The town by the sea -- Imperial temptations -- September 11th -- The greatest sorrow : times of joy recalled in wretchedness -- "The ghat of the only world" : Agha Shahid Ali in brooklyn -- Countdown -- The march of the novel through history : the testimony of my grandfather's bookcase -- The fundamentalist challenge -- Petrofiction : the oil encounter and the novel -- Dancing in Cambodia -- At large in Burma -- The ghosts of Mrs. Gandhi -- An Egyptian in Baghdad -- The human comedy in Cairo -- Tibetan dinner -- Four corners -- The Imam and the Indian.
