Books, Writings and Short Films
Books and Writings
BOOKS
Fall and Other Poems (Writer’s Workshop, Kolkata)
Reflections (Writer’s Workshop, Kolkata)
The Garden of Solitude (Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd)
A Long Season of Ashes (India Viking, Penguin Random House)
A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories (Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd)
Longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award 2015
A Long Dream of Home: The Persecution, Exodus and Exile of Kashmiri Pandits (co-edited) Bloomsbury India and UK
Once We Had Everything (Literature in Exile)
The Lion of Kashmir (2020)
Love in the Time of Quarantine (2020)
Published worldwide on Amazon Kindle
On writing Love in the Time of Quarantine published in Scroll
SELECTED WRITINGS
Commonwealth Short Story Prize Asia (2015) The story has been translated into several languages, and features in many anthologies.
I am not thinking about death - Arvind Gigoo and Siddhartha Gigoo published in Outlook India
The Solitude of Kashmiri Pandits (A Memoir) published in Scroll
The Temples We Left Behind published in The Times of India
Her Palace of Dreams published in Outlook Magazine
Love and Longing published in Outlook Magazine
Cinema as Testimony (The Kashmir Files) published in Outlook Magazine
Subjects of a Lost State published in Mint
Take Us Home: A Short Story published in Indian Express
The Golden Swan published in Kitaab.
The Road to my Home in Kashmir Goes Through a Tunnel of Darkness published in The Quint
An excerpt from the work-in-progress memoir published in Outlook India
"There is still so much hatred in my own town" - On Kashmiri Pandits - published in Firstpost
The Flute Seller - On Music published in Madras Courier
Seven Nights of Longing published in Jellyfish Review
Letters to the forgotten ancestor - The Punch Magazine
In Search of Stories Lost published in Mint
Homeward Diary published in Outlook India
The Silent Obliteration of Kashmiri Pandits published in The Indian Express
You must return to Kashmir in spring published in Daily O (India Today)
To Die While Dreaming of Return published in The Wire
Bringing Back the Dead published in CNN News18
The Past is a Foreign Country published in The Hindu
The Girl inside a Man published in Madras Courier
Eight Minutes and Forty Six Seconds to Freedom published in Madras Courier
On Reading Once Again published in Mint
A Prayer for Kashmir published in Mint
The Final Journey published in Mint (This is an excerpt from Siddhartha's work-in-progress memoir. It's also published in the book, A Long Dream of Home)
Why I Write in SheThePeople
Writings published in The Punch
The Birth of God (On Pandit Bhimsen Joshi) in Kafila
The Umbrella Man reprinted in Mint
The Tourist published in Postcolonial Text, Vol 10, No 3 & 4 (2015)
The Big Gulmohar published in Literature Live
Review: Dina Nath Walli: A Passion to Portray Kashmir published in Hindustan Times
An Incident at Death Valley published in Mint
Short Films
The Last Day
Set in 1994 in a camp for Kashmiri Pandit exiles, the film portrays four frayed lives in a scrawny 8 x 10 tent. Gossamer memories of a glorious past taunt their tawdry and uncertain present. An old patriarch is battling dementia on his deathbed. His wife has lost the will to live. His son and daughter-in-law struggle for personal space. Will they ever find deliverance? Will they rediscover love? Will tomorrow be any different from today or yesterday?
The river has all the answers, yet flows, eternally silent.
Festival Selections
1) Official Selection (Showcase) - 6th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) 2013, India (June 2013)
2) ‘Kashmir Before My Eyes’ Film Festival - Films Division Zone Mumbai, Chennai, Kerala, Hyderabad, Pune, JNU New Delhi (2013)
3) Official Selection (50 Best Short Films) - The Indian Independent Film Festival (TIIFF), Bangalore, India (August 2013)
4) Best Debutant Director (Male) - Runners up award Lakecity International Short Film Festival (LISFF), Bhopal, India (September 2013)
5) Official Selection - 7th Annual FilmAid Film Festival, Kenya, Africa (August 2013)
6) Official Selection (Foreign Special) - Beskop Tshechu Documentary, Animation and Short Film festival, Bhutan (September 2013)
7) Nominated for Best Director of a Short Foreign Language Film, Best Foreign Language Short Film and Jury awards - London International Film Festival (LFF), Ealing, London (October 2013)
8) Official Selection - International Film Festival of Cinematic Arts (Short and Micro Cinema) Los Angeles, (IFFCA) October 2013
9) Official Selection - 11th International Exile Film Festival, Gothenburg, Sweden (1 - 7 November 2013)
10) Official Selection - 6th Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF), Jaipur, India (1 - 5 February 2014)
11) Official Selection - 1st Kashmir International Film Festival (KIFF), India (14-15 January 2014)
12) Official Selection (Short Film Competition) - Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF), Mumbai, India (8-February 2014)
13) Official Selection (Showcase) - Lucerne International Film Festival (LIFF), (October 2014)
14) Official Selection - 1st Chennai International Short Film Festival (CISFF), India (2014)
Goodbye, Mayfly
Summer of 2010. Kashmir oscillates between peace and violence.
Two tender lives, unsure of their destiny, set forth on a dangerous journey.
Only one of them returns.
The films explores the meaning of growing up and living in a conflict zone. The film was shot at several locations in Kashmir in 2014.
The film was selected for the 8th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, India. The film won the Best Film award at the 5th Bangalore International Short Film Festival, the Best Director and the Best Story awards at the Lake city International Film Festival, Gawalior, and the Best Cinematography award at the Global Impact International Film Festival, 2017.
The film was also selected for the India @ 70 Film Festival hosted by India Habitat Center, New Delhi, India