writing

The Carburettor

Devika Bakshi

Rajesh Parameswaran talks about his reluctance to talk about his writing—and the lasting lessons of failing quickly with short stories

The Hermit

Gunjeet Sra

After years of putting off a lifelong passion, Kishwar Desai finds she must shut herself off from the world in order to write—but the world still seeps into her writing

The Importance of Being Earnest

Elizabeth Kuruvilla

Writers cannot live in a vacuum, isolated from political currents anymore, says Pankaj Mishra

“I love solitude but I don’t need it to write”

Sohini Chattopadhyay

The poet, lyricist and adman says advertising has helped his poetry

The Constant Writer

Vaibhav Vats

Ramachandra Guha on the thrills of research, the insecurity of academics and their love of jargon, and why he doesn’t take holidays

The Writer’s Riyaaz

Sohini Chattopadhyay

Amit Chaudhuri on the death of the author-editor relationship, the boredom of being a novelist, and writing on his feet, literally

The Reader’s Writer

Jyotirmoy Talukdar

Tabish Khair on why he doesn’t write for critics, his dislike of the term ‘postcolonial’, and how journalism helped him overcome his dread of deadlines

Bombay in His Veins

Suhit Kelkar

Kiran Nagarkar was watching movies to put off writing, but ended up writing a novel set in Bollywood

“The longer you live somewhere, the less you see”

Aastha Atray Banan

William Dalrymple on why he will never be able to write City of Djinns again, and on isolating himself in his world of books

Writer Unblocked

Aastha Atray Banan

Writing a Mills & Boon novel rekindled a romance in Aastha Atray Banan’s life—the one with words. For, it finally allowed her to let go of the fear of being judged as a writer