Suketu Mehta

Suketu Mehta in 2019

Suketu Mehta (born 1963) is a writer based in New York City. He was born in Kolkata, India, and raised in Mumbai where he lived until his family moved to New York City in 1977.

Quotes

• Essentially what I said was that people are coming to rich countries from poor countries not because they want to, but because rich countries had stolen the futures of poor countries.
  • On the hypocrisy of the global debate about migration in “Suketu Mehta: ‘The migration debate is driven by populists – they can tell a false story well’” in The Guardian (2019 Aug 17)

• ...I’m always shocked by the lack of historical awareness on the part of the average American. Many of the people who have come here did so to forget history, to turn their backs on history.
  • On the ignorance of Americans when it comes to history in “Suketu Mehta: ‘The migration debate is driven by populists – they can tell a false story well’” in The Guardian (2019 Aug 17)

• ...When people move, everyone benefits. The rich countries benefit. And the migrants themselves benefit. And the countries that they move from benefit because the rich countries aren't making enough babies. The migrants improve their standard of living by an average of fivefold...
  • On the benefits of migration in “'This Land Is Our Land' Argues For Migration” in NPR (2019 Jun 2)

• ...I think the difference between alienated writers and sunnier writers—I don’t know if sunnier is a great term—is family. Every time I get alienated, my family comes and visits me. I don’t have the luxury of that French existentialist angst. I have a large extended family and we bicker and fight...
  • On considering himself a sunnier writer in “An Interview with Suketu Mehta” in Believer Magazine (2008 Feb 1)

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (2004)

• A city like Bombay, like New York, that is a recent creation on the planet and does not have a substantial indigenous population, is full of restless people. Those who have come here have not been at ease somewhere else. And unlike others who may have been equally uncomfortable wherever they came from, these people got up and moved. As I have discovered, having once moved, it is difficult to stop moving.

• At the age of fourteen I had experienced a miracle. I turned on a tap, and clean water came gushing out.