Mushtaq Hussain's Darbari





One of the most essential controversial and hard-hitting book of poems of our times demanded a completely different experimental cover. Ideally the cover should capture the visceral nature of patriarchal violence indicated in the words within the volume as they implode on paper. I instinctively though of "gagged silence" as a motif while reading the work minutely which is ironical considering the fact that the title specifies the word "darbari". The work plays on that idea of dark grave voice of the night-time raga gradually getting entombed within a death-like silence. The repression of strong individual voices in today's overtly masculine India makes us all uncomfortable accomplices. The inability to vent our natural feelings creates a sense of bloated disquiet which tears our interiors apart. The blood of our own guts smear our faces and creates a geometry of guilt. That image of a blood spattered female mouth forms the basis of my work. A mass of algae and mushroom (slightly indicative of phallic symbolism) on the back cover reinforce this violence as being violently patriarchal which violates the female moth (indicative of hymen) to leave it bloodies and bare. The slightly disjunctive structure of the cover imparts the sense of split created by violence.

Last Man in Tower Paperback


I have always marvelled at the hardback cover of this book and so when the opportunity came to design the paperback I was thrilled but also apprehensive as I was not sure whether I can break away from the look already ingrained in the mind of the audience. The photograph of the Mumbai city skyline is by Selvin Kurien and I added a bit of tint to make it look dreamy...

Breaking the Bow


What an idea...freaked out a lot but finished it nonetheless...you always remind yourself to reinvent and reinvent till you drop down dead...

Tell Me a Story


Rupa Bajwa's "Sari Shop" remains one of the best debut by an Indian writer...According to me, her second novel is better and the moment I finished it, there is a lump in my throat...the back jacket photograph of the lonely bicycle is taken by Santanu Rana whose work ia getting better by leaps and bounds...the other photographs are taken by me on various occasions with some touches here and there...

Highway 39


I am posting after a long period of time...it is not as if I am doing less work...infact doing more, but I feel very lazy in uploading stuff...this one is a bit different from the earlier ones as I have tried to incorporate a canvas paint look...also I think the colours are very important...the book, by the way, is a gem...it gives a very authentic feel of one of the most neglected part of India...

BT Road / Bibar

It is a challenge to do this one and I feel saibalda's photos inside the outline are truly fabulous indeed...perhaps i will do a kalkut translation one day...

24 Akbar Road


Congress and Warhol! an unusual combination that I like!!! Initially, it was quite difficult to crack this one and thought that this will be another boring yawn-inducing non-fiction cover but once I and my editor, Nandita unboxed it, it was fun to work on this...I hope everybody likes it...Hachette India has tremendous production values and I think they will do proper justice with this one...

The Nothing Man


This cover has the picture of my close friend sutirth (www.sutirth.com) on the cover...shot in my room with modest lighting it came out very well...i thought of using it earlier as well but it was not working out...a new cover, a new idea and i think it fits in perfectly...

Mice in Men


This cover was a lot of hard work within a short period of time but then both I and saugata wanted a fun cover for beautifully-crafted poignant bunch of stories...there was a lot of brainstorming and we were actually dealing in cliched images...however, with just the graphic treatment, a refreshing cover emerged...@saugata: lets make a film...

Harper Collins Film Series




Here is the first, second and third of the HarperCollins film series cover that I am doing...Now there are other monographs to come... even mithunda is not left out...dance dance...

The Garden of Solitude


This wonderful photograph is taken by my colleague, Santanu Rana whose photographs are a delight to watch (www.santanurana.wordspress.com). My job was introduce the frosty silence of Kashmir...the ethereal but unnerving lull before the storm...This book, written by Siddhartha Gigoo, is published by Rupa.

Following Fish



Wow!!! What a little gem of a book!!! I did three options...the one with the spread got selected...

Lost and Found


This one is really a madcap of a book which I enjoyed doing...I wish I had bit more time to get more elements in it...however, the hinge of the cover is the inverted house which came to me suddenly while I was aimless watching birds on the terrace...so too the letter "o" of the word "lost" which is floating aimlessly along the edge of the cover...

The Slayer of Kamsa


It has been a long time since I posted something...It is not that I have been doing less work but somehow I didn't upload those stuff...Here is one book which took a lot of time because of the intricate decorations that is part of this signature series...I hope it will create a lot of impact in the bookstore...saugata has promised the best of available production embellishments, so as usual, need to thank him again...