Indian fiction

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Mohini – The Enchantress : a beautiful ode to the Goddess of Beauty and Fertility

Posted on October 7, 2020 by Editor_Kitaab Leave a comment

Namrata talks about Anuja Chandramouli’s latest book, Mohini: The Enchantress ( August, 2020) calling it an attempt to paint a fresh image of Mohini in the reader’s mind.

“Elusive as a fragment of a forgotten dream, fragile as a figment from fantasy, Mohini is perfection made possible.
Distilled from the essence of Vishnu, Mohini the Enchantress is a part of him and yet she revels in the autonomy and extraordinary powers of beauty, magic and enchantment that are hers to wield. She is loved and desired by all in existence and yet, she is elusive tantalizing temptress, traipsing her way across the topsy-turvy terrain of fable and myth.”
Anuja Chandramouli

Anuja Chandramouli’s Mohini is a beautiful ode to the Goddess of Beauty and Fertility. Considered to be the only female avatar of Vishnu, created by Vishnu and Shakti, this book traces her life through sands of time.

“It’s easy to be seduced by a story, to be persuaded that what you are hearing is true.”- Avni Doshi

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Editor_Kitaab Leave a comment

Rituparna Mahapatra in conversation with Avni Doshi talking about her journey, the writing process and the future plans.

The first sentence came to me as a revelation, within it was the shape of the whole story. I wanted to begin with something powerful!
Avni Doshi, writer of Indian Origin, longlisted for Booker 2020.

Not many can claim their debut novels to make it to the list of the World’s most prestigious literary awards. Dubai based Indian novelist Avni Doshi has done that; her debut novel ‘Burnt Sugar’ has been long-listed for the 2020 Booker prize. The novel made it to the ‘Booker Dozen’ after judges assessed 162 novels, published in the UK or Ireland between October2019 and September 2020.

‘Burnt Sugar’ was earlier released in India under the title ‘Girl in White Cotton‘ to critical acclaim. The judges at the Booker panel called it an “‘utterly compelling read’ that examines a complex and unusual mother- daughter relationship with honest , unflinching realism” it is “emotionally wrenching but also cathartic, written with poignancy and memorability”.

Short Story: Jadugar by Mohammad Salman

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Editor_Kitaab Leave a comment

The final act of Rajkumar’s life opened to neither cheers nor applause.

He looked down at the gentle, placid Rapti flowing fifty feet below. It should have been a raging torrent at this time of year, but the river had no sense of occasion. He held the bridge’s railing tight with his left hand, the other inspecting the iron weight tied to his ankle.

He had no choice. All his life, Rajkumar had only wanted to be a jadugar. Unfortunately, he was a very bad one. He could never distract an audience, so his illusions never worked. Tea sets shattered when he pulled tablecloths from under them. His white pigeons defecated liberally into his turban. The rabbits bit him. Card decks flew out of his hand, prrrrrrr-uh! and scattered on the stage.

Short Story: The Part-Time Indian by Namrata Shailendra Singh

Posted on June 20, 2020 by Editor_Kitaab Leave a comment

She stares idly into the distance, an empty ceramic tumbler in front of her.

“The beach there is different…in my country.” She says lost in the reverie of the waves.

Did she say bitch to me? No, No, it’s the beach, the beach of Mexico. I remind myself of the Mexican Spanish accent. People’s vowels and consonants, my own diction is my Achilles heel even after years of mac and cheese. Why would she call her life-coach a bitch? Calming my heart, I try to concentrate. Usually, I am the focussed type, I can come to the point easily. A seasoned counselor, I can anticipate in the first five minutes the story which has got the weary heart to my doorsteps.

Listening is my profession, my bread and peanut butter and what they call in Japan- the Ikigai. Okay, close to Ikigai. Occasionally I get jolted, dismayed by a story, as and when a 15-year-old girl talked about being drugged at a party at a friend’s house and later found herself in the morning without clothes on her body. She was suffering from herpes apart from the guilt that she was responsible for being sexually assaulted. I was worried for my teenage daughter.

Short Story: The Australian outback beckons by Angana Bharali Das

Posted on June 13, 2020 by Editor_Kitaab Leave a comment

The tall handsome man got down from the Jaguar convertible. His sunburnt face and bleached blond hair was as sleek and shining as the surface of the car he was driving. He bent his head to open the door on the passenger side of his car. His companion, a tall brunette with a mass of curly black hair, did not appear to think that a figure-hugging Dior dress teamed with blood-red stilettos was an incongruous selection of attire for the Australian outback.

The Jaguar, a flashy yellow, infused some color into the bleak vistas of land, which stretched to the horizon in all directions. Andrea, who had been busy feeding the horses, wiped her dirty hands on her jeans, smoothed her hair and started to contemplate how to get inside the farm without being seen.

India: Submissions invited for The Hindu Prize 2017

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Admin Leave a comment

Call for entries

Inviting submissions from publishers for The Hindu Prize 2017, instituted to recognise the best in Indian literary fiction in English every year.

How to Enter

Publishers can submit Indian fiction in English published between July 2016 and June 2017.

Only works of literary merit will be considered.

Publishers can send eight (8) of their best titles for the award.

Publishers with more than one imprint can submit eight (8) books from each imprint.

Publishers should send a list of their published titles (fiction) to enable the judges call in for books that have not been entered.

Publishers must send eight (8) copies of each book.
Only hard copies will be accepted.

Electronic copies will not be accepted.

All entries must reach The Hindu on or before May 31, 2017.

All entries must be marked to The Hindu Prize 2017 and sent to Shalini Arun, Associate Editor, The Hindu, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

Eligibility Criteria

The author must be an Indian citizen, an NRI holding a valid Indian passport or a domiciled resident of India. It is the publisher’s responsibility to verify this before submitting the book for consideration.

Authors who hold the Overseas Citizen of India card are NOT eligible.

Only original works in English will be eligible.

Works in Indian languages or translations are not eligible.

Entries must be in prose and can be full-length novels or a collection of short stories by a single author.

Self-published or electronically published books will not be accepted.

Children’s fiction or Young Adult fiction will not be eligible.

Books of authors who are on the panel of judges will not be considered.

Books submitted for The Hindu Prize 2016 will not be considered.

Employees of The Hindu and their family are not eligible to participate.

For more details, contact R. Krithika @ 0422-2212572 extn 314/334 or email krithika.r@thehindu.co.in

Source: The Hindu

Asia Uncensored: India’s new readers–why an entire nation is only buying commercial fiction?

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Zafar Anjum 2 comments

Editor’s note: This is the first of Asia Uncensored blog debates that we are kicking off our Blogs section with, curated by our blogs editor Rheea Mukherjee.

The influx of commercial fiction in India is an undeniable fact. Is it good? Is it bad? Two writers–Soumyadipta ‘Shom’ Biswas and Tanuj Solanki– share their perspectives on this volatile topic. We would love to hear your thoughts on this subject too!

All a person needs is the first good book

by Tanuj Solanki

Tanuj Solanki

I live and work in Bombay, and so, for me, traveling to my hometown Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh entails reaching Delhi first and then taking a bus or a train. For the Bombay to Delhi journey, I find the Rajdhani trains to be the best option, because of the overnight comfort and the promise of being able to squeeze in four hours of solid reading into the seventeen hour journey. In November 2014, I had, for personal reasons, to take three trips to visit my family there.

Kitaab Review: Reading New India: Post-millennial Indian Fiction in English by E. Dawson Varughese

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Zafar Anjum One comment

Dr. Nazia Hasan reviews Reading New India: Post-millennial Indian Fiction in English by E. Dawson Varughese (Bloomsbury: London, 2013)

All blood and gore apart, Reading New India: Post-Millennial Indian Fiction in English by E. Dawson Varughese is a very patriotic book, written in a post-colonial temperament. The Hindustaani expression “dil se” hooks you effortlessly. It is obvious in many ways, the first being the red line that accompanies as I type each word…the baffling response of the computer to each part of the author’s name. But as the sea goes calm after a tempest, now the red mark of doubt/incomprehension sticks to the surname only, it is accepting most of the things coming in its range. The new millennium announced its arrival with various new ideas and concepts, strewing them around; we collected some in a rush, some in a thoughtful mode. So does the world to any evolving culture and ideology. Read more

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