Of course, I am biased, says novelist Hamid

He talks about The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the need to put things in  perspective

“Of course I am biased; this is my view… it is a common phenomenon in media across the globe. The Americans will see only America’s point of view in the news, the Indians will see theirs, and so will the Pakistanis. No one sees the other side, and that’s what this monologue also portrays,” says Mohsin Hamid during the reading session of his internationally acclaimed book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, at a Kemps Corner bookstore on Thursday.

Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid’s book — his second — has reached the No 1 spot on US book store Barnes & Noble’s bestseller list. It is flying off the shelves in the US and Britain and is also a big hit in Pakistan. In an interview with DNA, Hamid, who hails from Lahore but lives in London, says “that putting things in perspective and not generalising communities is the need of the day”.

The novelist adds that he gets offended by the ‘anti-American’ tag he is associated with. “I have a lot of affection for Americans, but at the same time it is important to be critical. I wanted to write about America as an insider and also as an outsider,” he says.

In the novel, the protagonist tells his life story to an American stranger over dinner at a Pakistani cafe. It highlights the problems of nostalgia, terrorism, and media bias and tells the story of Changez, a young man who moves from Lahore to the US to study at Princeton.

“It has become uncomfortable for foreigner staying in the US. Although I have spent hours at US airports justifying why I have a beard, things are improving now. But racism is prevalent everywhere, a foreigner in India also faces it. We need to tackle it by not generalising nations and communities,” the articulate author says.

Hamid’s first novel, Moth Smoke, was also a best seller and among the various accolades won it was also the New York Times Notable Book of the Year.