Revisiting the Mines

Essays and Excavations

“The desire to communicate feelings is a distinctively human one. Giving expression to a complexity of emotions through art, drawing, painting, music, sculpture, photography, and writing is a uniquely human trait. I am most interested in this individual and inwardly driven need and not the market-driven manufactured product. Medieval monks perfected this skill as they gilded manuscript pages through ritualistic calligraphic writing about the word of their god. So did the dance masters through their creation of the Indian classical mudras and the geometricity and preciseness of postures. It is the manifoldness that enraptures me as I chase after these expressions in my world.”

(~  From “How Is Your Heart Today?: Entries Against Despair”)

RELEASING IN JUNE 2024

From Paper Lantern Books, India

(Cover photo by author. “Basilica Cistern” in Istanbul, Turkey. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)

• 12 Essays

• 19 photographs (all my own)

• Three original paintings (donated by Arathi Dharani, an Indian artist working in Singapore)

WHAT PRE-PUBLICATION READERS ARE SAYING . . .

“At a time where everything is quick and easy, Revisiting the Mines is a slow and deliberate look at the world and the rich tapestry of life. The book's breadth is vast, encompassing engaging anecdotes from Shah's long career in publishing, the interplay of his family's and the country's history, as well as rich observations from his daily walks. It's a book I enjoyed dipping into at the end of each day, it infused in me a certain calmness.” 

(~Veena Venugopal, author, India)

“The essays beautifully portray the complex interplay between memories, past experiences, emotions, expressing a sense of grounding and peace.”

(~Arathi Dharani, artist, Singapore)

“Amit’s writing comes from a space within that has an immense capacity to capture beauty in multiples. Descriptions of trees collide with yearning for friends, lives and cities past with today, and yet each stands out with a strange evocative intensity. It’s a beautiful read, the one you’ll carry outdoors on a warm but breezy summer day.”

(~Sohini Chattopadhyay, Assistant Professor of History, Union College, NY)

“Shah’s essay collection is a love letter to the transportive power of memory, incandescent with hard-earned truths and undeniable prose.”

(~ Mehr Singh, food and culture journalist, New York City)