Writer. Editor
People. How many there are and just how different from one another! Their sheer variety gives rise to a fascinating world of characters jostling for space, waiting to stand out. Inspired by a face or a silhouette, a character is born in the mind of the writer and she or he grows to be a personality sculpted by words and they dwell, sometimes as the writer wants them to, and at others, just the way they wish. Welcome to the world of people. We, the people. The real ones, the imagined ones that are shadows of the real.
I love the idea of writing letters. I consider it an art that needs to be kept alive, no matter what. Nothing, I firmly believe, can replace the human touch and closeness that a handwritten letter can bring. The letter has been a central theme for a good number of my stories. This is one of the first stories that builds on the letter format. A daughter writes to her father discussing children and parenting.
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Musings on childhood led to this story of an English girl. Spring and an English setup seemed to go hand-in-hand when I thought this story up. And when you find just the right kind of picture to complement the story, it all seems perfect – just like the childhood that we unfortunately leave behind in the process of growing up.
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Deprivation is a theme I give a lot of thought to. I am intrigued by what the lives of poor would be like. Of course, whatever I know, I know little – poverty, unfortunately, is an ocean of unimaginable depth. I probably skimmed the surface as a journalism student but whatever I saw left a deep impact on me. Munni was written based on my observations and inferences on what I would call ‘the life on the other side of the fence’. Meet my bangle-selling girl on the local trains of Mumbai – Munni, in this story written in first person.
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Sarah is the story of a young girl. As much as she flows with her dreams, she is anchored to reality as well. It is this maturity that I have tried to focus on in this story. But sometimes love can send even the most balanced of perspectives flying out of the window. Could Sarah be an exception? The story explores.
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Places. Memories. If there’s one place that I have experienced freedom in the truest sense, it is Bombay. I lived there for a few months and it turned out to be one of my life-altering phases. When I returned home for good, leaving the city behind, I couldn’t help feeling empty. And as always, I resorted to words to relieve the burden.
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