“I lived here when I was a little girl,” Gaiutra Bahadur pleaded nostalgically to the security guard, unsuccessfully seeking entry to the derelict Wales Estate compound. Ms. Bahadur was in Guyana to prepare for an article, “Is Guyana’s Oil a Blessing or a Curse,” which was published on March 30 in the New York Times. Migrating with her parents to the US as a 6-year-old, Ms. Bahadur has returned often and written extensively about Guyana. Her ‘Coolie Woman,’ published in 2013, a ‘master chronicle’ focusing on the journey of her great grandmother, Sujaria, who left Calcutta in 1903, is a widely praised, landmark study, of indentureship and indentured women. In her NYT article Ms. Bahadur grapples with the issues arising from Guyana’s discovery of oil in 2015 with balance, integrity and sympathy.
