In her second short story collection, Waiting, Nighat Gandhi explores many of the same preoccupations that have dominated both her fiction and non-fiction thus far but with even more minute and interior details. [...] In this latest collection too, Gandhi’s women are trying to comprehend and address subjects and themes that are either taboo or fetishised. However, their voices are still repressed – questioning, rebelling, or negotiating inside their heads – as they themselves remain trapped in their worlds, waiting passively for something to change.
Published: #BalanceforBetter: A Short Reading List for International Women’s Day 2019 (Scroll.in)
I was asked by Scroll.in to recommend a short reading list for this year's International Women's Day. Here are my recommendations with books by Urvashi Sahni, Angela D Saini, Aparna Jain, Mathangi Subramanian, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Marginalia: Jaipur Literary Festival 2019
This year's Jaipur Literary Festival was as large as ever. Meaning: it was the largest-ever gathering of people from all around the world to discuss books, current affairs, and politics (because Indian literary festivals are never free of that.). And, while I haven't written a summary of my favorite panels like last year (read JLF 2018) I was invited to participate in two events. One was on literary translation and the other was on literary criticism. A few details follow.