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It’s about what happens when people fail to do that and the ways in which they hurt each other. I am so glad he did not take my rubbish advice. I even wrote a paper about the representation of Mumbai in popular media over the years for a course in college. Is it also a reference to the journey the characters undergo?The phrase appears just once in the novel, in a passage that refers to the peace after the blasts. I have family members who have been on both sides: tenants and landlords. Did this come from personal exposure to such situations as your insight into the subject is pretty deep.You have mentioned that despite your background in aeronautical engineering, you always wanted to be a writer. But writing about the subject required a fair amount of research. But she was right (she always is!), this is a Bombay novel: this story, these characters could not have been located anywhere else, or in another decade. The novel is about the three protagonists figuring out who they are, it’s about middle class society defining and asserting itself in the 90s. It was interesting to distill some of my own anxieties and dissatisfactions through a male character, to build in some male entitlement. There is a second novel I am thinking about, something very different from the first, but it will be a while before I start writing it. I think publishers saw the potential in it and were willing to place a bet that they could help me fix the parts that were not working. And it might seem hard to imagine now, but there was no redevelopment subplot in that version.
Most Indian writers have no formal training in writing and many have non-literary professions. The story might be a uniquely Mumbai story, but the novel is really about finding your place in a changing world. Much like Kaiz in my novel, I have been fascinated by Mumbai’s history, its role and form in our consciousness. Too much of the tension was buried in the past. Arundhati Roy studied architecture, Vikram Seth economics, and Amitabha Bagchi is a professor of computer science to this day. Going into management consulting was a bit of a mistake though, it didn’t suit my temperament at all. Why do you think that happened? What kind of initial feedback were you given?The book was turned down by 13 agents. Also, I wanted to break away from the trend of China Compressor bearing for sale Indian novels in English bearing lyrical, poetic names. The title came much after the line.Not directly, but it’s hard to escape the subject of redevelopment if you have grown up in the city or have family here.You have lived in different cities and moved homes several times, but you seem to have a strong affinity towards Mumbai, is that why you choose to base your book here or was it an organic process based on how your story evolved?Growing up, I lived in four different cities — and one town, Godhra — but most of my extended family was in Mumbai. So what compelled you to study at IIT and then Stanford and get into management after that?I don’t see those as contradictory choices. That said, stories can be specific and universal at the same time. Every rejection letter said that the writing was very good, but there were many complaints — the most common ones being that there was too little plot and no international hook. Not only did he come out to the family, but he also came out quite publicly on a popular Facebook page. I work at a non-profit research lab that works on Artificial Intelligence solutions for social good. It is the city I know best.
I spent every summer vacation and winter break there. To some extent, I slid towards engineering and IIT. My novel is sharp, contemporary, and playful, so Milk Teeth was perfect. The title conveys a sense of becoming.This book was apparently turned down by several publishers before it finally got picked up. One devastating rejection letter stopped short of saying I should abandon the book. About four or five years ago, I decided to put these characters in Mumbai and the story evolved from there. It was (my publisher) Karthika who first called it a ‘Bombay novel’ and I pushed back because I thought that was too narrow. When the book was done, I remember thinking, wait, this is such a small, simple story, why did it take me almost four years to write it? The truth is that a lot of that time was spent doing research and letting the facts stew in my head till they began to feel like lived experience. My own family moved every couple of years, so Bombay (and later Mumbai) became a fixed point of sorts in my itinerant childhood.An aeronautical engineer, who harboured the dream to write a book and persisted despite rejections from publishers, Amrita Mahale’s debut novel is a fascinating read into the world of middle class Mumbai, its people and their lives. My brother came out to me before Section 377 was scrapped, and for years I dissuaded him from telling our parents that he was gay. It’s a different matter that I wasted my time at Stanford and wrote nothing. But I chose Stanford very consciously, hoping to follow Vikram Seth’s footsteps and write my first book while there.
