An index of his writings · 6 pieces

The writings

He wrote in pencil, in margins, in the back of envelopes. These are the pieces we have transcribed so far. More will appear here as we find them — in notebooks, in cigar tins, in the cracks between his books.

20231 piece

Morning Tea, and Other Reasons to Wake

October 14, 2023·4 min

There is, I think, no honest argument against the morning. The light is candid. The kettle is candid. Even the dog, who lies all day on his political opinions, is candid before nine.

20221 piece

Letters from My Mother

March 2, 2022·6 min

My mother wrote letters the way other people pray — daily, repetitively, without expecting much in return. I have a tin of them under the bed. I have not opened it in years. This is not, I think, neglect.

20211 piece

On the 6:42 to Pune

July 19, 2021·5 min

The Indian Railway is the only national institution that still believes in the soul. It is not efficient, and this is the proof.

20201 piece

What My Father Taught Me About Silence

January 8, 2020·7 min

My father did not teach me to be silent. He taught me what silence was for. There is a difference, and it took me forty years to find it.

20191 piece

The Mango Tree, and the Year We Did Not Climb It

May 22, 2019·4 min

Every house in this country has a mango tree, or has had one, or is in mourning for one. Ours was in the back, near the broken wall, and it bore exactly forty-seven fruit a season for as long as we kept counting.

20181 piece

Test: Long Marriage Is Mostly Furniture

November 11, 2018·3 min

After fifty years, you stop arguing about the curtains. Not because you have agreed about the curtains. You have simply moved, together, to a place where the curtains no longer matter.