NYC Events for Ghost Chilli
And some thoughts on life as a sitcom.
First order of business: I will be doing three events in NYC for the US launch of Ghost Chilli.
Wednesday, October 15, 7pm:
Official US Launch, in Conversation with my pal Emma Alpern
McNally Jackson at South Street Seaport
4 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038
Link: https://www.mcnallyjackson.com/nikkitha-bakshani-presents-ghost-chilli
Emma and I worked together at a dysfunctional and often hilarious food content farm, where we bonded on our love of books and idiosyncratic people. Parts of Ghost Chilli are inspired by our time there. She writes about books for NY Mag and is an all-around genius.
Thursday, October 16, 7pm:
Conversation with Kat Tang, co-sponsored by AAWW
Hosted by Fleet and cosponsored by the Asian American Writers' Workshop
The Crown Inn
724 Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nikkitha-bakshani-presents-ghost-chilli-in-conversation-with-kat-tang-tickets-1713820185309
Kat’s book Five-Star Stranger is incredible – a funny, heartfelt exploration of the way we have to commodify ourselves in order to survive in a city like New York, and all the pain we have to avoid thinking about in order to do so. It came out in paperback recently and you should buy it (US here / UK here).
Monday, October 20, 8pm:
Franklin Park Reading Series, with Jami Attenberg, Maris Kreizman, Jason Diamond, Karissa Chen, and Lauren Morrow
Franklin Park
618 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Free Admission
Link: https://www.franklinparkbk.com/reading-series/
I remember going to Franklin Park Reading Series when I worked at BookCourt (RIP) from 2013-2015. It was the first ‘reading series’ I had ever been to, and I’m thrilled to see it’s still going strong – and that I’ll be a part of it, in good company.
Please join any of these events and introduce yourself if I don’t know you already! I have a pretty decent memory of faces so I will probably know who you are. If I don’t, I certainly will from that point on. This used to be the case for names too but, age…
I was very amused earlier this year when my mom took my dad and I to a stand-up comedy show in Chennai, and this time, it wasn’t just him who fell asleep. Not because the show was bad, but because that’s just what I do these days when a seat is a bit too comfortable. Somehow I never seem to be able to fall asleep so easily in my own bed. This must be the same logic by which people have affairs. Except my case is a lot less spicy. Which is to say, not spicy at all. It’s just the sleeping part.
Since I feel awkward just writing a service-oriented post about events I want you to attend, I thought I’d share another small funny thing that happened when I was in Chennai earlier this year, slightly exaggerated for your entertainment.
My sister and I were going to meet an old friend for dinner at a private members’ club, and on my way out the door, my mother stopped the elevator and gave me a freshly ironed linen button-down shirt of hers to wear instead. The top I was wearing was simply not acceptable ‘for the club’. We were already late, so I decided to skip the argument and just change my top, even though it was a shade of buttercup yellow that made me look like some alternate timeline version of myself (AKA my mother). At the restaurant, a group of three white people and one brown man walked in. In Chennai, there’s an old colonial hangover where a brown person in the company of white people has the vibe of somebody really important, the big cheese. (The fact we were in an actual converted colonial club, ironed newspapers and all, emphasised this.) In this case, it turned out to be true – the lone brown man was a retired tennis player. And he was wearing the exact same shirt as me.
‘He keeps looking at you,’ my sister said. ‘Maybe it’s the shirt.’
‘Or maybe he’s in love with you,’ my friend deadpanned.
As usual, the universe wouldn’t just leave it at that, just a tiny little amusement. I ended up dropping a piece of chilli chicken on my shirt, which was my mom’s shirt, which meant I had to erase that evidence ASAP. On my way back from the bathroom, with a massive wet spot on my shirt, the tennis player was going to the bathroom. He gave me a curt nod and I did the same, because that’s just what you do when you wear the same unique shade of yellow shirt as somebody else. It’s possible he was just trying to indicate that I get out of his way, because I was blocking the exit. But it was probably the unspoken yellow shirt contract that I just made up.
You know, when I was younger, I had dreamed my life would be a rom-com, or a romance in the 19th-century novel sense, some sort of epic adventure. But it’s turned out to be more of a sitcom. Every damn day something like this happens to me. I think it happens to everyone, but there are phases where we are more attuned to the small comedies around us. I am in one of those phases now. I hope it never ends, but I know it probably will. That’s just life.
And that’s what I tried to capture in Ghost Chilli! In a much more cohesive, thought-out way than I’ve done here. In Ghost Chilli I tried to capture how little moments of comedy can buoy you through long periods of pent-up sadness and rage, until it can’t. Then what?
Ghost Chilli is available in the US from October 7. Please pre-order it if you can, here, or your book retailer of choice.
Congrats on the US launch!!!!