[For Tehelka, 29th July 2009.]
A book that means a lot to you? And why?
There are four: ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’, ‘Siddartha’, ‘The Little Prince’, ‘The Alchemist’ – short, small books which contain the wisdom of eternity.
Your favorite genre?
Autobiographies, biographies, and authors like Amitav Ghosh, Tarun Tejpal, Arundhati Roy – oops, they’re all Indian! But that wasn’t intentional or chauvinistic.
Your favorite character? And why?
Laugh, ye intellectuals – but it is Harry Potter. Because through him, Rowling performed the greatest magic of all: she made a whole generation of computer games zombies read.
How many books do you own?
Never counted them. I ‘hoard’ good books the way some people hoard money; makes me feel secure about that rainy day when the power fails. sometimes I only end up reading books years after I’ve bought them.
An underrated book? And why?
‘Sorrowing lies my land’ by Lambert Mascarenhas. The most authentic description of old Goan life ever written in novel form. Towards the end it turns into the self-indulgence of a freedom fighter, though.
An overrated book? And why?
Most of the glossy best-sellers which seem to have been written with nothing but a Hollywood film contract in mind.
The book you bought last?
Ghosh’s ‘In an ancient land’, to read while I was traveling around Egypt this April.
Last book read?
I’m reading ‘Frida by Frida’, the personal letters of Frida Kahlo, one of a dozen books I bought years ago in New York. I love her paintings, find her personality fascinating, and the film on her life, ‘Frida’, is high on my list of all-time greats.
A book you wish you had written? And why?
I’ve never wished I’d written a particular book. But sometimes, while reading one, I have wished I had that author’s mastery over language and story-telling.