Because of the omnipresence of advertising, of television, the media is everywhere, and people aspire to the same things now; it's not like, formerly, where they just aspired to roti, kapda aur makaan dreams, or to just getting by. And, unfortunately, the capacity of the Indian State to provide the means to get to these dreams through education, fluency in English, healthcare and a good law-and-order system to protect you is limited. The poor do not have access to any of these dreams.
I had access to all four of these as a middle class Indian growing up in Mangalore. I had good education, good English education, good hospitals, and the police to protect me. And, this is why I am where I am today. But for a poor person, especially from UP or Bihar, he has the same dreams as I do, but all these key things are missing for him. What is the way out for him?
What I'm trying to emphasise here is the urgency to fix the situation. We need to fix these key missing ingredients for the poor people so they have legitimate means for achieving their dreams.
When we talked a few months ago I had asked you as a successful first-time writer if you had fears of writing the second book. You had said you were more worried about the water shortage in Mumbai than writing the second book.
Obviously, it is always a challenge to write. And, I don't know if my second book will be any good as my first. But in terms of stimulation, there's nothing like living in India for you to be constantly bombarded by ideas and the desire to write. You just have to open your window in Mumbai and a story comes out and hits you. I am not that concerned about inspiration drying up as long as I continue to have my feet planted in India.
You have lived in Australia, studied in England and America. What made you go back to India?
I was born in Chennai but I was living in Mangalore for many years. When I left India in 1990, my mother had died. I was about 15 and a half years old and my father decided to move; my father took me out of India. I always wanted to come back.
What happened was I thought I would be an academic in English. This is a field where it is very difficult to survive in India. But as I was studying for that I discovered that I wasn't going to be an academic; the first thing I decided was to go back to India. So, going back to India was like going back home. There was a large part of India I hadn't seen because I was in Mangalore the whole time. I was conscious of the north of India I had never seen. I wanted to see all the parts of India I had not seen. It was inevitable to go back to India.
Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
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