Tag Archives: writing fiction

Mistaken Longings: When I Write of Calcutta, I Don’t Write of “Home”

Victoria Memorial, Calcutta, India. Dec 25 2011.   “I have a question,” a middle aged man says, his bald pate shiny against the afternoon light filtering into the Lakeside Terrace room at Harbourfront Center. We are at “Safar: Journeys to South Asia” panel of Toronto International Festival of Authors. He addresses the authors, “Do you […]

What Stupefaction can do for Fiction: On Photography and Writing

Jatra, Poush Mela, Shantiniketan, India. Dec 23 2013. This photo forms the basis of the opening scene of a short story I am currently working on. The story is also set in Shantiniketan.   It is dusk. Kishmish lies on a patch of grass and stares upwards, attracted to the dragonfly whizzing around his head, […]