report / 60 Point Reyes / 61 Sleep and Death 62 Mappings / 63 Moths / 64 Divali /
65 A Morning Walk / 70 Stump / 72