Padma Viswanathan is a novelist, critic, and theorist. She received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, San Diego in 2003. Her first novel, The Ever-Afters, was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 2010. Her second novel, The Great Indian Novel, was awarded the 2013 Hindu American Foundation Prize for Fiction
In 2014 her essay "The Diamond Queen: Defining Ourselves in the Tradition of RK Narayan" appeared in Penguin's Penguin Modern Classics series. As a critic Padma has written for such publications as The New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker.
Perhaps terror and peace became the same thing when life's mysteries were unveiled. In the Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna reveals his divine form at Arjuna's request, Arjuna is terrified at seeing what no mortal can stand to see. But the end to human doubt surely must also bring with it a definite, final peace.Padma Viswanathan
We can never know more than the mind can assimilate and process, nor can we discuss any aspect of the world for which there is no language.Padma Viswanathan
