What happens when a rational economist is forced to confront what logic can’t solve—grief, ego, and the longing for love?

In this episode, host Mohua is joined by Rajeev Balasubramanyam, whose acclaimed novel Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss traces the journey of a Cambridge economist stumbling his way toward healing and inner peace.

Rajeev reflects on addiction, ego, and identity, and how fiction became a vessel for transformation. From childhood shame to adult spirituality, from Eastern philosophy to Western therapy, this conversation moves between the deeply personal and the universally human.

They explore how satire turned into sincerity, why writing about fathers and broken families can be freeing, and how time at a spiritual fellowship reshaped Rajeev’s ideas of happiness and pain.

If you’ve ever tried to think your way out of heartache—or wondered what it really takes to change—this one’s for you.

Key Topics Covered:

• How Professor Chandra began as satire and became a story of transformation.
• Fiction as a space to explore shame, addiction, and family inheritance.
• Writing difficult fathers as a path to healing.
• Sobriety, ego, and creative clarity.
• Lessons from a silent spiritual fellowship.
• Resistance to growth—on and off the page.
• The role of humour in healing.
• Balancing Eastern spirituality and Western therapy.
• Belonging, identity, and “the good immigrant.”
• Writing as an ongoing act of compassion and letting go.

Explore transformation with Rajeev Balasubramanyam on the Personal Growth Podcast.