The blog
An assortment of thoughts, opinions and stories
Books I’ve enjoyed, notes from my workshops, and stories about writing, dance and travel

Gupshup Goes to Prison
Why do some books sit on my shelves for months before I get around to reading them? I bought my copy of Gupshup Goes to Prison in August last year. In September, I met…

Writing Poetry
I’ve been conducting writing workshops for a long time, and if there’s one thing I love working with, it’s poetry. Nearly every writing programme I conduct begins with a poetry module. Why? Because it’s…

Who’s Afraid of a Giant Wheel?
Who’s Afraid of a Giant Wheel?
I remember reading and enjoying Simply Nanju some five years ago. Who’s Afraid of a Giant Wheel?, also by Zainab Sulaiman, is even better. It’s the kind of story that made me wonder what…

Nisha Small: The Knot of Gold
Nisha Small (née Kutty) is the best detective in Madurai. And it’s time for her to compete with mustachioed detectives to catch the thaali thief. A missing thaali! That’s the knot of gold. But…

Passepartout, Is That You?
I attended part of Menaka Raman’s session on Passepartout, Is That You? at Bookaroo Vadodara, and I was curious. I knew Passepartout was a tortoise, but that was all. What would the story be…

Talon the Falcon
We love the Feather Tales series at my book club! I didn’t choose to read Talon the Falcon earlier because it is much shorter than The Golden Eagle and The Paradise Flycatcher, but when children fall in love…

My Year in Workshops: 2022
The year 2022 was all about flexibility. Conducting online sessions from cafés and hotel rooms.Finishing an online session before boarding a bus to do an in-person session in another city. Adjusting schedules.Cancelling some editions…

My Favourite Late Middle-Grade and Young Adult Books from 2022
My Favourite Late Middle-Grade and Young Adult Books from 2022
I just looked back at the post where I listed my favourite young adult books from 2021. When I wrote that, I resolved to read more YA in 2022. And that didn’t happen. In…

My Favourite Middle-Grade Books from 2022
My Favourite Middle-Grade Books from 2022
I read and loved so many middle-grade books in 2022! While some of these are early middle-grade books (I’ve read four of them with my book club for ages nine and ten), others are…









