Sartaj Singh, Report For Duty Please

Now that Suketu Mehta's book on Mumbai has been shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, one's thoughts turned to that other chronicler of the city: Vikram Chandra.

It's been over eight years since Love And Longing In Bombay was published and since then -- apart from sharing scriptwriting credits for Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Mission Kashmir -- he hasn't come up with anything substantial. This, despite rumours that his novel featuring Inspector Sartaj Singh was close to completion -- selections have already been published, as Eternal Don (in The New Yorker, June 23-30, 1997) and Siege in Kailashpada (in The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature, edited by Amit Chaudhuri).

We trust your creative writing duties at George Washington University aren't taking up too much of your time, Mr Chandra.