Articles by Amitava Kumar
Essay: Shiva Naipaul’s notebook
Author Amitava Kumar studies the younger Naipaul’s notes on his time in India immediately after the assassination of Indira Gandhi
Updated on May 23, 2022 05:03 PM IST
Excerpt: The Lovers by Amitava Kumar
In this first exclusive excerpt, the narrator, Kailash, an Indian student in America, attempts to help his girlfriend through a difficult time
Updated on Jul 01, 2017 08:23 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
I testify that
Daya Pawar’s autobiography Baluta is a record of unspeakable humiliations in a caste-ridden society. I devoured it with great hunger, writes Amitava Kumar.
Updated on May 14, 2016 08:17 PM IST
Amitava Kumar
What is the charm of novels about ordinary life – where nothing happens?
What is the charm of novels about ordinary life – where nothing happens? And what do these books tell us about our own lives?
Updated on Apr 02, 2016 07:09 PM IST
Amitava Kumar
The anti-national
In the wake of the events unfolding in the country, let us look at the literature of sedition – and my choice is JM Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians
Updated on Mar 05, 2016 08:58 PM IST
Amitava Kumar
Found in translation
When I paid my respects to an author I wanted to meet because of the persona he projects, writes Amitava Kumar.
Updated on Feb 13, 2016 09:57 PM IST
Amitava Kumar
RK Narayan and more: The flavour of small towns in our novels
Amitava Kumar on the appeal of the novels that best capture the flavour of small-town India.
Updated on Jan 03, 2016 09:54 AM IST
Amitava Kumar
Write what you know: tell someone else’s story
An important lesson in writing: look beyond your own experiences, writes Amitava Kumar.
Updated on Dec 13, 2015 12:11 AM IST
Amitava Kumar
Literature transcends time. Here’s looking at old writing in new contexts
Literature transcends time. Amitava Kumar looks at old writing in new contexts.
Updated on Nov 29, 2015 11:44 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
A few good tales of cities
I often had a question for the writers I met at JLF at Boulder: can you name a book that is a good example of writing about cities?
Updated on Oct 03, 2015 08:41 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
Love in the time of bigotry
A scene in Masaan became a reality in Mumbai last month: loud raps on the door in the middle of sex. Is there literature about the knock on the door?
Updated on Apr 14, 2017 08:29 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
August and us
It is literature’s task to record with an unblinking, democratic eye, both our triumphs and failures as individuals as well as a collective
Updated on Aug 08, 2015 06:42 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
What is it, dear heart?
I’m at an artist colony. And I’m working on a novel about the messiness of love. So, I cannot help but also ponder about its cold-heartedness
Updated on Jul 11, 2015 07:42 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
A prose man ponders over poetry
I’m a narrative man. Poetry can be obscure – I don’t understand it. Yet, now and then, I go back to Hindi poetry from the heartland, writes Amitava Kumar.
Updated on Jun 29, 2015 06:09 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
Introducing The Bookist, Amitava Kumar's new column
Writers don’t need ideas so much; they need time and conditions of work that allow the right words to emerge
Updated on May 03, 2015 11:57 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Amitava Kumar
Sea of poppycock
Literary production may take place in the writer’s private space. But literary culture, a more social affair, flourishes in crowded places, writes Amitava Kumar.
Updated on Feb 16, 2012 10:01 PM IST
None | Amitava Kumar