Aatish Taseer, 'The Way Things Were'

In his third novel, Taseer, author of the memoir Stranger to History and two previous novels, Noon and The Temple-Goers, expands on some of the themes in his widely-read Sunday New York Times article, “How English Ruined Indian Literature.” The story opens with the death of a Sanskrit scholar and traces the legacy Toby left his son, who also studies the ancient language. Drawing his title from a loose translation of “itihasa,” the Sanskrit for “history,” the narrative follows four decades of Indian and Pakistani history, intertwining public events with their deep and lasting impact on one family. Taseer is in conversation with Sadanand Dhume, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a South Asia columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

[vanannavarasan]

Seems like the Anchor is not happy the Author putting down Modi. Also the Author does not know that Tamil South Indian language was already very well developed in India many ages ago. Also have the Author heard about Kamban who wrote Ramayanam in Tamil and his version of Ramayanam is totally has different taste of Ramayanam than Valmeegi"

[drjanthony]

Bharat Mata ki jai
Om Namo Narayana
Jai Mahalaksmi Mata
Jai Shree Ram
🌷🕉🌷

[akshaysingh]

27:08 this is gold. Aatish's account on Modi Ji. hahahah!

[finnyforever]

Tasveer assumes he speaks for all of India. Tamil and NorthEastern languages have little to do with Sanskrit. At the market outside my home in Bangalore I've seen Hindi-speakers from the North taunted and bullied for speaking Hindi. Tasveer needs to recognise what he does not know, but that's expecting too much from someone from the Lutyens bubble.

[akshaysingh]

Aatish's favorite word is "deracinated"!

[nupurdeshpande]

Lol...
Nobody sent armies
Ever heard of Kushana, Mauryas, Rashtrakutas, Chola empires? All were Indian and spread through military