ABOUT THIS BOOKA fierce and witty portrait of an unraveling nation.
Salt and Pepper is a collection of literary columns that defy convention—acerbic, tender, and unrelenting in their gaze. Written between the margins of news and national spectacle, these pieces are not topical commentary but something far more enduring: political satire that reads like poetry, reportage that mutates into parable, lament, and fable. In these dispatches from a fractured republic, written over the past decade, journalist Sankarshan Thakur captures the surreal absurdities and deep disquiet of an India caught between thunderous assertion and muffled dissent. Governments speak in acronyms, mobs chant in hashtags, silence acquires a sound—and memory becomes an act of resistance. These are chronicles of a society slipping into curated amnesia, of belonging turned conditional, and of patriotism twisted into performance.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHYSankarshan Thakur is one of India’s most original and incisive journalistic voices. Over a career spanning four decades, he has reported from war zones, political heartlands, and margins of all kinds. A long-time editor and columnist at The Telegraph, he is the author of Subaltern Saheb and The Brothers Bihari, among other books.