Opening pages of novel-in-progress, Sangam
A tale of a ghazal that connects three men across generations, whose lives begin to echo one another to feed a complete tale of how music drives our minds and our hearts. In medieval India, the poet Khusro arrives at the ruins of a ransacked temple where, stricken by thoughts of his fantasy lover, he begins penning new ghazal lyrics. In 1948, young lawyer Jayant hears these lyrics from a courtesan who captures his soul. But he is stuck with a job and family that puts him at a moral crossroads against his newly independent nation. In present day America, aspiring disc jockeys Amar and Erfan find a recording of the ghazal. Amar juggles his hopes for success and stardom, complicated by his rivalry with Erfan, and his affections for his sister, Dalia. In telling the story of an adapted and remixed song, the novel seeks to mimic the structure through echoed tropes and story beats across time. Genres/Keywords: Bildungsroman, historical, triptych, music Comp titles: The Hours (Michael Cunningham), Compass (Mathias Enard), Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino), Londonstani (Gautam Malkani) Current Draft : 5
SangamOpeningPages.pdf Short story solicited for Barrelhouse Magazine's Desi Special Issue, June 2019
https://www.barrelhousemag.com/onlinelit/aditya-desai-raid-on-madras
See also conversation with Feroz Rather:
https://www.barrelhousemag.com/onlinelit/feroz-and-aditya
RaidonMadrasPubDraft.pdf Baltimore City - Station North A&E District
Genres/Keywords: multigenerational family, social novel, immigrant, working-class Comp Titles: Americanah (Chimamanda Adichie), The Dew Breaker (Edwidge Danticat) Current Draft: I am currently in drafting stages of this novel.
Novel Excerpt for BOMBAY, OREGON
Desai_Manuscript.pdf Critical essay reviewing the Netflix series Never Have I Ever as a basis for considering questions of media representation, nostalgia, craft's impact on content, and what it means to "be seen." Published Tropics of Meta May 2020.
https://tropicsofmeta.com/2020/05/27/the-quixotic-search-for-south-asian...
Excerpt published in B O D Y Magazine.
Terminus follows two characters: Ashok, an Indian immigrant grieving from the loss of his son, and Abdi, an African-American trying to reintegrate to society after release from prison for a wrongful conviction. Their lives are intertwined by the construction of a new metro line in Baltimore – for Ashok and his wife, this is a new lease on their snatched American dream; for Abdi, a growing sense of local activism to protect his community. The novel crosses the suburbs and inner-city neighborhoods, highlighting fractures of race, gentrification and daily human struggle.
The ideas for this novel began before the Freddie Gray Uprisings in 2015, and in the aftermath as it’s issues have become more prominent. I am keenly interested in getting feedback at how it addresses issues of race to make sure I am writing ethically and responsibly. Genres/Keywords: social novel, criminal justice, gentrification Comp titles: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line (Deepa Annapara), Lucky Boy (Shanti Sekaran), The Leavers (Lisa Ko) Current draft: 4A creative essay written in response to the February 2017 shootings in Olathe, KS where a white xenophobe targeted two Indian men he believed to be Iranians, killing one. Published originally in The Rumpus, September 2017:
Essay surveying Indian literature and popular narratives, everything from the Mahabharata to Bollywood and literary points in between, considering what agency they give women (both as the creators and characters of works) and how that has engendered severe misogyny in the culture at large. Published by The Millions, April 2017:
https://themillions.com/2017/04/woman-power-woman-unchecked-narratives-i...
Told in the second-person POV, a man reflects on his unfinished backyard pool at a time when he is becoming increasingly disconnected from his family.
Forthcoming in District Lit, 2017.
This excerpt from my novel-in-progress follows an Indian-American man still grieving the loss of his son, as a new work promotion puts new lease on his hope for the American Dream.
Published in The New Engagement, January 2017 Issue.
http://thenewengagement.com/literature/a-bend-in-the-track
This excerpt from my novel-in-progress follows a young African-American man attempting to re-enter society after being released from prison.
Published in the Asian American Writers Workshop's The Margins, featured Fiction Friday Author, 2/5/2016.
http://aaww.org/foraging/
Set in the Indian-American enclave of Edison, NJ, this story profiles a family caught in a moment of fracture. This was my first story published.
Published in The Kartika Review, Summer Issue 13, 2012.
https://issuu.com/kartikareview/docs/kartika_issue13
This artist has not yet created a curated collection.