The Journalist Who Dared To Dream

Anjali Joseph wanted to redefine nationhood and the boundaries that divide the world. In the writing circuit, she's known as the futuristic writer with fire in her belly. She dismissed the tags of nationhood in her debut novel to understand modern identity in her book Saraswati Park, she's trying to search for a new identity.


As a woman writer, Anjali addresses new issues that confront modern woman of today. Her heart's lost to her favourite city Bombay. "In my book I have a dialogue with my city, the landscape and the people therein."  She's among The Telegraph's (UK) list of best 20 writers under 40. She studied English at Trinity College, Cambridge University, "I'm glad my book is a global success and I hope people felt close to the characters and their lives, daydreams and surprises."
Anjali writes in The Independent, "Ideas of nationhood or identity are a starting point for encounters - with otherness, with the unexpectedly familiar - or a door to discovering new writers." Anjali taught at Sorbonne in Paris, "It was a high, I was young and living in Paris. It was a exposure I simply loved. I'm fascinated with heritage and culture."  Anjali points out three recent books by new writers that reflect new thoughts through their writing. "The three books that come to mind are Ghalib At Dusk by Nighat Gandhi, Palash Krishna Mehrotra's Eunuch Park and Parvati Sharma's The Dead Camel, all short story collections."  Her writing icons are: Somerset Maugham and Hemingway.

Sameer Rahim in The Telegraph reviews her book crisply, "Joseph's writing is well crafted and the images, when they succeed, feel spot-on: for example, a teacher arrives for class in a "predictable mauve cloud of bad sari, bad hair, bad glasses and bad mood". But there is also a tendency for airiness. 

What literary theme did she pursue while writing? "I wanted to write about daydreaming. The big challenge was to find shape for my story." This relentless writer, loves to write everyday. "I allow the characters to fill my mind. I almost live with them. Even during the process of writing, I was fascinated by all my characters."
What literary theme did she pursue while writing? "I wanted to write about daydreaming. The big challenge was to find shape for my story." This relentless writer, loves to write everyday. "I allow the characters to fill my mind. I almost live with them. Even during the process of writing, I was fascinated by all my characters."

What literary theme did she pursue while writing? "I wanted to write about daydreaming. The big challenge was to find shape for my story." This relentless writer, loves to write everyday. "I allow the characters to fill my mind. I almost live with them. Even during the process of writing, I was fascinated by all my characters."

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