1.  How and when did you start writing? How did your journey as an author begin?

 I started writing as soon as I could read and write, when I was three or so. I wrote stories all through childhood and then, a bit more secretively, after leaving university, but I didn’t start a novel till later when I was doing a MA in creative writing. After that I went to work at ELLE in Bombay and finished the novel, Saraswati Park, which was published in 2010.

2. Tell us about " The living"

In The Living, there are two first-person narrators. Both make shoes. Claire is in her thirties and has a sixteen-year-old son. She’s a single parent and works in a shoe factory in Norwich, in the East of England. Arun is a chappal maker in Kolhapur. He lives with his wife and has two grown up sons and three grandchildren. In the novel both these narrators live, and reflect on the lives they’ve lived: work, sex, love, being a parent, failing and being unexpectedly forgiven. They find or find again the joy in existences that can sometimes be tightly circumscribed by necessity.

3.What is feminism for you?

Feminism is believing in the fair and equal treatment of all people, irrespective of gender.

4.What do you think is the role of Literature Festival?

I enjoy the literary festivals I attend for the opportunity to spend time with other writers, and discover new writing, as well as meeting readers.