This “suitable boy” of India prefers to indulge in some plainspeak when it comes to fiddling with fringe topics. For the erstwhile boy of Bengal’s Batanagar hates beating around the bush.

While he recently assigned the reasons for restricting the fatwa-rapped Booker of Bookers winner Salman Rushdie from making an appearance at the high-profile Jaipur litfest to issues solely related to “vote-bank politics, power and religion” in a secular democracy, with similar flexibility, he openly fielded questions on his alternate sexuality, if not wearing it on his sleeve. “The first step is to get a voice of acceptance from within you. Let your own conscience tell the truth. Then the rest of the world can hear it,” shared celebrated author Vikram Seth on the final day of the maiden Kolkata Literary Meet hosted as part of the ongoing 36th Kolkata Book Fair in the culture capital. Seth was in conversation with his celebrity mother Leila Seth discussing about the writing gene in an interactive session. But has he yet found out a suitable soulmate for himself? “Well, nobody really swam into my bounds, neither did I appeal to anybody’s fancy,” pat came the candid confession.