NYPL Researcher Spotlight Interview

Posted by & filed under Drawing, Teaching, Writing.

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 leading a workshop at the Cullman Center for school teachers and doing research, I was interviewed by Julie Carlsen, a curator at the New York Public Library, for the library’s “Researcher Spotlight” series.Read the interview here.

On Eating

Posted by & filed under Drawing, Writing.

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 my youth; the food that I get at home here also reminds me of my mother’s dishes.

Meena, who cooks for my sister, is an Adivasi woman from Netarhat in Jharkhand. She is a marvelous cook. This morning my sisters and I went walking in the park in front of the house. Then my sister bought karela (Google tells me that the English name for it is bittergourd) and I’m looking forward to eating that along with the rohu fish that Meena is frying right now. I also bought bunches of makoi (is gooseberry the correct translation?) and my fond hope that they will be sweet. But what I’m most looking forward to is the bhindi.

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P.S. Earlier this week my uncle died. Here’s my Champaran diary.

A Lover’s Discourse

Posted by & filed under Criticism, Drawing, Writing.

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 offering my own thoughts on public writing and criticism. Please check it out here. Also, I hope you like my above drawing of the Barthes book.

 

The Writer as Father

Posted by & filed under Writing.

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 woman is dying from cancer and her friends have come to visit her; these are women-friends who are mothers of children who grew up together. As readers, we understand that this fact is the root of the friendship between the women, this fact like a bond of solidarity that they share. When the women come into her room, the visitors “solemn and embarrassed,” the one who is dying, her name is Selena, says to them, “O.K., first things first. Let’s talk about important things. How’s Richard? How’s Tonto? How’s John? How’s Chrissy? How’s Judy? How’s Mickey?”

She is talking about the kids.

Read more.

House of Speakeasy

Posted by & filed under Media.

“A literary mixtape [with] perfect flow and variety.”
— The New York Times, March 2016

House of SpeakEasy continues its electrifying 2025 season at Joe’s Pub on May 13 with a night of fresh, original storytelling from four celebrated writers. Inspired by the theme “Let the Great World Spin,” each author will take the stage to share a brand-new, never-before-heard tale—live, intimate, and unfiltered.

Get tickets here.

 

 

Happy Pub Day

Posted by & filed under Media.

Feb 11. Happy pub day. The paperback of A Time Outside This Time comes out today. When the hardcover was published, The New Yorker described the book as “a shimmering assault on the Zeitgeist.”

Also, it is my father’s birth anniversary today. Here is a link to a piece in Granta magazine; the piece was published, coincidentally, when I was sitting in the ICU in Patna while my father was in a coma.