Uttama Kirit Patel on Letters, Motherhood, and Mother-in-Laws

“I found myself writing an apology letter…and I didn’t know what I was apologising for.”

In Uttama Kirit Patel’s novel, The Shape of an Apostrophe (Serpent’s Tail), Lina is pregnant, and she’s finding that this seemingly salubrious society is not congenial and accommodating to the difficult challenges of an unplanned pregnancy.



Uttama, born to Gujarati parents who then since found their way to the United Arab Emirates via Kampala, Surat, Pondicherry and Colchester. Her short fiction was nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for emerging writers.

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Reference Points

Helen Phillips - The Need

Rippling Points

.30 - Uttama's life living around the world.

2.47 - An unexpected pregnancy

3.45 - Limited reproductive rights and setting the novel in Dubai

5.47 - writing a novel about someone who doesn't want children

6.30 - Uttama writing an apology letter to herself

7.59 - On desire

11.17 - Lina's relationship with her parents

12.57 - Does Lina have a support network?

14.03 - Lina's husband and her mother-in-law

16.44 - Is Lina's mother-in-law a feminist?

22.27 - Uttama's interest in sea-life.

24.10 - Lina's feeling of loss

26.41 - Lines, traces and artistry of Lina in the novel.

32.45 - Uttama's writing journey