India has become my 'other place: Damon Galgut

Having had to deal with cancer, what has been your greatest learning during the time?
I don't know that having cancer offers any great lessons, except that we're all mortal. It was, though, the time in my life when I came to love books, as various relatives would visit me in hospital to read to me. At that age (6), I was especially receptive. I suspect my love for narrative developed then, though of course it's impossible to know. Lots of writers feel the same way about books without ever falling sick.

Your book The Good Doctor was written, much of it, in Goa. Tell us your impressions of Goa, India. How inspirational was it for you to focus on your writings there?
For various reasons, Goa was a good place for me to work in for a while. I completed first drafts of two novels there. Partly, it was because I was anonymous and nobody at home knew where to reach me. Partly, I suppose, it was the climate and landscape of Goa that were conducive to the right state of mind. That's passed, alas - I've stopped retreating there - but while it lasted it gave me a great deal.

India seems to feature a lot in your life. You wrote a book while in Goa; In a Strange Room also has a setting in India. What is it about India that shows up in your writing?
I don't know. I have travelled a lot, but India is the only country to which I've kept returning (this is my 13th visit I believe). I suppose it's become my "other place", for what that's worth. I have tried to explore those feelings to some degree through the person of E.M. Forster in my newest book.

You're known to be obsessed with yoga. Just how obsessed is obsessed?
A lot less obsessed these days unfortunately. I used to go to yoga classes five times a week, and sometimes twice a day. That's dwindled over the years, as my life has got busier, till now it's more like twice or three times a week. But that still counts as an obsession, I think. And it's certainly done wonders for my body and mind.

How does it feel to be in the line of intense anticipation, as was in the case when your book In a Strange Room was short listed for the Man Booker in 2010.
Horrible. Some people thrive on that sort of excitement, but it makes me quail.

You recently won the book of the year award for your book Arctic Summer at the Tata Literature Live literary festival. Tell us more about your latest book.
E.M. Forster took 11 years to write his last and best novel, A Passage To India. He was stuck for nine of those years. It struck me that it would be fascinating to tell the story of those years and of everything that went into the writing. Not least, it's a story that traces a painful friendship between Forster and his Indian friend Syed Ross Masood. But of course a lot more went into that time - two visits to India, the advent of the First World War, and the convolutions of Forster's tortured sexuality. Even now, it continues to fascinate me.

What do you hope to accomplish at Jaipur Literature Festival?
I'm not sure one accomplishes anything at festivals. But I've heard a lot about the Jaipur festival and I'm approaching it the way I try to approach anything in India, with my senses opened. I have a feeling it may not be like any other festival I've attended.