Edited excerpts:You were born and brought up in Allahabad and exposed to many languages and cultures since childhood. How have the history and culture of Allahabad influenced your early years and shaped the writer you became? One of my books of non-fiction is titled Allahabad: Where the Rivers Meet. Allahabad was relatively small in geographical scale but never small in political or cultural stature. Teaching literature and producing literature have been parallel concerns in my life.