Many of these texts focus on narratives of homosexual men and their attempts to locate themselves in diasporic settings. This paper is an attempt to interrogate the intersectional problematic of being an Indian queer diasporic subject in North America.Ģ Recent fiction dealing with the complicated identities, experiences, and negotiations of queer South Asian diasporic and/or immigrant subjects in North America has portrayed the multiple facets of queer lives that were not represented adequately in earlier literary texts in English. However, very little research has investigated the dual dilemma inherent in occupying a queer and diasporic position in the Indian North American context vis-à-vis negotiating temporal and spatial displacement. Research on queer South Asian topics in the North American context includes the critical insights of Gayatri Gopinath, Gita Rajan and Shailja Sharma, Roksana Badruddoja, and Geoffrey Burkhart. Manalansan IV, Dai Kojima, and contributors to collections of essays edited by Russell Leong and by David L. To this end, a considerable amount of critical work has been done on Asian American queer narratives by scholars such as Sau-ling C. Critical focus has been accorded to texts emerging out of transnational dislocations and displacements with accompanying tropes of conflicts, accommodations, and negotiations, especially in the North American context. In recent years, the academic study of literature dealing with the queer diaspora has provided literary studies with multifarious insights into the interconnections between race, gender, sexuality, and migration. Ivan Fernandes brings the reader up close to Calcutta, through personal stories of seven charismatic men and women, painting an evocative and heartbreaking picture of how the city has changed over the centuries, marked by the ebb and tide of politics, power and greed of people, against the backdrop of Calcutta’s tumultuous struggle to survive and flourish.1 Given increasing sociopolitical concerns regarding diasporic movements and queer activism across transnational spaces, 1 academic inquiries into the identity politics of the queer diaspora have become more timely, relevant, and necessary. He does this with a simple and intimate style of writing-insightful, compassionate and tinged with humour. Ivan Fernandes recreates the magic, juxtaposing its magnificent past and current tribulations, its wealth and poverty, its victories and losses, and the triumphs and struggles of its residents in everyday life-for Calcutta is a city of contradictions. It is a true accomplishment when a writer can capture the essence of such a unique and brilliant city. Requiem for Calcutta by Ivan Fernandes is a rare gem that celebrates Calcutta.

My Magical Palace by Kunal Mukherjee