Bangalore: Asserting that India is shining, Nobel laureate V S Naipaul today (Feb 28, 2004) said the country is dynamic and will be one regardless of political excitement and failures.

"Is India shining? I actually think it is," Naipaul, a noted writer and author of several books including 'India - A Million Mutinies Now' and 'India - A Wounded Civilisation', said.

"I think in so many ways; you must check some simple things, if you want to know how far you have come," he told the audience at the inaugural Tehelka Lecture, organised jointly by Tehelka weekly and Crossword bookstore.

He said the people haven't realised the degree on how India is an educated country, possesses skills and talent, besides dress better and eat healthy food.

"Just look at some of the photographs of 1950s, even of Bombay city...compare these with the pictures of today. I think you will see such a difference," Naipaul, the Trinidad-born author and a critically-acclaimed writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002, said.

"I think my attitude towards India is set on a certain course; it has a kind of dynamics and it is a dynamism which will go on, regardless of political excitement and failures here and there," he said.

Naipaul, who read out portions of 'India - A Wounded Civilisation', when asked whether Mahatma Gandhi is still relevant today, said, "Is only a subject to study."