I have a new piece in the current issue of Outlook. It is an essay on the landscape of memory along with six of my drawings. You can read the whole piece here.
Posts Categorized: Writing
Children’s Tales in Granta
My report on the Andamans is out in Granta. It is probably the fourth essay on India, part-memoir, part-travel, that Luke Neima has helped me publish there, and my appreciation for Luke as an editor, thoughtful and exact, is profound and filled with gratitude. (He would have improved this preceding sentence. I’m writing in a cab… Read more »
A Train is Approaching
Aleph Book Company in India have published several of my books and in December this year they will be bringing out a new one. A short book in their excellent Essential India series. My thanks to Aleph—in particular, David Davidar. I’ll be participating on November 30 at a book event at Champaca Bookstore the Catholic… Read more »
Writer to Writer—with Teju Cole
Brick literary magazine has released the podcast conversation between Teju and me. This is a part of their Writer to Writer series.
Letter from Lake Como
I’m very lucky to have been awarded a Hawthornden Residency at Casa Ecco on Lake Como. As I report in my post, I arrived here and worked on the manuscript of the short book that will be published by Aleph under the title The Social Life of Indian Trains: A Journey. This is going to… Read more »
NYPL Researcher Spotlight Interview
My current trip to India is coming to an end. Have spent a lot of time in Bengal and it has been good. Tonight I’ll conduct a writing workshop at The Bookshop in Jor Bagh, and then get on a plane. In this post I want to share something different. In mid-July, while I was… Read more »
On Eating
I have an essay on the “On Eating” website: I am at my sister’s house in Patna. Whenever I come to Patna, during periods when my college is closed for either summer or winter holidays, I mostly eat at home. There must be fine restaurants in town but these aren’t the places I knew in… Read more »
A Lover’s Discourse
I was interviewed for Frontline magazine, for their new “Bookmarks” column. The interview has been published under the title “Reading is Good When It Disturbs You.” In the interview I had mentioned A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes and, after listening to Merve Emre’s podcast “The Critic and her Publics,” I have posted a Substack… Read more »
The Writer as Father
In a few hours, I will have the privilege of handing my daughter her diploma during Vassar College’s 161st commencement. The ceremony will be live-streamed, starting at 10 AM EST (7.30 PM IST). I have just now posted a new note on Substack; it is inspired by a short-story by Grace Paley called “Friends.” A… Read more »
Train Dreams
I’m lucky to have an essay of mine published as the Weekend Essay at the New Yorker. Please read the piece here. I have also compiled a few images from my trip in my latest Substack newsletter. Here’s an image that I was unable to include in the album, of Bihari migrant workers from… Read more »