A playlist for the wonderful Largehearted Boy
‘As I compose this piece on a long train journey, it occurs to me that the rhythmic, occasionally juddering, song of the rail below me is in spirit a musical companion to my novel.’
Articles
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The songs of Railsong
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I carry my train journeys in my bones
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‘Because it is the Indian Railways that makes India’
‘Because it is the Indian Railways that makes India.’ When I have a loquacious personnel officer declare this in my novel, Railsong, I am tapping into an idea as old as the railways in India …
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Unconventional heroines
A piece on a few (of many) favourites for the Wall Street Journal’s Five Best series
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The summer of sublime
For the Times, London, a column on a series for the ages:
‘This was a Test so fluctuating in fortune, so rich with the accumulated alluvium of the summer’s sessions and days, so alive with possibility, that even as Mohammad Siraj’s brilliance brought it to a fevered conclusion it hinted at a beginning.’
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Kohli at the Kotla
For ESPNcricinfo, an essay on what turned out to be Virat Kohli’s final first-class outing.
‘Virat Kohli is as Delhi as a fight. To tell a Delhiite that Kohli is not one of them is to say a reflection lies.’
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A girl called Courage
For Mint Lounge, a cover story on Vinesh Phogat, her journey from a street agitation against a powerful sexual predator, to within a whisker of an Olympic gold, and home to Balali.
‘This was a heartbreak so large, on a margin so paltry, it was beyond measurement on any sporting Richter. Its particular cruelty was that it happened to the most courageous sportsperson her country has ever produced, which was also its feeble consolation.’
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On Rahul Gandhi
For the Economist’s 1843 magazine, a long profile ahead of the 2024 general elections.
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Edgbaston is the sensation that never goes away
For The Cricket Monthly’s series on the greatest one-dayers ever played: a long essay on the haunting semi-final at the 1999 World Cup, plus a shorter one on the heartwarming epic in Karachi, 2004.
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Writing the World Cup
A heap of columns for the Hindustan Times, one every third day or so.
A few reports for Al Jazeera.
A curtain-raiser for the Guardian.
