was born in North India. His first book, published in 1995, was Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India, a travelogue that described the social and cultural changes in India in the new context of globalization. His novel The Romantics (2000) was published in eleven European languages and won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum award for first fiction. His most recent books are An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World and Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Beyond. He also contributes literary and political essays for the New York Times, New York Review of Books, Guardian, Outlook Magazine and New Yorker among other American, British, and Indian publications.

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