Coffee with BS: In conversation with Manu S Pillai

History is a battlefield — not only for those fighting in these battles, but also for those chronicling it, that is, the historians. A few years back, I reviewed a book, The Ivory Throne, about the House of Travancore in Kerala and its extraordinary regent Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. The tome ran well into 700 pages and it took me a while to read it, but the intricate narrative blew my mind. The author, Manu S Pillai, went on to win the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar the next year. He followed it up with Rebel Sultans, a history of the Deccan Sultanate. As if two thick books in three years were not enough, he has published a third one this year, The Courtesan, The Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin.