More than writing advice, I want to share reading advice. I have come across so many readers who don't know the basics of literature, yet, are quick to judge the merits of a book. Half the time saying, it wasn't what I expected. How is that critique? That's ignorance of genre or

Author, or both. Literary fiction is about truth. How a writer perceives reality. It isn't fixed or the only reality. It is a reality. It is a story. It isn't truth with a capital T but it is a truth. Stories are about multiplicity, about plurality and nuances of people, places.

One does not have to like everything one reads but one has to critique rationally. You cannot say this is a bad book & I'll give it one star because I was uncomfortable with its themes. If it made you uncomfortable then it did its job & it made you think. You can hate it but it

Is not a bad book. If you don't like a character, it isn't a bad book. If the character did not make you feel anything, that is bad writing. There are clichés and then there are tropes. There is a difference. Food is a trope and mangoes, chutneys, cumin are easily recognizable

But might become clichés in less adept hands. Sometimes a mango is not just a mango.
Readers who miss such tradition of South Asian writing in English & dismiss it as clichés are doing a fledgling tradition a disservice. There are precious few readers of English in South Asia