Excellent essay. I’m missing mangoes and the monsoon this year. Normally I’m there for it.

Personally speaking, I gag on subcontinental origin writers because they play into the western notion of exotica. The scope of writing is to wow the hungry west which pays lip service to inclusivity. Too harsh? Maybe so.

If I were to choose, I’d read Muhammad Haneef who actually lives in a small village in Pakistani Punjab and is trilingual- Punjabi, English and Urdu/Hindi. Pure gold.

Anundhati Roy’s children of a lesser god works for me. Mohsin Hamid tries too hard to be white yet exotic. Exit west and reluctant fundamentalist are both opportunistic and contrived. jhumpa lahiri I find mediocre. Just being honest. SALMAN Rushdie is clever to the point of exhausting but entertaining.

Naipaul of course is a genius with words!

None of the above evoke nostalgia in me. But then I don’t reach the point of nostalgia — I spend half the year here and the rest there!