akashkapur.com

India Becoming in Der Spiegel

akash — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:23:18 +0000

Nice essay on India Becoming in Der Spiegel. The author of the piece, Hasnain Kazim, is the South Asia correspondent for Der Spiegel, and a thought-provoking writer. I highly recommend some of his work. See, for example, this piece on immigration in Germany.

For non-German readers (and that includes me), you can translate the article on India Becoming by opening it in a Chrome browser window and using Google Translate.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Late Night Live

akash — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:16:24 +0000

I had a very nice chat with Phillip Adams on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Late Night Live. I’d never heard the show before, but really enjoyed his laid-back conversational style. Wish I could have been in studio for the call, but it was done by phone from Pondicherry.

India Becoming on NPR’s All Things Considered

akash — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:13:08 +0000

India Becoming was featured on a segment of Weekend All Things Considered recently. Nice to talk to Guy Raz after hearing him so many times.

Review in The Daily Beast

akash — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:01:05 +0000

The Daily Beast selects India Becoming as a “Nonfiction Must Read.” A nice review–although I confess to being a bit shocked that I’m referred to as a “veteran journalist.”

India Becoming in the WSJ

akash — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:36:30 +0000

I’m posting this late, but the Wall Street Journal ran a Q&A with me about India Becoming. I just realized that I used the word “intensity” three times in the last two answers.

India Becoming on the Diane Rehm Show

akash — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:33:15 +0000

I had a great time talking to Diane Rehm about India Becoming and my life in South India. It was an honor to be on her radio show. You can listen to a recording here.

The New Republic on India Becoming

akash — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:30:33 +0000

The New Republic reviews India Becoming. A thoughtful essay by Alexandra Sage Mehta on what she calls “the reverse commute.” Look forward to reading her book.

Book launch at The Asia Society

akash — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 23:01:07 +0000

India Becoming was officially launched on March 15th at The Asia Society in New York. See my reading and conversation here with Philip Gourevitch.

India Becoming on the Leonard Lopate Show

akash — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:52:08 +0000

On March 15th, I discussed my new book—and its many themes–with Leonard Lopate on the Leonard Lopate show, in NYC. Listen by clicking here.

FT reviews India Becoming

akash — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:05:37 +0000

David Pilling of The Financial Times has written a very nice–and thoughtful–review of India Becoming.

“There are many virtues of Akash Kapur’s beautifully sketched portrait of modern India,” he writes. “The greatest of them is ambivalence. Kapur is ambivalent about the trade-offs between the disappearing certainties of India’s countryside and the roller-coaster possibilities of its cities. He is ambivalent about changes that have released people from social bondage but have uncorked thuggery, greed and vacuous consumerism. He is ambivalent about whether to be swept up by India’s startling growth or fearful of the searing inequalities and environmental degradation on which it appears to be based.

He concludes: “The novelistic approach allows for these changes of mood and perspective. Kapur’s skill is to get people talking and to weave their stories into a necessarily messy debate about India’s future. There is loss as well as anticipation. People are beggared and despoiled even as others claw out of the mud.

“In the final pages Kapur is partially reconciled to India’s duality, to the “delicate dance between destruction and creativity”. India’s becoming is, in the end, both tragic and uplifting.”