We recently interviewed Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed who write together as Kalpish Ratna and have written Gastronama: The Indian Guide to Eating Right.
As practicing surgeons, they believe the end of the antibiotic era and the emergence of new diseases calls for an urgent shift of medical attention from hospital to home.
Over the past two decades, they have studied the parallels between environmental assault and epidemics, and have written extensively about their observations and ideas. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced their thought that one could no longer be passive about ‘lifestyle diseases.’ Viruses and bacteria are as much part of life on Earth as humans but much more resilient. Humans must learn to co-exist with them without becoming victims of disease. And that journey begins at home.
Ushnav Shroff, Copyeditor at Roli Books, exclusively interviewed them for you to know more about your author.
1. What is the last book you read?
Armadillo by William Boyd.
2. A guilty pleasure?
Perfume.
3. Where do you write? Do you have a favourite spot?
Anywhere, everywhere.
4. What is a book that has stayed with you?
Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
5. Your mornings are incomplete without…
A walk and coffee.
6. What apart from what you do today do you wish you could do or pursue as a career?
An alternate life? As a chef or a linguist.
7. Your greatest fear?
Reptiles.
8. A trait you admire in yourself?
Persistence.
9. Who would be the guests at your perfect dinner party?
My grandmother, who was the best storyteller I have ever known, Shakespeare, Ibn Batuta, Shushruta and Valmiki.
10. A book you’d recommend to someone to get them out of a reading slump?
Gastronama.
