Book Review: How to Date a Fanatic


Here we are. Nine months of 2026 already gone by, amid politically-charged atmosphere. Along come a book, which opens in Spring 2016, but covers a canvas from Winter 2014 and then subsequent seasons in 2015, 2016 to conclude in 2017. How to Date a Fanatic by Aruni Kashyap perfects the outsider -looking-inwards gaze. 

Published almost a decade later (chronologically), when most of the events mentioned in the book actually took place, it gives the readers a chance to assess, ascertain if something has changed at all. Or more appropriately it intends to bring us face to face with a period, where it all began. The uncertainty, the fear, of belonging, being named and identified. 


Kashyap, an academician, has chosen to set How to Date a Fanatic, amongst the university campuses in Delhi. Not just because they were actual sites of the political developments, but they are the spaces which discuss, debate on affirmative action, development, economic benefits, marginalisation, activism and finding one's community. The novel has queer characters taking centrestage, with some of them having experienced violence in the past, which raises up the anxiety and suspense elements a few notches higher. 

Rohit, Minti and Dhruv are academicians who navigate their lives as queer people living in Delhi. Then, there's Rohit's friend, Sarfaraz who returns to his studies after a stint in modelling and films. The four fall in love, experience heartbreak, find love again and ultimately their cause. The many equations amongst them and their set of friends might feel overwhelming at times, but Kashyap has a point to make. Amidst exploring their bodies and mind, Rohit, Minti, Dhruv and Sarfaraz find their purpose and strength. With Rohit as the principal narrator, How to Date a Fanatic succeeds in amplifying the outsider gaze three times or more. As a queer academician with tribal roots, who hails from Assam, Rohit rises from inequality to some sort of successful, privileged life. It is through Rohit's gaze that we learn to empathise with the choices that his friends make and the incompleteness of their lives. 

Divided into four sections - pakad, sthayi, antara and tihai (four stages that build a Hindustani classical raga's identity) - How to Date a Fanatic, tries to search for hope in a dirge composition.

Name: How to Date a Fanatic

Author: Aruni Kashyap

Pages: 350

Publisher: HarperCollins

Price: Rs 599

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