For many years you were a high-profile doctor in Mumbai,
writing scientific papers and a standard textbook. What were the experiences or
reading that nudged you towards becoming a writer of fiction?
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We had just started running a homestay in the Nilgiris (Raven’s Nest) and one of our early guests was an editor in Oriental Blackswan (textbook section). One day while listening to the various adventures we had faced in building Raven’s Nest, such as transporting wood from a ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, she was fascinated and suggested we write a book on our practical experiences as books on challenges faced in building a house in India are difficult to find.
Of course this suggestion was directed towards my wife who is a journalist. However this book was a non-starter. I tried reminding her about embarking on this book several times, but ultimately was told to stop being such a NAG!
So I decided to write the book myself in spite of not having attended any creative writing classes.
At about the same time, our apartment in Mumbai was facing some legal problems and possible demolition.
So I hit upon the idea of combining these two events – building a home far away, while current home faces demolition. Thus my first novel ‘A TALE OF TWO HOMES ‘ was conceived. I just continued with the ‘A TALE OF TWO … genre in my next two books.
How much of your protagonist – a South Indian urologist
like you – flowed naturally from familiarity, and where did you have to
consciously pull away from your own life?
In this book ‘A TALE OF TWO FRIENDS’ just a few incidents
faced by me in school and college are woven into the story. However in my
previous book ‘A TALE OF TWO MEDICS’ there is a fair amount of medical facts
and personal incidents transformed into fiction as that book deals with ethical
and unethical medicine.
The book engages closely with racism, immigration
anxieties, and political polarisation in the U.S. Were these themes triggered
by particular incidents you witnessed, or by conversations that stayed with
you?
In May 2025 while visiting my elder daughter in Berlin, I
had a lot of free time. I used to regularly call up my younger daughter in
Vancouver and keep asking her what’s the latest goings on in her life as she
was regularly auditioning for film roles. Finally she got fed up and said, “Dad
why don’t you get a life!”
So then I turned my attention to the US news which had a new
twist to it on a daily basis (eg tarriffs, Canada 51st state, illegal
immigration detentions etc).
Thus a new idea sprung up and I started writing about two
friends, where friendship made at a young age in India, lasted even when they
moved to USA and had ideological differences at a later stage in life. I did
not know where the story was heading, but kept writing a short chapter every
day, weaving in what new news item was the flavour of the day in USA.
So by the time I got back to India in mid June, I had
finished the book and it had taken me about six weeks to complete. Then it was
a matter of checking it a couple of times before it got printed in
mid-September 2025.
You divide your time between Mumbai and the Nilgiris –
two very different worlds. Has moving between these spaces altered the way you
think about power, privilege, and belonging as a writer?
Not really. Before Covid, I used to work in Mumbai and
operate for the first 3 weeks in the month and then go and relax in the hills
for the last week. But after Covid the schedule got altered and now I spend 3-4
weeks in the hills and only one week a month in Mumbai to see my old patients
and any new consults. No major surgery now and I don’t miss it.
While in the hills, I just relax, take long walks, breathe
fresh air, develop new friendships and realise how fortunate I am to have this
opportunity to enjoy this lifestyle.
Having written medical textbooks, research papers, and
now three novels, what does fiction allow you to explore that medicine never
quite did?
Unfortunately my fiction writing style is still like that of
a surgeon. Cut and dry or black and white with not many grey areas!
That’s why my chapters are not too long (short attention
span) and once I have decided and completed a chapter, I don’t go back and do
drastic chopping and alterations. Like I tell most of my friends, once you open
up a person, you have to know precisely what you are doing and there is no time
to fiddle around. So I suppose I have followed these same principles in my
fiction writing for better or for worse!
What are you working on now – and does your next book
take you into familiar territory, or somewhere entirely new?
No plans at the moment. Have to get word out to the public
on this book. Also need to target the Indian diaspora in the USA as this book
may resonate with them.
When people ask what is your next book ? I have a standard
answer ‘A TALE OF TWO WIVES.’ But since I have not found a 2nd wife nor have I
left my 1st wife , that book is a non-starter!
Appeared in Hindustan Times on 25 January 2026
https://www.hindustantimes.
