Suketu Mehta Selected Works

There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. But do we really understand it? In This Land Is Our Land, Suketu Mehta attacks the issue head-on. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the world, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. As he explains, the West is being destroyed not by immigrants but by the fear of immigrants. Mehta juxtaposes the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, nannies, and others, from Dubai to Queens, and explains why more people are on the move today than ever before. As civil strife and climate change reshape large parts of the planet, it is little surprise that borders have become so porous. But Mehta also stresses the destructive legacies of colonialism and global inequality on large swaths of the world: When today’s immigrants are asked, “Why are you here?” they can justly respond, “We are here because you were there.” And now that they are here, as Mehta demonstrates, immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention, and a literary polemic of the highest order.

Mahesh has the perfect NRI life, so perfect that he can’t recall a thing about his past, not even his mother’s name. But an accidental trip to New York’s Indian neighbourhood, Jackson Heights, awakens memories. Surreal, moving and funny, this is a delightful novella from one of our greatest writers. An ebook available exclusively on the Juggernaut app.

In 2003, Frank Gohlke (born 1942) and Joel Sternfeld (born 1944) were commissioned to photograph one of the densest concentrations of ethnic diversity in the world—the borough of Queens in New York City. After more than a year of photographing everything from corner bodegas to the borough's boundaries, Gohlke and Sternfeld had not only captured the complicated dynamic that sustains Queens and its myriad communities, they had also evolved a theory of landscape photography, in which landscape is a visible manifestation of the invisible emotions of its inhabitants.

Gohlke's Queens consists of streets, houses, fences, gardens, parklands, shorelines and waste spaces, the territory where human arrangement contends endlessly with the forces that undo it: unruly vegetation, weather, rot and decay. Sternfeld focuses on the borough's shops, restaurants, mosques and temples.

With an essay by acclaimed writer Suketu Mehta, this book becomes a powerful instrument for understanding a landscape that seems to defy interpretation.

Inspired by contemporary Indian authors, Betsy Karel went to Bombay seeking visual equivalents for the humanity, humor, mystery and psychological energy of their stories. Unlike many photographers drawn to the cacophony of urban India, she focuses, often in an intensely personal way, on individuals going about their everyday street lives. She waits patiently in the bustle of Bombay, as individuals transform public spaces into private places, forging islands of intimacy. She captures a poignant lyricism in the familiar, and the true jadoo (magic) of the city. Karel, born in New York City, now lives in Washington, DC. She worked as an award-winning photojournalist in the 1970's and early 80's. Here she collaborates with acclaimed writers Ardashir Vakil and Suketu Mehta, who have written companion pieces.