Amit Majmudar is a poet, essayist, and novelist from Westerville, Ohio, USA. His latest book is THE BOOK OF KILLINGS (Penguin India, 2025), the final volume of a trilogy retelling the Mahabharata.

In ‘Regeneration’, his story written for THE BARE BONES BOOK OF HUMOUR, a married man, armed with netherworldly superpowers, embarks on brave new adventures. The anthology’s editor Ankit Raj Ojha spoke with him about the origins of the story.

Tell us about your perspective on humour and its place in writing and in life.

I think that we need to laugh the way we need to breathe. A piece of writing feels claustrophobic and stifling without any wit or humour in it. So does life! It’s best to mix it in, wherever you can, wherever it’s appropriate. 

What are the things, works, and authors that have influenced your writing? 

When it comes to humour specifically (I write all sorts of things, some of them quite dark), I think that Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller are great American humorists that have taught me a lot about how it is done. I particularly love dark humour, that mixes the most serious elements with a slightly sardonic or ironic smile.

Is there any image, phrase, idea, place, person, or memory that became the seed for ‘Regeneration’? 

Fortunately, nothing in my personal life inspired the story … but as the story’s readers will find out, even if the story did have a basis in experience, I certainly wouldn’t confess to it publicly!