Penguin Books India has acquired a collection of stories from Uttar Pradesh, authored by Tanuja Chandra. The book ‘Tales from Uttar Pradesh’ will be published in March 2017.
The book is a collection of stories that are a mix of fact and fiction, action and emotion, drama and passion.
These strange, funny, intriguing, dramatic tales have travelled down the generations to the author in the great, oral tradition of the Indian culture.
“Honestly, I’ve wanted to write this book of stories for a long time. I heard them from my parents, mausis, buas and chachas when I was a kid. They stayed with me over the years but I never felt quite ready to put words down on paper. The kind of affectionate gaze that comes with time was needed perhaps,” said writer- director Tanuja Chandra, “And now, I’m just grateful that I’ve had this opportunity because it would have been a shame if these unique, absurd and memorable characters were lost in time. I feel fortunate enough to be able to record these tales but having a publisher like Penguin Random House, a name one has seen on one’s book shelf since childhood – well, that’s just plain fantastic. This has been a life-goal and I’m elated to bring these stories to readers.”
The bizarre chronicle of a lazy daughter-in-law, the legend of the court clerk who loved eating chaat, a haunting qissa of two cousins who were inseparable in death, the tragic love story of a blind teacher who fell in love with a neighbour with large, beautiful eyes, and other wild tales from Bareilly, Lucknow, Hapur, Badaun, Sapnawat, Pilibhit, and other places big and small in that fascinating part of India called Uttar Pradesh, that have stayed alive for decades, some even for a century.
About the Author:
After receiving a B.A. degree in English Literature in Mumbai, Tanuja Chandra completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Direction and Writing in the U.S.A. She returned to India and directed television shows, after which, she co-wrote screenplay and dialogue for Mahesh Bhatt’s films, Zakhm and Tamanna, and co-wrote Yash Chopra’s Dil Toh Pagal Hai.
She began independent film direction in 1998 with Dushman (starring Kajol, Sanjay Dutt), Sangharsh (starring Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta),Sur, Zindaggi Rocks, and the English language film, Hope and A Little Sugar, among others. Several of her films have received awards in different categories and her English film received recognition in international film festivals.
Tanuja’s new directorial venture, starring Irrfan Khan, is a fun, romantic travelogue set in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Sikkim, and will be released in early 2017. And she has been working on a television show which will go into production early next year.
