In 2019, author and journalist Aatish Taseer faced an abrupt rupture in his life when he lost his Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status. This would be a turning point in the life of Taseer and this wound would spark the creation of his latest work, A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile. Part travelogue, part meditation, the book traces the delicate and often elusive terrain of identity, home, and belonging. More than a record of places visited, it is a journey inward, a probing exploration of the spaces between estrangement and intimacy, freedom and constraint, and the subtle ways in which exile reshapes both self and perspective.

Taseer’s Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status was revoked after the Home Ministry stated he had concealed the fact that his late father was of Pakistani

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