I think I really started writing the book when I was at Oxford. Then I kept it aside and almost forgot about it until I was approached by Pankaj Mishra of HarperCollins. He saw some of my earlier chapters and encouraged me to continue writing. So, I took a year out from work and concentrated on my writing. It took me about 2 years to finish The Gin Drinkers and I’m quite overwhelmed by the response my book has received.

My time at Oxford has made me conscious of certain kinds of subtle discrimination that, perhaps, I wouldn’t otherwise have been aware of. Being a brown person in a predominantly white milieu, I was constantly mindful of being the ‘outsider.’ It was an alienation that was of my own making, because I sometimes chose to interpret a smile or a look aimed at me by a white person as being either patronising or disapproving because of the colour of my skin. It took me a while to realise that that was ‘baggage’ I was carrying in my own mind, perhaps a colonial hangover. That is exactly how the Dalit Jai Prakash’s mind functions. With the wrong accent (he says ‘Ox-phord,’ instead of Oxford) and the wrong social background (he’s a Dalit and a graduate of Gorakhpur University), he is constantly aware in his own mind of being a social misfit, who doesn’t belong in Dhruv and Madhavi’s social circle. It is this feeling of social inferiority that leads him to plan the book thefts.

Every writer draws from his or her own experiences and I am no exception. My experiences at Oxford and since have obviously contributed to the way the novel has been shaped. The journalist, Dhruv, is drawn from real life. I do actually know someone who went through the amazing transformation from pot-smoking Marxist to kurta-clad Hindu, who discovers his Indian-ness in Oxford. Sam is also based on someone I used to know. I can, personally, relate to Madhavi. In fact, when I was writing the book, I intended Uma and Madhavi to be two facets of the same woman. Jai Prakash actually comments on that in the novel. Uma, when she grows older, is most likely to be like Madhavi.

The issue of class and caste is obviously significant in the Indian context. In my book, I have endeavoured to explore the distribution of privileges within our society and the tremulous world of the elite, which feels uncomfortable with the success of the Dalit Jai Prakash. As a journalist, I have had the opportunity to associate with a group of Dalit intellectuals and it is my experiences with them that have, to a certain extent, shaped the character of Jai Prakash. I have attempted to highlight the subtle discriminations that still exist within our society.

Being a journalist myself, I constantly meet different kinds of people. I enjoy associating with people because human nature fascinates me. My job as a journalist has also taken me to different parts of the country and some of the people I have come across during my travels have made appearances in this book.

Salman Rushdie has been a remarkable influence on me, because I can identify with the political slant in his novels. I thought Midnight’s Children was a wonderful book, and so was Shame. Rushdie’s books are populated with numerous characters and that appeals to me, too. I also enjoy reading Toni Morrison, A.S. Byatt, Anthony Burgess, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghose, Muriel Spark and others and they have all influenced me in some way or the other.

The principal characters in your book are women – Uma and Madhavi, for instance. So, would you call yourself a ‘feminist’ writer?

No, I don’t think feminism and raising my voice against women’s oppression was on my agenda when I was writing this book. As is evident from the women characters in my book - Uma, Madhavi, Zahra, Pamela – all educated, liberated women, I have assumed that to be a given for the educated elite. So, I would prefer to be referred to as a writer who happens to be a woman, rather than a feminist writer per se.

I’m a Bengali at heart because my parents hail from Bengal and I’ve spent quite a few years in North Bengal during my childhood. I was in Calcutta between 1972 and 77, when I studied at Loreto House, and that stay in Calcutta has obviously had some influence on me as a writer. Many of my relatives are still in Calcutta, so I shall continue to have a warm relationship with this city.