Published November 2025
Memoir
Writer Translator Journalist Filmmaker
Aftermath
Life in the Shadows of Headlines and History
‘At 34, I have spent almost half my life trying not to be defined by a single night in 2008.’
A different kind of coming-of-age story, one shaped by private grief that becomes inescapably public.
Translated from the Marathi · July 2025
Translation
Silk Route
A novel by Sachin Kundalkar · Penguin
“Aakash Karkare is almost as good as Jerry Pinto, who translated Cobalt Blue.”Meenakshi Shivram, The Hindu
Longlisted · Mozhi Prize 2025
Short Fiction
A Bikeless Hero
A story by Manaswini Lata Ravindra, translated from the Marathi
Published in The Bombay Literary Magazine, April 2025, and longlisted for the Mozhi Prize.
Anthology · 2023
Anthology
Memories on a Plate
Stories from 100 Indian Kitchens Around the Globe · The Alipore Post & Nivaala
Contributor: On the Phenomenon Known As Comfort Food, an essay, with an audio note.
Macro Magazine · February 2023
Essay
Exhibited at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi · 2026
Exhibition
From Sewers to Skyscrapers
A Closer Look at Mumbai’s Rodent Residents · Writing Natures Magazine
Shown in Shared Ecologies’ research table at Inheritors of Earth, curated by Premjish Achari, until 22 December 2026.
Scroll.in · November 2015
Journalism
How’s the weather up there?
The indignities I face as a tall man in a short nation
Photographs · January 2020
Photography
MultipliCITIES
Urban Cultures of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, by Neera Adarkar · Photographs by Aakash Karkare
One of its photographs, Writer’s House, won Second Prize at the World Heritage Day Photography Awards, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, 2015.
Online · Coming soon
Workshop
Aakash Karkare is a writer and translator based in Mumbai. He has worked across film, photography and journalism, with experience in documentary filmmaking and as a former film critic with Scroll. His debut memoir, Aftermath: Life in the Shadows of Headlines and History, was published by Rupa in 2025.
He translated Sachin Kundalkar’s novel Silk Route from the Marathi for Penguin, and his translation of Manaswini Lata Ravindra’s story ‘A Bikeless Hero’ was longlisted for the Mozhi Prize 2025. He holds an MA in Creative Writing (Non-Fiction) from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate diploma in Social Communications Media from SCM Sophia, Mumbai.
Books & Translations
Original fiction and non-fiction, alongside literary translations that bring new voices to English readers.
Memoir · Rupa Publications · November 2025
Life in the Shadows of Headlines and History
In 2008, 17-year-old Aakash Karkare’s life cleaved into two: before and after. This memoir depicts the next 17 years of his life and his struggle to move on from that event and not be marked by what others always describe as tragedy. By taking a scalpel to memory, Aftermath traces a decade marked by loss, displacement, and slow repair.
Reviewed in Frontline, The New Indian Express and Loksatta
Also at: Kindle · Sapna Online · Midland Book Shop · Amazon US
Novel · Translated from Marathi · July 2025
by Sachin Kundalkar · Penguin
Silk Route, translated from the Marathi Reshim Marg, invites readers to go on a journey along with Nishikant on his many travels through cities and people in a way that has rarely been seen in Indian literature. As the series’ first part, the novel lays the groundwork for this expansive narrative journey that questions love, identity and the false veneer of societal expectations.
Reviewed in The Hindu, Frontline, The Tribune, Scroll and Open
Also at: Sapna Online · Bookswagon
New translations and new writing on the way.
My memoir, translated into Marathi by Akshay Shelar
A Marathi edition is on the way.
A novel by Sachin Kundalkar, translated from Marathi
The sequel to Silk Route and a deeper dive into its world: a dark tale about murder, religious cults, and artistic dreams.
A novel by Bhau Padhye, translated from Marathi
A blistering landmark novel about one man’s descent into hell as he tries to find a place to live in ’60s Bombay. The translation is complete.
Publishing enquiries welcomeA coming-of-age novel
Set in a boarding school in Panchgani in the early 2000s. A hilarious and heartwarming tale of first love, ’90s pop culture and awkward puberty.
Essays, stories and photographs contributed to books by others.
Anthology · Essay · 2023
Stories from 100 Indian Kitchens Around the Globe, The Alipore Post & Nivaala
Contributor: On the Phenomenon Known As Comfort Food, an essay.
Photography · January 2020
Urban Cultures of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, by Neera Adarkar
Contributor: photographs.
Anthology · Short Story · 2014
Racy Stories by Young Writers, edited by Lipi Mehta, Rupa Publications
Contributor: Long Walk Back to the Shore, a short story.
Short stories translated from Marathi into English.
Journalism
Scroll.in · Essays & Culture
How’s the weather up there? The indignities I face as a tall man in a short nation
Writing Natures Magazine · Mumbai & Cities
From Sewers to Skyscrapers: A Closer Look at Mumbai’s Rodent Residents
Exhibited in Shared Ecologies’ research table at Inheritors of Earth, curated by Premjish Achari, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi. On view until 22 December 2026.
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
Photos: In just one generation, Mumbai has forgotten that it has four rivers
Scroll.in · Film & Television
Book versus movie: Zack Snyder’s version of ‘Watchmen’ shows what is wrong with superhero films
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
A night at India’s first capsule hotel shows that Mumbai’s space crunch is now a hospitality fad
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
Is Dadar, Mumbai’s first planned suburb, becoming hipster cool? (And at what cost?)
Scroll.in · Film & Television
From freedom fighter to action hero, Mahatma Gandhi has had a busy pop culture afterlife
Scroll.in · Film & Television
‘Find the human element and the rest will follow’: Tigmanshu Dhulia on ‘Raag Desh’
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
Why do Mumbai’s hipster cafés and pubs look the same? These architects might have the answer
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
The stories behind Mumbai’s few green spaces get an illustrated retelling in a nature map
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
Who is Tina, and why is her Ginger Lemon drink a quiet icon of Mumbai?
Scroll.in · Film & Television
‘Ramayana’ to ‘Karmaphal Data Shani’: Inside India’s one-stop shop for mythological television
Scroll.in · Film & Television
Eighteen years later, it is business as usual on the sets of ‘CID’
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
Remembering the 20th century theatre impresario who built Mumbai’s iconic Opera House
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
How hip-hop in local languages brought Mumbai rappers into the mainstream
Scroll.in · Essays & Culture
X@#*@! Why Indian restaurants are yelling back at negative online reviewers
Scroll.in · Mumbai & Cities
What the proliferation of flyovers tells us about Indian cities
Scroll.in · Film & Television
Sleepless in Mumbai, or how insomnia is the lot of the city dweller and the cinephile
Essays
Essays on cities, memory and belonging, written for magazines and on my own Substack.
Read my SubstackRecent essays and notes.
Attempts to write a personal essay without using “I”.
In which I update the familiar image of the grandmother inside the kitchen of the past with an algorithm as an origin story for the love of food.
An investigation of a curious breathing sound in suburban Mumbai.
Can a city unfriendly to pedestrians truly call itself a city of dreams?
A three-part series for Macro Magazine, 2023.
Part I ·
Aakash Karkare takes us on part one of his story.
Part II ·
A love letter to a city.
Part III ·
The final instalment of a love story to a city.
Film, Video & Photography
Documentary, fiction films and short videos, along with photographs from the road and the page.
A series of twelve short episodes, 2012. Made with Sayalee Karkare.
Co-director, Co-writer & Editor
Selected photographs.
Skyscrapers, Mumbai, 2022
Two Headed Cow, Chitrakoot, 2014
Writer’s House, MumbaiSecond Prize, World Heritage Day Photography Awards, 2015
Dal Lake, Kashmir, 2026
Room with a View, Mumbai, 2026
Leafy Canopy, Mumbai, 2025Online writing workshops in small groups. The first is on memoir, with more subjects to follow.
Workshop No. 1 · Coming Soon
Small-group workshops on turning lived experience into memoir: finding your story, shaping memory into scenes, and writing honestly about the people in your life.
Led by Aakash Karkare, author of the memoir Aftermath, who holds an MA in Creative Writing (Non-Fiction) from the University of East Anglia.
Reviews
Reviews
Recognition
As featured in
For translation projects, journalism commissions, rights and publicity, event invitations or workshop enquiries, write to me here.
Email aakashhk@proton.me
Literary agent Kanishka Gupta, Writer’s Side
