Hari Kunzru

OT: You were a travel writer once… Did you take it on for the travel or for the money?

Hari Kunzru: I’ve always loved travelling but, after years of backpacking, it came as a revelation that you could call an airline and they might offer you a ticket to your destination of choice because you were covering it as a travel writer!

OT: Have you travelled to every continent?

Hari Kunzru: Barring Antarctica, yes, but there are still huge gaps — I have never been to Russia and I would love to go.

OT: Do you visit India often?

Hari Kunzru: My father was the only one of the immediate family to shift to the UK, so there’s a lot of close family here in Delhi whom I visit regularly. I came to India earlier as a backpacker and travelled hippie-style down and up the coast through Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, Gujarat… I will be returning again for a family wedding and then again after the literary festival in Galle (Sri Lanka).

OT: Is there a kind of travel that you prefer?

Hari Kunzru: I am glad that work takes me travelling to so very many places, but it does unfortunately take me more to the cities. I would like to travel to remote corners with a backpack. I backpacked through South America where I ate rice and beans for my entire journey (I wouldn’t like to dine on the same fare again!). But I like travel to have a purpose now, whether it is for a festival or for research. And I try and make my spare time in a place a combination of culture and relaxation.

OT: Any new destination on the radar?

Hari Kunzru: I would like to go to Mongolia for my honeymoon, if we can get past the logistics.

OT: Are visas the problem?

Hari Kunzru: Not really, the country that is really difficult for visas these days for me seems to be India, with the two-month restriction on re-applying for a visa!

OT: Where have you been recently?

Hari Kunzru: I live in New York now and that’s great, because road travel is so much easier there than in the UK. I needed to meet a writer near Texas and used that as a pretext to drive along the coast all the way to Texas. And though it was work that took me to Los Angeles and thereafter to Albuquerque in New Mexico, I took the opportunity to drive from one place to the other, rather than travel by air. I find that road travel opens up so much more of the country.

OT: Do you think a traveller’s approach to a country should be with a completely blank slate, or should one read up guides and history books?

Hari Kunzru: I think it would be a mistake to go to a new country without having some prior knowledge about it. I think you might fail altogether in engaging with the country or the people if you do that. However, the journey should not be about ticking off things on a list. You should always be open, to a chance encounter in a café, an opportunity that may not feature in a fixed itinerary, and be open to going with that chance.