I didn’t expect to find this book at all. I was visiting Higginbothams in Chennai, my yearly pilgrimage. Year on year, I’ve seen this legendary bookshop lose its allure, and fall into the shadows – with dusty shelves, no curation, no new books. Their mainstay still being academic books – their general categories reduced to dust covered Indian editions.

As I perused the shelves, I found a thin book with Amitav Ghosh’s name. I first thought it might be a novella – and I like small books – books that give me a sample of the literary prowess without demanding the next week of my life. I picked it up and I was more intrigued to find that it was non-fiction – a journalistic essay on the nuclear powers of India and Pakistan. I was intrigued.

It didn’t take long to read, but still the arguments were well placed, the research and first hand gathering of information was wonderful and it wasn’t an opinion piece – it was really a good analysis of why India and Pakistan are hell bent on acquiring nuclear weapons and the probability of an impending war.

The facts are scary, and heart-breaking. The reality is frustrating. Any Indian who grew up in the 20^th century India knows that politics has stopped functioning for its people and I could hear the echoes of why our politicians are failing us. When this travesty grants control of the button to start nuclear war to these self-serving political class, we are truly facing a similar crisis to that of America and the UK where demagogues and identity politics are rife.

Imagine a world where North Korea is poised to press the button as it now has an agnostic, inward looking US government along with China being angry with the US’s handling of foreign policy under the current administration; India and Pakistan now left to their own devices to deal with their squabbles while the US itself is not far from the pressing the dreaded button as a show of hollow might, with UK not far behind. We have a truly global nuclear conflict in sight and for the first time the planets have aligned for the wrong kind of outcome.

In this context, reading Countdown was like a wake-up call. Even though it was written years ago, when BJP government was in power, with Modi now in power under the same BJP government, with Hindu ideologies that are performing surgical strikes into Pakistan and gloating over it, we are truly back into countdown mode. The nationalistic wave that has swept the nation in 2015-16 has whipped up a frenzy of anti-Muslim rhetoric and the said button is not too far away.

If anything, I think this book should be reissued again in today’s context with perhaps some updates on how this threat is more real in a world where Narendra Modi boasts of his friendship with Donald Trump and how their anti-Islamic rhetoric is not in step with the liberal citizens of their country.

I have the utmost privilege of having this book signed by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni and also meeting her at JLF 2017.  I had to sit on my hands until I reached JLF to buy this book so I could get it signed by Chitra.

I’ve been reading so many children’s books and especially those that are full of adventure and humour. But I’ve been steadily carving some time out to read books by diverse authors – especially Indian authors.

I read “Before We Visit the Goddess” over a single day. I started it at breakfast and kept reading while waiters deftly moved around me at the restaurant. I read in the hotel room postponing my shopping in Jaipur and I finished it in record time before we left for the Writers’ Ball.

The story moves between Calcutta and US between generations of mothers and daughters. From Durga to Sabitri to Bela to Tara, the story shows us how their lives are intertwined across continents. It shows how every decision taken by an earlier generation impacts the futures and fortunes of the next.

As a writer, I was amazed at the switch between tense and viewpoint, the effortless transition from past and current and the command of language. As a reader, I was inspired by Sabitri’s courage and her honesty, on her motives and her fallacies. I was frustrated with Bela and her choices until she breaks free and I was afraid and hopeful for Tara. I enjoyed some of the cameo roles in the story including the south Indian scientist who gives Tara a perspective she had not seen before.

It is a story for all mothers and daughters, regardless of where they were born and where they are right now – across cultural and national boundaries. This is a subtle story of vanquishing demons – those demons that women nurture in their hearts that keeps them bound and guilt-ridden. This is a story that illuminates Tagore’s saying about love.

Love's gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted.