Unfolding began with the act of reading, rather than a single spark. Rahul Singh was always a reader, reading and reading, yet feeling a growing discontent with what was available to him, especially Indian writing shaped largely by coming-out narratives, sexual trauma, or hyper-political treatments of queer and Muslim lives. While recognising the importance of these stories, he wanted to read something else. He wanted to enter domestic spaces, to sit with the ordinary, the intimate, and the quietly unresolved. Taking Toni Morrison as a guiding force, Rahul began writing the novel he wanted to read. That impulse marked the beginning of Unfolding in 2020.
Set in contemporary Kolkata, a city Rahul knows intimately as an urban sociologist who works on cities and space, the novel brings together three characters, Ralph, Ojas and Zubina. Their intertwined lives are shaped by class, faith, desire, and proximity.
Kolkata as the Setting
I couldn’t think of any other city that I know this intimately. I am an urban sociologist. I work on cities. For me, the details of space and time were of immense importance. I know Kolkata better than any other city because I have lived here. Nonetheless, Kolkata itself is an interesting space to think through my characters and their lives. From being the capital of India until 1911, to being considered fallen since post-Independence. Unfolding doesn’t see Kolkata in a state of mourning or dilapidation only. I wanted to show the different forms of life that continue to make the city, and how the city is made through its people.
Writing Intimacy
I don’t know if I have a clearly defined approach to writing about intimacy. There is emotional intimacy that I see as shaped by social structures, driven by motives of gain, and not only what the individual may personally feel. I think of intimacy as embodying the potential to do two things: reproduce problems, and to act as resistance. My characters work through this framework. Writing physical intimacy is another ball game. I remember when the first literary editor looked at my manuscript, they said that they appreciated the sex scenes because I had left a lot unsaid. I think restraint pairs well when the scene has to last beyond the pages of the book.
Parallel Lives
The first character that came to me was Ralph, and then Ojas. I knew I wanted to write about two gay men who are deeply unhappy with the state of their relationship. I had already imagined their professions, their residence in the city, and what they were up to. But someone had to manage a man’s household. Although Ralph cooked, it was for his workplace, and not his home on an everyday level. Zubina appeared in the shape of the help who checked that box. She became the heterosexual eyes to assess Ralph and Ojas. At the same time, I didn’t want to see her as an object who’s meant to sit and observe. I wanted to think about what she could be up to with that gaze.
Ideas of Class and Faith
I think it is important to attend to ideas of love and marriage beyond these institutions existing as singular. On the one hand, Ralph and Ojas have contradictory notions of love because they come from separate domestic experiences of being queer. There was a language to Ralph’s desire back at his household with his parents, which Ojas lacked. On the other hand, Zubina sees love and marriage with an element of the sacred attached to it. The absence of a concrete language to her love and conjugality with her husband made me wonder: how does she perceive her own 12-year-old marriage? And then: What is her notion of a ‘proper love’ (if there is one)?
Literary Guidance
Anne Tyler’s portrayal of family and its many problems revolutionised the ways in which I began to think of them. I remember reading Digging to America and saying to myself that if I ever write, I wish to write like her. Garth Greenwell’s exploration of gay men and their troubling interiorities helped me lean into the very hearts before writing about them. Amit Chaudhri’s granular observations of a city made me nod in recognition when writing about the city. Joanne Harris’s Chocolat series propelled me to imagine the different ways I could write about food in this novel.
What’s Next
Well, I have my doctoral thesis to finish, firstly. Besides, I am working on a novel. This is very different from Unfolding. It is not set in Kolkata, or in any city.
This is an excerpt from the February EZ. For more such stories, read the EZ here.
Words Neeraja Srinivasan
Date 2.3.2026