“Halla Bol. The death and life of Safdar Hashmi” Sudhanva Deshpande

Before I read this book, I only had a passing knowledge of Safdar Hashmi- a street theatre artist, a north-Indian leftist, always spoken of in deep tones of respect by the people who knew of him, and some one who was killed during one of his street performances. I use the word killed because as …

God of small things, Arundhati Roy

I re-read this book after ages, and it always is such a little treasure box of memories. Yes. Even though Arundhati was born in the early '60s, and I grew up in an '80s India, there are so many childhood memories that are similar. It is almost as though India was doing what any large …

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy

I'll have to admit this book disappointed me because it was the final conclusive proof that 'the system' had beaten my favourite feisty writer. Or it means I have read too many of her essays, and too many news articles on too many tragic ends and so this book offered nothing new, just the same …

An Equal Music, Vikram Seth

As I type this on a very blank white screen, I imagine Vikram Seth at his type-writer. A small man, finely built like a sparrow, quiet. That's what I imagine, a quiet, gentle man. So different from everything going around me for instance. In the background my grandmother is watching television, which in India nowadays …

Such a long journey, Rohinton Mistry

This is the story of a Parsi family in the early '70s, living within a Parsi neighbourhood, with a social circle that is mostly Parsi; and yet, this is the story of every other middle-class Indian family

Gujarat Files, Anatomy of a cover-up, Rana Ayyub

This is an important book from the perspective of having that one contrarian voice questioning the powers that be.

An Uncertain Glory (India & its contradictions), Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen

Rather ironic (and depressing) to read a book that was published 2013/14 now, i.e. in March 2020. In the middle of a lock-down that has exposed and made the dysfunctions excruciatingly tangible. I am often humbled by Jean Dreze, a Belgian-born, Indian economist. I still remember a hot summer day in 1999, when I was …

Ghare Baire, Rabindranath Tagore

The three protagonists in the book are almost metaphorical for a nation and the diverging ideas of what nationalism is

Chapter 1

The first chapter of a book that I will never write