Crime and Karma Cats and Woman

Author(s): M N Roy
Publisher: Renaissance Publishers Pvt Ltd Calcutta

Page 9

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION*
This is not an essay on autobiography. I have a strong dislike for the idea of writing one's own history, be it mental or physical. History is a science. Critically composed biographies have a place in historical literature. Autobiographies, however, are worthless as historical records. The incentive to write an autobiography is supplied by cgoism-by the belief in onc's own importance. Only people, obsessed with the idea that they are destined to play historical roles, write autobio graphies. The inevitable results of that underlying motive can be counter-balanced only by an extraordinarily high degree of self-criticism. The two cannot naturally go together. One cannot be egoistic and self-critical, at the same time. Auto biographies are worth reading only as works of fine literature. Very few of them, however, can measure up to that standard. For these considerations, I have never been inclined to record the events of my life or to trace the development of my mind.
This work is a mere collection of random notes and reflections at odd moments. In prison, particularly when the term is long and the confinement solitary, one has plenty of time to kill.
* Preface to the first edition of The Memoirs of a Cat.