[8][9] In November 2013, Bal was controversially fired from his position of political editor of OPEN magazine.

[10] In an interview, OPEN's former Editor Manu Joseph revealed that the magazine's proprietor, Sanjiv Goenka, had told Joseph that Bal's views, expressed in his writings and in television appearances, were resulting in him "making a lot of... political enemies.

"[11] Bal has co-written a novel called A Certain Ambiguity which won the 2007 Association of American Publishers award for the best professional/scholarly book in mathematics.

His second book--"Waters close over us"—is part-travelogue and partly a sociological, political, artistic, historical, and anthropological commentary.

The award committee had specifically spoken of Bal’s achievements, “The award also recognizes the contributions of The Caravan’s executive editor, Hartosh Singh Bal, who formerly worked as the magazine’s political editor for ten years.