out of these the first eighteen were spent in a small town in eastern bihar , his place of birth , schooling and first love ; the next five were spent in a coastal town in kerala , where he pursued first his graduation and then his post graduation in english literature ; leaving us with the last thirteen ones , and these he had expended in hopping from town to town in northern india , living in eight different cities in total , working most of this time as a professor of english literature , though in one case as a salesman , and in another case as a private tutor , two occasions when he did not find any professorship in the new city he had moved to .