India existed as the bright star, says American writer Fatima Shaik tracing her Bengal roots

Fatima Shaik, award-winning American writer, was till recently teaching in a college in New York. In search of her roots, a few years back she came to Kolkata, from where her grandfather had migrated to the US. This forms the core of a documentary The Bengali. In a tete- a- tete with Ranjita Biswas, Shaik talks about her work and her journey to India Excerpts from an interview