• About

    I write a fortnightly "Letter from India" column for the International Herald Tribune, and occasionally for The New York Times

    I'm working on a non-fiction book about India, to be published by Riverhead in 2010

    I've written for The Atlantic, The Economist, Granta, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and several other publications

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  • Highlights

    Two articles on the five-year anniversary of the tsunami (1, 2), from The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. These follow-up from my two original reports on the tsunami, published in The New Yorker (1, 2).

    See also a related article from Granta on coastal erosion in South India.

    Two articles on the social impact of rapid development, from The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times (1, 2).

    I've also written on development for The Atlantic (an essay review on Amartya Sen ) and The Economist (on the digital divide).

    I've written several literary essays and reviews over the years. See this one on VS Naipaul, from Transition, and this one on Indian literature, from The New Statesman.

writing

Onion Logic

Wednesday, March 31st, 1999
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The waiter refused to give me my onions; it took a while before I realized this was evidence of a national crisis. A report from Kuilapalayam, published in Atlantic Unbound

The Tiger Queen

Wednesday, February 3rd, 1999
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She claimed she was a princess, but she seemed more like a defanged tiger, in Rajasthan. Published in Atlantic Unbound

The Hills of Sighisoara

Thursday, October 1st, 1998
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Far from home and lonely, I befriend a drunken cuckold in Sighisoara, Romania. Published in Atlantic Unbound

Poor but Prosperous

Wednesday, September 16th, 1998
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A report from the state of Kerala, published in The Atlantic Monthly
In Trivandrum, the mellow state capital, which spreads over seven hills, I paid a visit to C. P. Narayan, a prominent member of Kerala’s largest Communist party. His office was opposite the party headquarters, a hideous slab of concrete, like something out of Nicolae Ceausescu’s Bucharest.

A Long Way From Home

Wednesday, August 26th, 1998
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A bomb threat puts me in unexpectedly close–and ultimately uncomfortable–proximity to a Pakistani tourist in Istanbul. Published in Atlantic Unbound

The Courts of Pondicherry

Wednesday, February 4th, 1998
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I lose to a fat bald man in a tennis tournament on a miserable hot day, in Pondicherry. Published in Atlantic Unbound

Chatwin

Wednesday, August 14th, 1996
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Review of Anatomy of Restlessness, by Bruce Chatwin, The Harvard Advocate
I used to think I envied the life Chatwin had lived. On days when the world was heavy and difficult, I imagined a life free from the stifling demands of location. Familiarity breeds contempt; freedom is never to know, nor to be known by, place. Now I know I only envied the life I thought he lived. Chatwin’s was an all-too-common tale of unsatiated desire and escapism.