I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

The book begins and ends with the visits to give the impression of a tunnel into their ancestors and family history. I believe in going backwards into the past - I felt I was digging a tunnel back to the past.

My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly.

Ever since I could first write I have been doing so. When I was taught how to write and read at school, I made up my mind that this was what I love to do best and this was the world I was going to occupy.

I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges.

What a sense of possession, of confidence, it gave one to have pockets, to shove one's fists into them, as if in simply owning pockets one owned riches, owned independence.

People think that because I write about India I must be trying to portray India in a way.