Stranger in My Own Land

by Farid Khan, Jerry Pinto (Translator)

“It is my experience that when a mobile phone rings on a train, no one uses the greeting ‘Salaam’. Even if the caller uses the word, one cannot reply in kind. Not in a railway compartment. One makes do with a ‘Hello’. The conversation is kept short, monosyllables or even sounds: Hmmm or Haanh. ‘In the train now’, ‘Just leaving the station’ are the only full sentences one hears. For the rest, half-sentences do the work. It is as if both parties are discussing the spot marked X on an ancient treasure map.”

This book is about silences and monosyllables. It is about experiencing a reality that some strenuously deny, but for others is as real as the pinch of a new shoe.

160 pages, Paperback

Published September 4, 2025

Reviews

[Rashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the most moving extracts I have found in ages.