"It Was Just A Natural, Very Exciting Decision"

Pulitzer winner Jhumpa Lahiri in conversation with Sheela Reddy some days before her wedding

Why did you

decide to get married in Calcutta? Has it anything to do with your anxiety to preserve the world and traditions of your parents?

You once said you felt you were American, Indian, Indian-American, nri and abcd (American Born Confused Desi). But is there any one category that you identify more with than any other?

So if you are not any of those things, where do you feel you belong?

Is that an asset for you as a writer, this ambiguity, or is it your biggest disadvantage?

Do you think the fact that India is the flavour of the moment has anything to do with your choice of subject or your winning the Pulitzer prize?

But would it have been possible for you to write the way you do if writers like Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth had not made it fashionable?

The Pulitzer came as a great surprise to you, didn't it?

What did you feel?

Do you feel in any way burdened by what you call "the enormous weight of it"? Especially while writing your next book, a novel?

But criticism, especially from India, that your work was stereotypical, tries to woo western audience with Indian exotica, etc, seems to have affected you more deeply...

Has it really scared you from writing about India?

Some western critics have found your writing imbued with middle-class angst and your characters too self-absorbed.

So is your novel about India too?

Is it more difficult to write than short stories?

And now your marriage as well? Or were you planning to get married before you got the Pulitzer?

You went to a lot of creative writing workshops, and some critics say your writing is a little self-conscious for that reason. How useful was your workshop experience?

You began writing when you were seven...

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Do you intend to come to India more often—to get to know it better?