Over almost thirty years, BN Goswamy wrote 707 columns, his last one appearing on 12 November 2023, five days before he died. Weak and exhausted in a hospital bed, he tried to dictate his last column to his daughter Malavika—commas, full stops, everything. As Vrinda Agarwal, a doctoral student of art history who worked with Goswamy, recalled, he would often dictate his writings—whole sentences, fully formed thoughts. But this time, even as the thoughts might have been clear, the words were frail, and Malavika was not able to trace the outline of those withering sounds.

Then, on 17 November, at the ripe and full age of 90, in Chandigarh, the home he refused to part from, a sleepy city where he held court with soft dominance, he breathed his last.

Read @pruhthyush's essay on BN Goswamy’s strategies of seeing: