Octavio Paz first came to India in 1951: after Mexico formally established relations he was assigned to be under-secretary
at the new mission, though he only remained a relatively short time.
Several of the Nobel laureate''s books arose directly out of his Indian experiences, notably The Monkey Grammarian as well as the poems collected in A Tale of Two Gardens (see our review) Paz writes that In Light of India is "an introduction to answer the questions that India poses to everyone who visits it."
Paz found in India a good mirror for examining his own homeland: "The
strangeness of India brought to mind that other strangeness: my own country."