Everybody should interview their grandmothers and mothers, and granddads and dads of course, on top priority. Especially as they can fade away at any time, or get dementia or be otherwise unable to share their stories. It will usually be a fascinating revelation — even to those who think they know their mothers, to learn who they really were, before they got married and became our grandmothers and mothers. What kind of people were they, who were their best friends, what games did they love, what did they do after school/college, what movies did they watch and where, what were their dreams, what did they want to grow up and be, what was the boldest or wickedest thing they did? And even apart from all that, it was only on interviewing my Amma, Indu Shedde, now 98, that I learnt that she and Papa (the late S Rammohan) made fresh badam toop (almond ghee) at home to massage my sister Sarayu and me when we were babies. I simply crumbled like a Glucose biscuit in hot chai. 

The series of interviews I did of Amma were for her autobiography, in her own voice, that I wrote and gave her as a 95th birthday present in 2022: it took me three years to write it and put it together.