Writing Badly is Easy

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A fine review of this new book has appeared in Mint:

The intended readership of Writing Badly Is Easy may seem to be academics, students and those working towards joining the ranks of scholars, but Kumar’s approach, a combination of donnish table-talk and friendly advice over a drink, should appeal to anyone who has ever sat before a blank page and felt a surge of panic.

And this wonderful review by Vineet Gill in the Sunday Guardian.

Also, this interview with Mumbai Mid-Day. And this one with India Today. And this excellent long piece, a mix of review and interview, at Open Magazine.

Oh, and at a much later date, this one in Hindustan Times.

The Summer That Changed You

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An Indian newspaper asked me to contribute a hundred words about a summer that was transformative. I wrote about the summer when I wrote the first draft of Immigrant, Montana. (The novel was published in India as The Lovers.) I was also asked to supply a photo from the time I was writing about. My daughter took this photo of me embracing her little brother a minute after my return from the residency.

The World Is Made Up Of Lines

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My friend Vasundhara at Aleph Book Company in Delhi asked me to share my writing advice. It was pub day for my book Writing Badly Is Easy. When I got her note on my phone, I was at Mass MOCA in North Adams. My daughter took this picture. I have now written a few lines in response to Vasundhara that you can hear here.

Also, this interview with Mumbai Mid-Day. And this one with India Today. And this long piece, a mix of review and interview, at Open Magazine.

“Intimacy is overrated; newness is everything.”

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I was interviewed for National Geographic Traveller India.

What do you love and hate most about travel, today?

I like that travel gives you new eyes. When I arrive in a town, and am taking pictures, I realise that most often my best pictures are the ones taken on the first day. Intimacy is overrated; newness is everything.

What do I hate about travel? How much time do you have? The presence of large crowds in packed enclosures, waiting to criss-cross the earth, makes me think of what we are doing to the planet. I’m put in this mood to entertain pessimistic thoughts because I feel my age when I travel. My body aches, I want to lie down. I crave silence.

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