Oftentimes the hard thing about being a writer or pursuing any art is that creations can languish for years in your various storage devices and the beauty is that they can suddenly be discovered by great editors. This is what happened with this travel piece. Thank you to Sumana Roy and Aruni Kashyap for sniffing this out and giving it a home it truly deserves – the Northeast Review. This piece is from 2005 when I had quit my job to travel in the North East to get a sense of what was this place which was often in the news but no one really knew about. This is a piece on one of the most dangerous roads anywhere in the world, it is a bit long.

‘A friend said, “Go to a far corner. Tawang.” I had liked the sound of the place. Any travel is about seeing a place with our own eyes but often we let our ears shape our itinerary.’

More here …

My joint review of the two translations of perhaps one of the most censored Urdu text of the previous century – Angarey. In their time, the writers had refused to be cowed down by the ban and had created the Progressive Writers Association, one of the post influential literary associations ever in history from our sub-continent.

So few people have read the original text that one would expect the publishers and translators to collaborate to create a book which will give us an insight into the politics of the times. Alas, that is not the case: ‘when put together the two versions do not multiply the original text but subtract from it’.

Do read the review, even the translations, but do not miss the sub-text: how politics of publishing robs the reader of the spirit of the original. Read here …

One May 16 the Indian General Elections Results were announced. On that day Tapasya Mitra Mazumder from Bangalore Mirror did an article on the end of the viscous and sometimes virulent discussions on Facebook. She quoted me too.

‘The political drama draws to a close today, but the eight months (or so since Modi’s candidature as PM) have taken its toll on friendships in both virtual and real space. The 2014 general elections in India would be the story of its social impact and that of ‘unfriending’. ‘

Read here ...

The mark of a good artist is the value they show us in their work, their own work. This is why novels must be written and films can follow. Kamila Shamsie excels with ‘A God In Every Stone’. The novel assumes significance given thetroubled times in modern Pakistan which grapples with identity issues. Kamila reclaims a history of the land in the context of Gandhara art, the connections with Persia and Greece, and colonialism. To me this novel is in the league of Nadeem Aslam and Michael Ondaatje’s works. Just hope when a movie is made no character is reduced to a smaller role like Kip, the Sikh soldier, was in The English Patient.

‘Kamila’s research is impeccable, her knowledge of history and geography is excellent, for almost effortlessly she sweeps the reader into an ancient time, laying out ideas and concepts and moral questions with great finesse.’

Please read …

Must confess though I am from one minority community I do not know enough about all other minority communities. Yet, I can empathize and understand issues which are universal to such communities. So, when The Hindu asked if I would want to reviews Hasan Suroor’s book, I took up the job.

Here is my review, please read …

Prof. Rajesh Sharma invited me to give the keynote address at the Department of English Seminar at the Punjabi University Patiala. I was nervous. I knew what I wanted to say but I did not know how the talk would be received. To my delight and surprise Punjab welcomed me with open arms.

I emphasized on the need for Punjab – all Punjabis beyond lines of religious, caste and gender divisions – to engage with the decade of 1980s and recount what has happened to us.

Please read the Punjabi coverage in the Tribune here.

Please read the English coverage in the Tribune by scrolling down this page.

Novel: The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

‘In conflicted lands, everything in a border town is at risk. Everything takes a beating: people, families, friendships, histories, geographies, and most of all identities and trust. Such towns are poisoned webs and one never knows where one will lose one’s mind, respect, or life or all. Fatima brings her angst of being stateless to draw out a richly human story of those who we normally call nonstate actors from shadow lands that sit on national consciences.’

Please read.

I spoke at The Hindu ‘Lit for Life’ at Siri Fort in Delhi on Feb 8 as part of a panel discussion on the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. As a curtain raiser Swati Daftuar caught me just as I was catching a crowded, noisy vehicle a few days before. This interview is completely spontaneous. Please read, there are some points I raise here on which I would otherwise tread cautiously. Thank you Swati, this is how this should have been done.

“The fundamental issue I have is that, post the ’84 riots, the Sikh narrative has become a narrative of victim-hood. I don’t think Sikhs were ever conceived as victims or needed to portray this all the time. Along with that, the in-fighting within the community post the riots is another concern I have.”

Please read.

I have being trying to access Punjab a third time. The earlier two were when I was a kid, born away from Punjab and had heard of it in the legends and histories my parents told me. The second was when I was in Punjab from 1983-90 which has resulted in my book Roll of Honour. The first was a glorious Punjab, the second was a scared and confused Punjab. This third time I am distressed because this Punjab does not fit in with either the Punjab I grew up to like in stories or the Punjab I experienced during the terror of the days of the Punjab Problem.

This Punjab today is deeply divided, in denial, hurtling towards poverty and towards the ills of gender and caste divisions and drugs. Many Sikhs have escaped from Punjab, even believing that justice for the 1984 riots is not possible from the Indian state. The Punjabis who have migrated frown upon the Punjabis who have stayed back, often showing us down in terms of the relative advantages of those foreign counties where they now live as regulated or unregulated citizens. The British link to Operation Bluestar is an instance which prompts us to question these ways in which the Sikh community is divided.

Please read.