Amitava kumar talks about his new forthcoming novel “ Home Products” in Business Standard .

Tell us something about Home Products.

Okay. This is the first time I’m doing a synopsis, so let me take a deep breath.

A Bihari journalist is asked to write a story about a small-time poetess who’s been killed by her politician lover. Instead, the journo narrates the story of his cousin who is in prison for running an Internet porn parlour but who is dreaming of making a film when he comes out. The actor who will star in that film is his old school-friend from Bettiah, a man who is now big in Bollywood

What are you working on now?

Twenty years ago I stepped into a plane for the first time and travelled to America to study. I have written a bit about the experience in Bombay-London-New York. But there is so much else to write about a more marginal experience, about being a Bihari in a place like New York or Los Angeles.

A superficial part of that is dreaming of snow, and white women, and cream puffs. But there is a more profound side to it. The part about working through newness, nostalgia, grief, age, model minority status, even those things that in bad Bollywood productions get called “Indian soul, American dream”.