12 Facts About Ved Mehta

Ved Parkash Mehta was an Indian-born writer who lived and worked mainly in the United States.

Blind from an early age, Mehta is best known for an autobiography published in installments from 1972 to 2004.

Ved Mehta was born on 21 March 1934 in Lahore, British India, to a Punjabi Hindu family.

Ved Mehta's parents were Shanti Mehta and Amolak Ram Mehta, a senior public health official in the government of India.

Ved Mehta lost his sight at the age of three due to cerebrospinal meningitis.

Ved Mehta read with such clarity that I almost had the illusion that he was explaining things.

Ved Mehta was a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1961 to 1994.

Ved Mehta is scholarly and journalistic and, above all, a man who thinks things out.

Ved Mehta left the magazine after, as he claimed, he was "terminated" by editor Tina Brown.

Ved Mehta died on 9 January 2021, with complications from Parkinson's disease.

Ved Mehta was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1982, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.

Ved Mehta received honorary degrees from Pomona College, Bard College, Williams College, the University of Stirling, and Bowdoin College.