In his new book Return to Self, British-American author Aatish Taseer turns his gaze outward, exploring histories and cultures across the world. 

Speaking to Abhinandan Sekhri, Taseer explains that writing about his travels to places like Mexico, Sri Lanka, Morocco, or Iraq was a way of refracting India through other societies that “have experienced similar kinds of shakeups, similar kinds of historical controversy”.

Though exiled from India after his Overseas Citizen of India card was revoked, Taseer tells Abhinandan that the country lingers like a ghost ”in the background of this book”.  

Talking about the experience of not being able to attend the last rites of his grandmother due to his exile, Taseer says, “My mother said to me, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal. You’re not missing anything. It’s just cousins gathering, drinking whiskey, remembering Nani.’ And I was thinking, it’s such a small thing if you have it, and it’s such a big thing if you’re dispossessed of it because it creates a kind of absurdity in your life…I grew up in her house, and suddenly, for her to pass without a single right of closure for me, creates a world in which you feel like nothing matters.” 

The book, structured as a collection of travel essays, was part of a collaboration with Hanya Yanagihara, editor of The New York Times Style Magazine, Taseer says. She would propose themes, and Taseer would pursue them through his own sensibility.