It's hard to explain an eight-month-long hiatus without starting with an apology for both the break and not informing any interested readers about it. But as it happens, it was a fruitful eight months spent studying for a postgraduate degree in Politics and International Relations: a fascinating experience which has helped me learn more in eight months than I had in the last couple of years. I've been so busy reading non-fiction: academic journals, articles and books that the number of novels I've read during this time has been embarrassingly low (which explains my reluctance to blog). But the fiction I did read was wonderful (I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is without a doubt one of my all-time favourite books now, I adored Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) and the non-fiction was inspirational and thought-provoking (Michael Billig's Banal Nationalism, Ashis Nandy's The Romance of the State, Srirupa Roy's Beyond Belief: India and the Politics of Postcolonial Nationalism, among others).
My areas of interest would have been very obvious to anybody who has read my blog: Indian history (especially the colonial Raj and Partition), politics and diplomacy. I've been focusing on these very topics during my studies and it has been a wonderful learning experience that has lead to a passion for understanding postcolonialism, nationalism, gender in politics and foreign policy and the annoying habit of trying to slip in the word 'subaltern' as much as I can (as you can see..).
I will be busy with my thesis/dissertation for the next couple of months and therefore, I cannot promise to be back to blogging as usual. But I do hope to share what I'm reading (and my thoughts about it) in the coming weeks/months, possibly in a new blog (Wordpress? Tumblr?).
Thank you to those who messaged me/left comments saying they missed my blog posts and asking me if I was alright. It was touching to know that people enjoyed reading my blog so much. I hope all my favourite readers and bloggers have been doing great. I certainly missed reading the classics and genres I so adore and blogging about it, but I'm very thankful for everything I have been learning during this break.
Edited this post to add that I have just updated my list of India-related book recommendations with the best books I have been reading recently. Do check it out (and feel free to leave any suggestions you have)!
My areas of interest would have been very obvious to anybody who has read my blog: Indian history (especially the colonial Raj and Partition), politics and diplomacy. I've been focusing on these very topics during my studies and it has been a wonderful learning experience that has lead to a passion for understanding postcolonialism, nationalism, gender in politics and foreign policy and the annoying habit of trying to slip in the word 'subaltern' as much as I can (as you can see..).
I will be busy with my thesis/dissertation for the next couple of months and therefore, I cannot promise to be back to blogging as usual. But I do hope to share what I'm reading (and my thoughts about it) in the coming weeks/months, possibly in a new blog (Wordpress? Tumblr?).
Thank you to those who messaged me/left comments saying they missed my blog posts and asking me if I was alright. It was touching to know that people enjoyed reading my blog so much. I hope all my favourite readers and bloggers have been doing great. I certainly missed reading the classics and genres I so adore and blogging about it, but I'm very thankful for everything I have been learning during this break.
Edited this post to add that I have just updated my list of India-related book recommendations with the best books I have been reading recently. Do check it out (and feel free to leave any suggestions you have)!
