People | The Fresh List 2010

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The Fresh List 2010
Interviews by Supriya Nair, Sohiny Das and Sohini Datta. Photographs by Farrokh Chothia, Ritam Banerjee, Amit Dey and Nilesh Acharekar. Styling by Nirali Mehta
Published: Volume 18, Issue 1, January, 2010

They’re the here. They’re the now. In our annual salute to New Age talent, Verve unveils the edgiest and brightest faces to watch out for this year

Aatish Taseer
writer, 29

Currently calling home: Delhi and London.

So far: Journalism; an English translation of Manto's stories; the publication of the critically acclaimed travelogue-memoir Stranger to History (Picador 2008).

On Stranger to History’s reception: I like for the book to make its own way, without following it too closely. But I meet many people who have read it…and read it well.

On your forthcoming novel, The Temple-Goers: A story about Delhi, about the fear and joy people feel at having their certainties about who and what they are overturned, among other things.

On having always wanted to write: But for a few instances of self-doubt, in which I was almost bullied into getting a ‘real job,’ like that of a lawyer or banker. Fortunately they didn’t want me.

One thing to look forward to in 2010: The autumn publication of my Manto translations in the UK and the US by Everyman – I believe it is the first time Manto is being published seriously in America.

When not writing: I read. Both in English, Urdu and very slowly – at a pace of ten lines a day – in Sanskrit.

Favourite writers: Alexandr Pushkin, Guy de Maupassant, V. S. Naipaul, Joseph Conrad.

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