Kapuscinski: a window to the world

It's probably happened to you before. You hear of someone famous for the very first time, and suddenly you begin to see his name cropping up in the oddest places - conversations, newspapers and TV - in the next few days.

I first came across this strange sounding fella Ryszard Kapuscinski, in The Granta Book of Reportage. The very first piece in the book, The Soccer War is by this Polish journalist. This short war between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969, reportedly sparked off by a football match defeat during the 1970 World Cup qualifiers, is described vividly and concisely by Kapuscinski. I was hooked at once.

A few days later I ran into him in A Mighty Heart (the brave life and death of my husband Daniel Pearl). In it, Daniel Pearl gifts Shah of Shahs by Kapuscinski to Mariane Pearl while he's courting her.

Now I see that Travels with Herodotus, his memoir is available in bookstores. The premise of the book is tantalizing - Kapuscinski's wanderings from an early age across the world as a journalist, segueing into thoughts on Herodotus, one of his heroes.

Thanks to a self-induced embargo on buying any more books till October-end, I won't be able to lay my hands on it. Any rich uncles out there?

P.S. Kapuscinski, the internet tells me, was a favourite for the Nobel prize for Literature a few times, but never received it. He died early this year and has a devoted following around the world. He wrote in Polish, but his crisp writing shines through even in translations.