The Blog

Sanjana's notes on cities, people, and the art of finding things. No spoilers. She promises.

Cities

For the Love of Mumbai!

Leopold Café, Marine Drive at dawn, Dharavi's impossible spirit — why Mumbai isn't just a setting for The Inherited Sin. It's a character. The most complicated one.

Cities

Kolkata: The City That Refuses to Let Go

The architecture of ghosts, tea as philosophy, and why Kolkata is the city where Andrew learns that patience is a different kind of intelligence.

Cities

Assam's Hidden World: Tea, Jungle, and the Stories Between

India's forgotten frontier — the tea estates, the Brahmaputra, the Bangladesh border, and the insurgency that shaped Andrew's investigation.

People

The Last Anglo-Indians: Identity at the Crossroads

Andrew Anderson is Anglo-Indian — between two worlds, belonging fully to neither. Why that identity is his greatest asset as a PI, and what it means for Indian fiction.

People

The Afghan in Mumbai: Displacement and Loyalty

Sajid is Andrew's most reliable ally. A facilitator, an Afghan far from home, and a man whose loyalty was forged in fire. On displacement, Pathan codes, and the bonds that outlast borders.

People

Why Do Smart People Self-Destruct?

Joomal is the smartest person in most rooms he enters. He's also the most drunk. On talent without opportunity, and the gap where the drinking lives.

Methods

What Private Investigators Actually Do

Forget the trenchcoat. Andrew's real toolkit is chai, comfortable shoes, and a network of trust built over years. The reality of PI work in India.

Methods

The Art of Reading a Room

Andrew walks into a room and knows three things within thirty seconds: who's in charge, who's nervous, and where the exits are. It's not instinct. It's pattern recognition.

Methods

Mumbai's Unofficial Economy

There are two Mumbais. The one with stock exchanges and GDP figures. And the one that actually runs the city — built on favours, chai, and decades of trust.