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How to Read Dostoevsky: Start with Notes from Underground
Notes from Underground is the most accessible doorway into Dostoevsky because it condenses all his major themes—freedom, self-destruction, consciousness, and the longing for dignity—into one short, psychologically intense narrative. Let’s enter this world. Read more
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What is Bibliotherapy?
What is bibliotherapy? It’s a question many of you have been asking me, of late. Let me explain. Read more
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Among the Cities: Jan Morris’s Travels in Darjeeling
This essay explores how Jan Morris’s portrayal of Darjeeling in Hill Station: Darjeeling, 1970 earns the small Himalayan town a place within Among the Cities, revealing how its intimacy, diversity, and atmosphere quietly rival the grandeur of the world’s great capitals. Read more
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The Only City: Short Stories on Bombay’s Many Lives
A reflective reading of The Only City, this piece explores how Bombay—through its people, dreams, and contradictions—becomes both the backdrop and the beating heart of this modern collection of short stories. Read more
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On Truth That Fiction Tells Through Lies
Reflecting on Salman Rushdie’s defence of imaginative fiction, this short essay discusses his call to “find truth through lies” and argues that true storytelling begins where realism ends and dreaming begins. Read more
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Book Review: The Forever Green Lore and Legends of Kerala
Sreekumari Ramachandran’s latest book on Kerala is invaluable as a reference, but it falters as a pleasurable read due to its flat, over-edited prose and lack of narrative thread. Read more
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