Dehradun, Oct. 4 -- The Books on My Shelves

Walking into a book shop for me, a kid who grew up in the '70s - '80s, is like walking into a mind space where you and the books exist like treasures to be picked up. I have always believed that books talk to you, nudge you, make you dream, or set you on a path of promise and possibility.

One such book that changed my path and got me into writing was Amitav Ghosh's "The Glass Palace". Gifted to me in Myanmar way back in 2000. We were living in Myanmar then - the country on which the book is based. It helped me map this historical novel intimately from ground zero and made me love Myanmar forever. The book spans a century from the Third Anglo Burmese war and the fall of the Konbaung dynasty in ...