The Planet Spins On Its Axis, Regardless
Short Story Collection published by Serving House Books
Shortlisted for Two Prizes
Good happenings in December 2025. Ended the year on a high note as “The Planet Spins On Its Axis, Regardless” was shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Prize and also was a finalist for the Eyelands Prize.
I didn’t win either award, but the wonderful and incisive reviews from readers across many platforms — book blogs, Goodreads, netgalley, Amazon, personal emails etc. — gave me much joy. And also made me think again about how much readers bring of themselves to a story and how anything you publish is not really yours any more. It’s open to interpretation, as it should be.
I also had my very first Kirkus Review earlier in the year. Here is an extract:
“A spirit of philosophical inquiry infuses the collection, which provides impressively subtle psychological character portraits.
Indeed, this is the principal strength of Jindal’s stories: to show how the deeply eccentric is an everyday feature of human life.
A thoughtful anthology that offers an insightful peek into the oddities of human experience.”
Manual For A Decent Life Wins The Eastern Eye Award for Literature
From the judges: “The book’s boldness, beauty and courage make it utterly seductive.”
India, 1996. Waheeda, a principled and spirited young woman from Uttar Pradesh sets her sights on becoming a member of Parliament. But her romance with the scion of a Delhi business dynasty threatens that dream. Manual for a Decent Life plays out against the backdrop of a tumultuous time in Indian politics in a world where nothing is what it seems and danger lurks at every turn.
“This ambitious novel is both epic and intimate as Jindal moves seamlessly between domestic family scenes, the passion of an illicit love affair and the instability of political parties vying for power at any cost. The fast-paced, plot-driven drama unfolds against the turbulent backdrop of India in the 1990s. The writing is accomplished, the story is thrilling with a bombshell of an ending.”
Tremendous Reviews for PATINA
Witty & Wry with a Steely Heart*
Patina, launched in New York at the Matwaala festival in April 2019 has received tremendous reviews, excerpted below.
Jindal’s capacity for hard beauty and pride in her own unsentimentality…along with an irreverent playfulness made me want to see her take this tone to its limits, to interrogate her own premises berfrois
Both trenchant & calming…this is it! Asian Review of Books
Elegant forceful lyrics Ink Sweat and Tears
Beautifully contemplative The Lake
Powerful The High Window
Poignancy and grace laced in a rare simplicity Confluence
With magical simplicity, Jindal connects easily with readers The Book Review
* from the review by Colin Pink in The Lake.
With Salman Rushdie at the NYU launch.
OPTIMISM
That moment when you catch someone taking a photo of your poem, to keep or to share.
The poem is up on the wall of a hair salon and they tell me this happens regularly, even after six years. But this is the first time l’ve captured it on camera as l happened to be in the right place, about to have a shampoo.
So glad the words continue to resonate with impromptu readers. “Optimism” was first published in 2004, in Raincheck Renewed.