His first novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book.
Chandra did his high school education at Mayo College in Ajmer, Rajasthan where he was in Bikaner and Tonk house.
[3] Chandra felt isolated at Kenyon so he transferred to Pomona College, Claremont, California, where he graduated with a B.A.
He attended film school at Columbia University, leaving halfway through to begin work on his first novel.
[4] Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995), Chandra's first novel, was inspired by the autobiography of James Skinner - the Irish Raja of Hansi in Haryana, a legendary nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian soldier.
Love and Longing in Bombay [pl] (1997), a collection of short stories, was published by the same houses as Red Earth and Pouring Rain.
Set in Mumbai, it features Sartaj Singh, a policeman who first appeared in Love and Longing in Bombay.