India, Aug. 30 -- Some personalities are autochthonous to Delhi. Politicians and lawyers claim the first rank, but academics are not far behind. Academia is an old habit here, a stereotype most universities have done little to disturb: sensible sandals, a canvas bag, an unhurried manner of speech. There is comfort in living in a city full of such people.

The question worth asking is how they actually live. Between panel discussions, lectures, and the long hours of reading, where does the observation happen that later becomes the writing? In a bedroom. In a nook. In front of a painting that functions less as decoration than as a doorway into a private thought.

Many of Delhi's scholars keep remarkable libraries, usually locked behind priv...