I’m the author of Famous Last Questions—out now, from Aleph Book Company.
What is the book about?
Indian millennials were born into a world full of contradictions: deeply conservative families, but total freedom outside, online, entering a newly liberalized economy and technological future.
I embodied these tensions in the multiple selves I maintained—the “ideal” overachieving ‘90s kid at home, but also the secret black sheep outside. In asking why I was the way I was, I ended up with questions about the values that shaped me and my generation:
- Why is “Science, Arts or Commerce” how most Indians decide the course of their lives?
- Should we get married before the age of 30, or die trying?
- What happens to the woman who isn’t the ‘perfect’ housewife?
- Must we believe in God?
- How did the internet expose Indian culture? And can virtue actually kill people?
I thought these were dangerous questions to ask—hence the title.
And I did die, but only metaphorically. So the book and I could be in your hands right now.
JK, just the book. Read it, and tell the world what you think.
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MORE ABOUT ME
I'm also the writer behind the ‘The Sanjana Effect’, that viral essay on how a generation of Indian girls was named after Aishwarya Rai, aka 'Sanju', in the iconic 1993 Pepsi ad.
Our parents hoped we would inherit Rai’s beauty, success, and elusive mix of modernity and tradition if we were given her name from a cola ad.
My writings combine a career in marketing/biz, science/tech, along with my forever introspective and analytical gaze. Essays appear in The Caravan, ThePrint, VICE, NDTV, Rest of World, Fifty Two, and other Indian and international publications.
Famous Last Questions is my debut non-fiction book. It was part of the South Asia Speaks fellowship for outstanding writers from the region, and is represented by Kanishka Gupta.
