Kirti Chaudhuri

Kirti Chaudhuri

Kirti Narayan Chaudhuri (born September 8, 1934) is a renowned historian, author, creative writer, and a graphic artist. In his early life, he was also a pianist and a general musician. He is the second son of the Indian writer Nirad C. Chaudhuri.

Kirti Chaudhuri has spent most of his adult life travelling and working in the Middle East, North Africa, South America, and Europe. A noted rock climber, Prof. Chaudhuri has scaled most Alpine peaks above 3,000 meters. Although he earned his living as a professional historian and as a university teacher in England and in Italy, he has always considered his creative work, both literary and artistic, to be the first priority. In the manner of his early life, he still considers himself to be a man of the road, a professional wanderer and a vagabond, a latter day Flying Dutchman. Chaudhuri's academic achievements however have several unusual features. He was the first undergraduate in the University of London to obtain First Class Honours in Final BA Examinations in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1959 since Bernard Lewis gained that distinction in 1936. He is the only historian from South Asia to have been elected to the British Academy and Academia Europaea.

Since the year 2000, Kirti Chaudhuri has divided his time between London, Avignon in France, Florence, the Sahara, Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico. His main recreations are travel, wine tasting in different parts of the world, photography, large format printing of his graphic images, designing and printing Artists’ Books, bookbinding, and mountain walking.

Kirti Chaudhuri is married to Surang Na Songkhla whose family in the past sired the traditional governors of the Songkhla Province in Thailand and her great grandfather was the Prime Minister to the Thai monarch. His son Vik Chaudhuri, educated at Westminster School London, lives and works in London, and vigorously follows the pastime of semi professional cycling. In the year 2004 to 2005, Vik Chaudhuri cycled all alone from Anchorage in Alaska to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, a trip of 25,000 kilometers. He was attacked and robbed at gun point at a lonely stretch of the Pan American Highway in Peru and fought successfully with the bandits to recover his bike.

Read more about Kirti Chaudhuri:  Early Life and Education, Later Literary and Artistic Works, Publications, Some Past and Recent Citations To The Work of K.N.Chaudhuri