Author Interview with Enakshi Sengupta
The Silk Route Spy 1. Reading The Silk Route Spy, one senses it’s more than a historical retelling — it feels like a conversation between generations. What moment or emotion first convinced you that this family story deserved to be shared with the world? Ans: It was a lazy, nothing much to do afternoon. I was leafing through our family album and suddenly I felt that Nandlal Kapur was staring back at me, with my one-year-old chubby father-in-law on his lap, a photograph taken in 1932 in Japan. My sister had been asking me to write something and not waste my time twiddling my thumbs. It suddenly dawned on me, why not the story of Nandlal Kapur’s life? The journey had been so exciting. Some I knew, and some I had to rely on research and put the pieces together. 2. The title The Silk Route Spy beautifully fuses trade, travel, and espionage. At what stage of writing did the title come to you — was it early inspiration or a later realization? Ans: Actually, I had given the t...