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India: We will produce some nectar, but we will also produce some poison

'India is a part of me. Whatever I love or criticise about India is what I love and criticise about myself.'

'I don't like the corruption, the stupidity of sexism, the cruelty of poverty and the fact that we still allow it to exist.'

'But there is no reason for us not to be hopeful,' says novelist Vikram Chandra in our series where well-known Indians discuss the India they love.

It is hard to talk about what I like or don't like about India.

India is a part of me. Whatever I love or criticise about India is what I love and criticise about myself.

India is who I am.

When I am away from India, I miss my family, friends, landscapes, the food and the chaos.

I miss the kind of energy and effervescence you can see at events like the Jaipur Literature Festival.

I don't like the corruption, the stupidity of sexism, the cruelty of poverty and the fact that we still allow it to exist.

I don't think there are any simple answers. I don't think that one person or one party will be able to save us. It has to be a process of all of us taking a combined effort and making combined mistakes.

But there is no reason for us not to be hopeful. The process has started. Manthan shuru ho gaya hain (the great churning has started).

We will produce some nectar, but we will also produce some poison.

Vikram Chandra is the author of four novels -- Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Love and Longing in Bombay, Sacred Games and Mirrored Mind: My Life in Letters and Code. He is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

He spoke to Sanchari Bhattacharya.

The complete series: Why I love India