Rahul Pandita's 'Our Friends In Good Houses' Explores Exile and the Elusive Idea of Home

Indian writer and journalist Rahul Pandita's book 'Our Friends In Good Houses' (HarperCollins India) examines the condition of exile through the story of Neel, a 40-year-old journalist displaced from Kashmir during the early 1990s exodus. Neel settles in Delhi's builder's flats—homogeneous, quickly assembled housing that lacks architectural intent. Pandita borrows Jakob Böhme's concept of 'Ungrund' (unground) to describe Neel's persistent sense of unmooring. To combat ontological dissatisfaction, Neel takes assignments in conflict zones, particularly the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency areas in Dandakaranya, Chhattisgarh, where he finds camaraderie with Maoists and Adivasis fighting for land and identity. The book contrasts Neel's curated rented apartment—shaped by design magazine images and memories of his family home in Kashmir with its open courtyard and rose bushes—with the precarious dwelling of a Maoist insurgent who sees his home only as a temporary shelter. The narrative draws on André Aciman's 'False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory' (2000) and aligns with Vincenzo Latronico's 'Perfection' on mediated domestic desire. The book closes with a nazm by Nida Fazli, emphasizing that home is made imperfectly from within.