G. V. Desani

The 1948 publication of Desani's mock-heroic novel, with its high-velocity West-East patterings, attracted widespread attention. T.S. Eliot said of it, "… In all my experience, I have not met with anything quite like it. It is amazing that anyone should be able to sustain a piece of work in this style and tempo at such length."[8] Orville Prescott, in a mixed review in The New York Times wrote, "... To describe a rainbow to a child born blind would not be much more difficult than to describe the unique character of All About H. Hatterr ... as startling as a unicorn in the hall bedroom. Reading it issues dizzy spells, spots before the eyes, consternation, and even thought."[9] Four decades later Salman Rushdie wrote "Hatterr's dazzling, puzzling, leaping prose is the first genuine effort to go beyond the Englishness of the English language."[10]

Desani's Hali: A Play was published and performed in 1950.[11][12] It was described by Eliot as "completely different from Hatterr." Eliot — along with E.M. Forster – provided forewords to the 55-page lyrical tragedy. Eliot called Hali's imagery "... often terrifyingly effective," while Forster wrote, "... it keeps evoking heights above the 'Summit-City' of normal achievement." Other comments were less enthusiastic. Eliot added, "Hali is not likely to appeal quickly to the taste of many readers." And Forster observed, "It depends upon a private mythology – a dangerous device."[13]

In 1991, Hali was re-published in Hali and Collected Stories.

In the 1930s Desani worked as a film extra, an artists' model and as a correspondent for The Times of India, Reuters and the Associated Press, among others, contributing from both Great Britain and India. During World War II, Desani lectured in both English and Hindustani for the British Ministry of Information and the Imperial Institute.[1] He was also a regular commentator on the BBC. Recalling his popularity as a lecturer during the war, Anthony Burgess wrote, "Desani came to England, in fact, to demonstrate in live speech the vitality of the British rhetorical tradition, brilliant in Burke and Macaulay, decadent in Churchill, now dead."[15]

Decades later, Desani recounted how — despite his achievements — he was increasingly unhappy. In 1952 he returned to India where he sought out a series of gurus and fakirs. These teachers, typically residing in rural India, assigned him arduous disciplines, often requiring months of intense Sādhanā.[16]

Desani spent most of 1960 in Rangoon (now Yangon) practicing Samatha-vipassana under meditation master Mahasi Sayadaw. Upon completion, he was asked to address the Burmese diplomatic corps on Buddhist ethics and techniques. The meeting took place at the Israeli embassy, Justice U Chan Htoon presiding.[17]

From 1962-67 Desani contributed often to The Illustrated Weekly of India. His articles included short stories, and commentary on Indian social and cultural issues, ethics, religion and occultism. An unsigned weekly column entitled "Very High & Very Low"[18] ran from 1964-66.

In 1967 a Fulbright Program grant brought Desani to the University of Texas, Austin as a lecturer on Eastern Philosophy. In 1969 he joined the faculty as a full professor (notably Desani never graduated from high school and had no college). From 1970-79, Desani taught courses in Theravada Buddhism and other yoga traditions. He retired in 1982 following a semester as a Boston University lecturer under the sponsorship of then B.U. president John Silber.

In his last years Desani hoped to write two more books: an autobiography and a book based on journal entries he made during his years investigating Nadi astrology and other occult crafts in India.[19]

Desani died at 91 in Ft. Worth, Texas.

• Desani, G.V. (1970) [1948]. All About H. Hatterr (hardback). London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-01424-3.

• Desani, G.V. (1950). HALI: A Play, (hardback). London: Saturn Press.

• Desani, G.V. (1991). Hali and Collected Stories (hardback). Kingston, New York: McPherson & Company. ISBN 0-929701-12-7.