&ldquo;One choice that I don&rsquo;t agonise about is when I write, keeping myself out of it. The reporter writing about how she got her story has become de rigeur: a lot of self-mythologising bullshit.

Nilanjana S Roy: How to be a journalist

Business Standard

Among the many things forgotten about the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini on Valentine&rsquo;s Day 1989 is that it did not stop at naming Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses. The author was condemned to death &ldquo;along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents&rdquo;.

Nilanjana S Roy: The fatwa against reading

South Asian fiction in 2011 was alive and thriving, despite premature reports of its demise. To be fair, Chetan Bhagat and the authors of bestsellers such as The Saga of Love Via Telephone Tring Tring made it ridiculously easy for even the marginally talented to look like writers of staggering genius.

Nilanjana S Roy: The year in books - 2011 and 2012

At the Bhowanipore cemetery in Calcutta, visitors can walk down the neat rows of graves with their tidy crosses to see the plot where Charles Dickens&rsquo; son rests in peace.

Nilanjana S Roy: A Tale of Two Dickens

In all the claims made for Chetan Bhagat, tireless father of the Indian bestseller, this is one you will never hear: he disturbs the peace. In all the arguments made against Salman Rushdie&rsquo;s attendance at the Jaipur Literature Festival this week, the gist of them is just this: he disturbs the peace.

Nilanjana S Roy: Listening to Rushdie

There were two Jaipur Literature Festivals this year. The first was the festival that attracts readers by the thousands, to hear celebrities like Oprah, writers of the calibre of Tom Stoppard or Bama Faustina, to have their books signed by Chetan Bhagat, Kapil Sibal and other literary heavyweights. This festival was a grand success, drawing record crowds.

Nilanjana S Roy: Unhearing the words 

Five minutes before Barkha Dutt is supposed to speak to Salman Rushdie via videolink at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the air is thick with tension. News reports say that the festival directors have received death threats. In the lawns, a tight knot of protestors declare their intention to disrupt the proceedings if the Rushdie conversation goes ahead.

Nilanjana S Roy: The book that refuses to die

In the 1970s, the Cellar in Delhi&rsquo;s Connaught Place and Trinca&rsquo;s in Park Street had sizzlers and live music, and for those old enough to remember that age, you might remember a guitarist by the name of Sealy who was often seen at jam sessions.

Nilanjana S Roy