Asian Age & Deccan Chronicle discuss my choice of books

Writer's block

• April 10, 2011 http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/lifestyle/books/writers-block-054

Madhuri Banerjee is a media professional, writer and film director. Her debut book, Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas, was published recently.
Q Your favourite reading spot?
Crossword bookstore that has a cafe attached.

Q Which books are you reading at present?
Rana Dasgupta’s Solo, Elif Shafak’s Flea Palace and Mahabharat (yet another version).

QWho are your favourite Indian writers?
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jaishree Misra, Jhumpa Lahiri and Amitav Ghosh.

QWho are your favourite novelists?
Elif Shafak, Ayn Rand, John Grisham and Agatha Christie.

QWhich are your favourite children’s books?
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Enid Blyton books and Calvin and Hobbes.

QWhich is the most over-rated book?
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

QWhich is the most under-rated book?
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh and The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar.

QWhich classics do you want to read?
The works of Rabindranath Tagore.

QWho is your favourite literary character?
Draupadi in the novel The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Q Which book changed your life?
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

Q Which is the funniest book you have read?
Erma Bombeck’s I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression.

QWhich is the most erotic book you have read?
Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho.

QWhich book did you want never to end?
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak.

QWhich book would you make compulsory reading?
The Upanishads.

QWhich school/college text did you enjoy the most?
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Much Ado About Nothing.

MAIDS AND OTHER AILMENTS

“My mother has been very unwell.” There’s always a very. “I never told you because I didn’t want you to worry.” Of course not I thought. “I have to go back to the village to settle her property before she dies.” Aah so she’s found a better job with more pay. With a false tear in her eye and a hope in her head, my maid Kajal stood forlornly at the kitchen door. This was the eighth maid that had made an excuse and left. And I could not do a thing about it.

I thought I was the epitome of the modern day woman. I was educated well. I had worked hard for a career. I was a mother, a perfect wife, a loyal friend and I even had a few hobbies thrown in like painting, writing and being a sommelier that would categorize me as someone who could hold my own. But the thought of not having a maid, yet again left me weak in the knees and a fear in my heart.

Therefore, I did what I only knew I could do. I called the husband and blasted him. “Kajal’s mother is sick,” I sobbed, “What am I supposed to do? I cannot get any more leave! My boss thinks my maid situation is the excuse I give for bunking work. She’s going to fire me.”

“Call the agency. Ask them to send a replacement.” He said calmly as usual. See it was not his problem, he thought. His problem was to become the CEO of whatever he was doing. A maid or no maid was not going to stop him.

I took a deep breath before I began, “They do not pick up my phone!” I screeched, “We have paid 3 agencies already. I don’t have money to keep giving out to new agencies every month to find a replacement. Do something! Call the consumer court. Go to the police station! Come back home! Look after your own child!”

He said he had to go back to his meeting and would discuss it when he got home. Typical! Therefore, I was stuck once again without a maid and a deadline that had to be submitted in the next few hours. My two-year-old daughter needed to be picked up from school, fed, changed, and kept busy while I had to find an excuse in office, call the agency, and find a replacement. It’s only one of these days that the washing machine would break, the geyser would bust, and there would be no milk or food in the house with the cook on vacation.

I remembered the list of maids I had.

Anandhi – A cock eyes south Indian who lived in Dharavi, or Chembur, or Ghatkopar. We never knew where because every time she had to leave early she came up with a place far away that she had rented, bought, or moved to. One day, after she had taken her full salary she called frantically and said she had to leave for the village. “Why?” I asked. “My first husband who left me for another woman has got an electric shock and might be dying and wants to see his kids for the last time so I have to take them there.”She said in one breath. So I thought about it and replied, “Well, by the time you reach, won’t he be dead anyway?” All right, it was an insensitive thing to say. But I was grasping in thin air. I reasoned with her that I would let her go by the end of the week once I had figured out who could look after the children and I would give her money to go as well. She left nevertheless. And was never heard from again.

Maya – She was a plump Assamese woman who I thought would be great since she could teach my daughter some Bengali. She stayed with us for two months. Just when my daughter was easing up to her and I was taking on more responsibility at work, she said her sister in law had cancer and needed to go back to Assam for treatment. “Are you sure it’s not just because Durga Puja is in three days?” I asked sarcastically. But she insisted that she would return. Next thing I know, she can’t find a ticket to come back for another two months. Oh yes, she took her full salary and all the clothes I had bought for her as a thank you for looking after my child.

Priyanka – By the time Priyanka entered our lives some three more people had come and gone for less than two weeks. Why? Because a 40 year old woman can’t play with a three year old child and she get’s “bored and needs entertainment” as Shaila once cribbed. A 20 year old woman “can’t live without her boyfriend” and ran away with him as Renuka did and a  friend of the cook’s who lived close by and could come for a few hours was berated by her husband for leaving her own children to look after another as Mangala alleged. Priyanka stayed a whole ten days. When I left for Delhi with my child, I gave her a few days off to enjoy herself and come back. But she never did. Apparently, her brother found a husband for her took her to the village and got her married off. Oh yes, even she took her full salary and left.

Maids are the Modern Woman’s ailment. We can cope with aches and pains, we can manage four inch cysts to 36 hour deliveries, we can handle bad bosses and painful in laws. We can even survive poverty, bloatedness, and moving houses a hundred times. What we cannot deal with is how to endure bad maids, or lack of them.

My foreign friends make fun of me. They say I have the benefit of having “help” in my life and they do not have any. I wonder if we are better off as Indians to have that much of “help.” Abroad, you cannot hire anyone unless you have background checks, social security numbers, and reference calls. Here we ask, “When will you start?” As much as I do not like my child being brought up by a maid, I don’t have an option of a large joint family who can look after her. She refuses to stay in crèches and day cares even though I have tried to leave her. Moreover, asking friends to look after my child while I go make a career for myself is neither ethical on them nor me as a mother. The guilt for mothers will remain. A successful career or time with your child. The eternal conflict.

A good friend once told me, “The Perfect Maid doesn’t exist. It’s like the Perfect Man. They’re both urban legends!”

I envy the people who have great maids. Farah Khan would not have been able to direct two movies if she did not have three people looking after her three children. Angelina Jolie would not be able to save the world in her Lara Croft outfit if she didn’t have 5 maids looking after her 5 children.

There will be a constant problem with the maids. Therefore, I have figured out a few solutions:

·         Find a neighbour who’s reliable who can babysit the child for a few hours while you do urgent work in office.

·         Figure out flexi timings with your office so you can work around your husband’s schedule and child’s school. Alternatively, can work at night once she sleeps and you can go back to office/ send out things from home.

·         Ask the husband/ family to look after her 2 days in the week while you tell your office that you will work weekends if given 2 days off in the week.

·         Find a good crèche or day care close by where you can settle your child for the whole day.

·         Move closer to people whom you can leave your child with – friends or family. Pay them well. Deposit money into their accounts or buy them expensive presents every month as a thank you.

·         Keep a battery of maids. If one goes, at least you have another to back up without jeopardizing your work.

·         Tell your husband you need time off for yourself every week to replenish your resources to manage a house and child.

After watching the back of nine maids in the last two years, I have learnt the most important thing is to breathe correctly and not panic. I know that it is not my fault that they are leaving since I make all attempts to make them feel at home. Nevertheless, I know that my child and my career are equally important. Sometimes the house need not be perfectly clean. And sometimes it’s ok if the child doesn’t eat healthy food or watches too much television. I know that I have the strength to become the best at what I do even though it may take time. But I know I don’t have to pressurize myself in doing so immediately. In the meantime, I pray every night to the God of Maids for rewarding my patience and finding me that Ideal House Help.

Bombay Times Reviews Losing My Virginity And Other Dumb Ideas!!!

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDExLzA0LzAxI0FyMDQ2MDI%3D

Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas by Madhuri Banerjee Kaveri is thirty, single, knows seven languages, is an interpreter by profession, has read all the books about men and how to get a date. Yet all her bookish knowledge cannot get her a real date. Since ‘The One Great Love’ of her life has eluded her for thirty years, she decides she has waited enough and that it is high time she had some ‘action’— love or no love. On her thirtieth birthday, she makes a resolution to lose her virginity. But the path of love or lust is as twisted as it comes as her resolution takes her on a roller coaster ride and life will never be the same. Ideas, ideals about love and life will undergo a complete rehash, compelling her to rethink about all the benchmark that she has set for all the neatly compartmentalised sections of her life like love, family, friends, etc. The book starts off as a chicklit, goes on to become one of those M&B romantic tales and finally ends in Kaveri’s spiritual contentment very Paulo Coelho-esque. You have to be fond of all three genres to be able to enjoy Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas as it encompasses every womans’ journey of accepting herself and her life’s adversities.

Penguin Books, Rs 150

Rediff Review and Hot New Excerpt from Losing My Virginity & Other Dumb Ideas

Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas by media professional Madhuri Banerjee is the fictional story of Kaveri, a 30-year-old interpreter by profession whose aim is to 'figure out the language of love'.

By way of an excerpt, we bring you Chapter 21:

I was wrong. Her life wasn't about to change. Mine was.

He didn't SMS till the next afternoon. I had seriously started thinking the worst. But the worst was yet to come, when we met that night. He took me to a lounge where we could see the sea and listen to some nice jazz music, and the atmosphere was lovely. But the tension between us was unsettling.

I was wearing my Fendi jeans again, and a nice sleeveless white top with some long beads. My diamond studs in place, I felt I looked fresh enough for him not to even think about his wife anymore and cool enough for me not to be bothered even if he did mention her.

He looked great too with his two-day-old stubble and his casual chic grey pants and a striped black shirt.

As soon as we ordered drinks and starters, he started, 'Babe, I am so sorry about yesterday.'

'Don't worry about it,' I said, trying to act cool and mature. 'I'm perfectly okay, so let's plan another night. I mean, we should, na?'

He paused for a second. 'Of course, we can. I want to. I want to actually plan a holiday with you.' This came out of the blue. I would have thought he would have the courage to explain why he had dumped me yesterday and why he hadn't called all morning. But instead of sounding like a colossal crib-oid, I just went all giggly and teenager on him. 'A holiday? Really? That would be great. Where should we go?' I said straying from the topic.

'Anywhere you want.' The bearer came and gave us our drinks and we toasted to 'Greece in the summer!' The wife matter was like an elephant under the table that neither of us was willing to notice.

I was dying to ask the question, but since I didn't want to bring up the 'wife' topic I said instead, 'For how long should we go?' I know our conversation was veering towards the absurd, but I didn't care what we spoke about as long as it wasn't his marriage.

'We can go for four-five days. I mean, with both our work and all, I don't think we'll get more time than a few days off including the weekend, and with Maria at home in...' he trailed off.

I stopped drinking. There it was. A slip of the tongue or intentional I would not know, but finally it was out. Something was not right. He seemed unsure and yet eager to please. This was not like him. The man I knew was supremely confident, took charge, and would tell me if we were going on a holiday, where we were going, when and for how long. He would have made bookings and paid up and let me just pack my clothes. He wouldn't be hesitating and pausing. So I kept quiet. The waiter brought our order of food. I picked it up and offered it to him. He picked up a fork and a knife and gently cut it into four pieces and then offered the fork back to me. His manners were impeccable. Something that proved that he was nervous since he was generally a klutz. It was also a sign that he was playing for time. I waited for him to say something while I sipped my drink.

He had said her name. It was only right that I waited for him to elaborate or apologise. We had made a pact that we wouldn't say her name. We would only use 'her', 'she' or 'Mrs'. So it had slipped out.

'Kaveri, I need to tell you something.' I kept chewing. 'I want you to know that I love you,' he said with great conviction, though I could see he was holding his breath.

I felt better. Marginally. That was a nice thought. He loved me. I loved him. Whatever it was then, could be fixed.
'Maria is pregnant,' he blurted out.

At first I thought I hadn't heard right, so I wanted to say 'what?', but then I knew I had and didn't want to hear the name or that forbidden word in a sentence again, so I kept quiet.

I stopped eating. I couldn't swallow. I couldn't move. I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit him. But what I really felt was a wave of sadness pouring over me. I still wanted to act cool.

'I need a cigarette,' I said finally looking around. 'People in such situations feel better when they smoke.'

'But you don't smoke,' he interjected.

'So?' I retorted. I knew he was against smoking and secretly felt happy that I was going against his ideology. A rebellious act which seemed absurd compared to his. Yes. That's what I thought, I'll make him cringe like he had just made me cringe with his announcement. The comparison was stupid but it felt right at the time.

He remained quiet for some time till the bearer brought us a pack of cigarettes. I took one and the bearer lit it and left.

Arjun started speaking all at once, as if he was in a debate and was given only two minutes, after which the bell would go off ending his turn.

'This happened five months ago. She didn't tell me and she herself didn't know. It was on our trip to Paris, our last trip together where we decided that our relationship was not working -- our last night together, for old times' sake. And I promise you I haven't slept with her since then. I have been faithful to you for these last four and a half months. When we came back, she left for her parents' place and I thought she would come back to take her things and say it's finally over. She never once mentioned this even on the phone...' He trailed off.

I didn't know what to say so I kept quiet.

He looked at me and took my hand. I recoiled immediately. I didn't want to be touched. I just wanted a plan, now that my dreams had been shattered.

'Baby,' he started, 'I love you...'

'I don't see how,' I interrupted softly.

'Don't say that. I didn't know.'

'Is that why you cancelled on me yesterday?' I asked trying to make sense of this new development.

'Well, she came back early and I realised she was pregnant...'

'Obviously,' I said sarcastically. My maid's words came back to me. She had warned me that he was talking to his wife. Obviously he must have known or suspected something but didn't say anything to me.

He continued in the background while my mind was racing towards where my life would be headed now. 'Then when I was leaving, she tripped and cut her lip on the kitchen counter. I took her to the hospital and while the doc was asking her some questions as to what meds to give, she confirmed that she was pregnant for about five...' he trailed off again.

'Please stop saying it,' I said quietly. I wish I could have raved and ranted. Or at least thrown the drink on his face and walked out. That would have been what Aditi would have done. But I wasn't her. And I didn't know how to react. All I wanted was the pounding in my head to stop and for him to take back his words.

'Okay, I'm sorry.' He stopped talking for a while and we sat there in silence. Then he cleared his throat and learned over to speak, 'But I have a plan. So please hear me out.'

I started stuffing my mouth with food so I wouldn't start sobbing.

'I didn't know about this. She tricked me. I have been completely yours since we've met. I want to have you in my life because I can't see myself without you. So please tell me what you want after hearing me out okay?'

I desperately wanted to say okay and hear him out, but I couldn't. 'I don't know,' I heard myself saying. I could have just left. This man was going to have a child with another woman, his wife, in fact. Where did I fit into any of this anyway? Wasn't having a family a deal breaker in relationships?

The little voice in my head started again: who made these rules anyway? What does your heart say?

Should I ask him to leave her and be with me? A moral voice in my head said it was wrong. He was the Father. He had to do the Right Thing. Would his parents help her? Maybe, maybe not. How could I do this to her? What kind of an unscrupulous human being would I be?

But I knew I could not be with him either. Well, that's what I thought for now. 'I think we should break up,' I said. Though my heart was breaking just saying it.

'Please Kaveri. Please don't do that. We can work this out together.'

'How?' I said, almost in tears now.

'Please give me some time before I can be with you. Right now, I suppose I'll be around when she needs me and once the baby is three or four months and she is more settled I'll find her a place of her own, get her a good maid who can look after the baby, set the infrastructure up, and then I can be with you.'

It was logical. And less heartless.

'But wouldn't you want to be part of the baby's life? Her life?' I asked trying to blink away my tears and my shattered dreams.

'I don't feel a part of this baby. It was one night in Paris where she tricked me to save this marriage. I had specifically told her that it was the last time, as a goodbye and thank you for spending so many years together. I didn't know this was going to happen. Hell, she even said it was the "safe" time.'

He began to make sense in some odd way. Or had I completely lost my sense of self worth?

'And since five months are already up, it's only a matter of a few more. I'll be free of her and be yours completely. Kaveri, you have to believe me, I've never felt this way about anyone. After all, it has only been four months since we've known each other and I'm already "committed" to you. I was with her for twelve years and there was never anyone after her. Until I met you.' He pleaded. He was almost begging me not to leave. I had never seen a guy like this before.

I did love him. He was the first man I had slept with. The only man I ever wanted to be with. If he was genuine about what he was saying, I could have a future with him.

He saw a ray of hope in my eyes and continued, 'Please trust me. I want to do the right thing for all of us.'

He was a good man. Maybe I could wait. After all, what were a few more months? It was just a little more than half a year. And half a year slips by so quickly that even gym memberships would get over before you could actually attend the gym. My head was swimming in a sea of confusion and pain.

'I don't know, Arjun. I really don't know. I need time to think. I need to be alone right now,' saying that, I got up and left the place. He tried to run after me. But I was too far gone. I had got into a cab and left. I needed to breathe. I needed to cry. I needed to call Aditi and tell her that she had been right.

And I had been so wrong.

Has the line between sex and love ever blurred in your experience? What was your first time like -- did it work out, or were you taken for a ride? Share your relationship stories with us. Write in to getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'My First Time') and we'll publish the best entries right here on rediff.com

Excerpted from Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas (Rs 150) by Madhuri Banerjee, with the permission of publishers Penguin Books India [ Images ].http://inwww.rediff.com/getahead/2011/apr/01excerpt-losing-my-virginity-and-other-dumb-ideas.htm

An article in Spanish online/paper abt me & my book

Igor G. Igor G. Barbero Barber

Nueva Delhi New Delhi

 A new generation of young artists want to talk openly about sex in India, the land of Kamasutra, where this type of literature slowly begins to carve a niche among the more liberal a society still very conservative.

 In "Losing my Virginity" (Penguin, 2011), author and screenwriter Madhuri Banerjee says the adventures and misadventures of a girl who, after staying a virgin until age 30 without having found "true love", decides to radically change her life.

"In my book, basically I mean a woman has the right to explore their sexuality whenever and wherever you want, should not be restricted by the pressure of society," said Banerjee in an interview with Efe in Bombay.

 The author deals with in its pages issues like infidelity, premarital sex or multiple relationships, and adds to a generation of writers and artists who do not blush when you delve into areas still held by many guardians of morality.

Raj Rao, considered the author of India's first gay novel ("The Boyfriend", 2003), or Dhanvat Siddarth Shanghvi, who in his short but prolific life has written of love, karma, or sexuality.

 Many of these pens are based on the most liberal Mumbai, a metropolis in constant turmoil and sharp contrasts, which in turn is the seat of the powerful film industry Bollywood.

According to Banerjee, the situation has begun to change, especially in the last five years, in line with the emergence of social communication virtual networks or more movies that revolve around women, but admitted that the youth still has ideas "very wrong "and are misinformed.

Annual surveys like the India Today weekly magazine show that nearly 70 percent of Indians are virgins at marriage and only 18 percent confessed infidelity, according to a study last year.

In a more recent issue of Outlook, released in January, 46.4 percent of young respondents said that having sex is just physical need for culture negative.

 "There is hypocrisy. On the one hand, we are the land of Kamasutra and secondly we have a society that is telling you that sex is bad, we are the country of religiosity. For many, the Kamasutra happened long ago and did not come today in depth unless it is done in jest, "said Banerjee.

A twist occurred in 2008 when a British-Indian entrepreneur Puneet Agarwal caused great controversy when it launched the first online pornographic comic Asian giant, which, as the operator said in several interviews, was used to facilitate the sexual revolution in the country.

"Savita bhabhi, housewife india is embroiled in all sorts of games and sexual fantasies, soon became a mass success and thousands of web sites to reproduce the cartoons, until the summer of 2009 the government of India-where pornography is illegal, closed the page.

According to the sociologist Sudhir and Katharina Kakar, authors of "The Indians" (2007), although ironically the Kamasutra is one of the few books in Sanskrit that many people are able to mention, among the country that coined this work and contemporary India "many centuries in which the company managed to enter the dark times of sexuality."

 According to Kakar marriage, some blame it to the Muslim invasions, others Victorian morality in the British Empire, but if there is a major cause must look at Indian culture in itself and its commitment to the ascetic ideal and the virtues of celibacy preached by Gandhi.

For Banerjee, who in her novel, the protagonist Kaveri is unike her more promiscuous friend, Aditi. Women in India might have gone to bed with 40 men but will never proclaim it.  "Some will (a link)  say that they are still virgins," she said.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.listindiario.com.do%2F%2Fla-vida%2F2011%2F3%2F25%2F182380%2FLa-literatura-abre-un-espacio-para-hablar-de-sexo-en-la-India

An article in The Hindu abt my book Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas

Made for the metros

The latest novels from Penguin's Metro Reads keep up their date with breezy, fast-paced tales

LIGHT, NOT FRIVOLOUS With these books, publishers say the thrust is on “honest literature”
A series that smacks of the times. Metro Reads from Penguin, launched early last year, spins out quick, breezy reads tailor-made for the fast-paced lives in metros and towns. After the first three books of the series created enough flutter, the publishing house has brought out its second and third part over the past few months.
The five books, “With or Without You”, “The Premier Murder League” and “Close Call in Kashmir” along with the two launched in March, “Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas” and “Love on the Rocks”, keep abreast the underlying idea of the series. From chic-lits to whodunit to cricket and corporate boardrooms, they embrace genres while keeping the mood light, though the content would hardly spur an invigorating thought process. A walk down a less trodden path for Penguin.

“It was an untapped market,” says senior commissioning editor, Penguin India, Vaishali Mathur. The idea bounced from observing contemporary lives, especially in the cities — friends and family who have moved in from towns and the ensuing change in their lifestyles. “The first thing we lose is the reading habit. It becomes too difficult to sustain with the Internet, iPad, all making it too much to handle,” she adds. It is the need of the times these books pay heed to, according to the publishers. Page-turners for the quick-paced, the books are all a little over 200 pages long and uniformly priced at Rs.150.
With the series, Penguin also seems to be walking a fine line. Though never literary, the books are meant to boast a formidable story. “Fast, breezy with a strong storyline. It should not be frivolous or repetitive. It should have a great storyline and is not about being literary or non-literary,” asserts Vaishali.
With the series, the accent is on “honest literature”, she says, and it is merely a matter of coincidence that most authors are first-timers. For debutante author and media professional Madhuri Banerjee, her novel “Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas” may fall in the chic-lit slot, but its virtue is superior editing. “I feel a lot of chic-lit is not good writing and that gives a bad name to the genre. At Penguin, there were many editing sessions and of high standards,” says the Mumbai-based writer.

Madhuri's protagonist, a la Bridget Jones, is 30 and still a virgin. “I wanted to look at how hypocritical our society is when it comes to matters of sex and virginity and how a modern woman grapples with them. I wanted it to be a breezy, fun read and not a research-based, non-fiction account tracing it from the ‘Kamasutra.'”
Corporate guy Partha Sarathi Basu with his debut novel “With Or Without You” gives a ringside view of the world he is familiar with — of cutthroat competition, blind ambition and yardsticks of success in the corporate world. In the novel he wrote across nine months in his spare time and during travel, the author plucks out dialogues and conversations from everyday life. “I wanted to use simple language, the one we use daily. I also wanted it to be an easy read,” says the Gurgaon-based writer. According to him, the idea was to get those to read, who never had the habit.

P. ANIMA

An Article in Times Life abt my book Losing My VIrginity and Other Dumb Ideas

The tale goes short!

Young India has a lot of stories to tell and has created a space with short fiction, Anuradha Varma reports

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



    STUCK in a doctor’s waiting room, the metro or awaiting a delayed flight? How about picking up Fish In Paneer Soup… no, that’s not a meal takeaway, but a book for your mind to snack on. There’s more where that comes from, with titles like Mom Says No Girlfriend, Can’t Die for Size Zero, Losing My Virginity & Other Dumb Ideas and Chocolate, Guitar, Momos gracing bookshelves.

    From office politics to teen chick-lit and urban angst, these books are often less than 200 pages between the covers, priced between Rs 95 and Rs 250 and written by authors drawn from the very readers they aim at — college students and those starting their careers. Interestingly, they are brought out by leading publishing houses that have caught on to the market savvy of catering to the young and restless with attention spans to match.

    Author Shobhaa De is supportive of the trend, “The shorter, snappier, more affordable book fits in perfectly with the shorter, snappier attention spans of today’s young readers. It is hard enough to get youngsters to pick up books in today’s ‘virtual’ times... publishers have to seduce them with material that reflects their lives, their concerns.”

    Adds Vaishali Mathur, senior commissioning editor, Penguin Books India, which has launched Metro Reads, “For the reader who travels around, has a shortage of time and doesn’t have the pa tience to lug around heavy books, we have these books that have a good, gripping storyline and accessible stories that they can read in their everyday lives.”

    While Penguin aims at publishing six to seven such books a year, Rupa has pushed their figure to 50 annually. For Kapish Mehra, MD, Rupa & Co, it was the phenomenal success of Chetan Bhagat’s Five-Point Someone that changed the rules of the game. “We began with campus fiction and went on to chick-lit (such as Pink or Black by 18-year-old author Tishaa) and corporate fiction.”

    While Kapish terms originality of an idea, continuity of thought and a target audience as the hallmark of a good book, most do not make the literary cut, barring a few such as Paritosh Uttam’s Dreams in Prussian Blue (Penguin) and Rajorshi Chakraborti’s The Balloonists (Tranquebar), where the protagonist ups and leaves his girlfriend when she announces her pregnancy, to contact another ex-girlfriend, accompanied along the way by her exboyfriend.

    A Pune-based software engineer, Paritosh was 26 years old when he wrote the short story in 2003 that Penguin asked him to expand into a novel in 2009. He says, “The theme is relationships among the urban youth, of love, loss, longing and ambition. The target reader is the young urban reader, probably in college or just out of it.” Paritosh has also edited and contributed 10 stories to Urban Shots, published by Grey Oak.

    For filmmaker Madhuri Banerjee, author of Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas, the epiphany happened when a friend accidentally told her that she was 30 and still a virgin. Madhuri recalls, “That was the germ of the idea. I was 33 when I started writing the book. It took a few months to write it. I wrote mostly at night after the birth of my daughter who kept me awake most of the time.”

    Communications professional Deep Ghatak, author of Fish In Paneer Soup, finds that publishing houses are more receptive to new age writing and m ove q u i c k ly from acc e p - tance to the proofing stage, although there remain some “that don’t even follow guidelines specified on their own we b s i t e s ” . Blogger and mom Parul Sharma made the transition to writing a book with Bringing up Vasu and followed it up with By The Water Cooler.

Ismita Tandon Dhankher, author of romantic thriller Love on the Rocks, recalls when the writing bug bit her, “I began sailing with my husband in 2006 and discovered that sailors are colourful company. I was 26 years old when I just started doing poetry on the deck one evening, and that one poem changed it all!”

    Before landing a publisher, Ismita says she faced at least a dozen rejections in the mail box every month, sometimes more.

    When freelance writer Sonali Ghosh Sen decided to write a book, it was as the outpourings of a fan for Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan in Kkkrazy About Khan. She says, “I’ve aimed it at what I like to call the ‘Shah Rukh generation’ — people who’ve grown up with his movies and who’ll relive those years with fondness when they read the book.”

    So, can just about anyone be a writer… and is that necessarily a bad thing? Shobhaa De doesn’t think so. She says, “Of course, anybody can be an author! Isn’t that wonderful? I have always said, ‘There is a book in everyone’. The only question is whether or not the person wants to write it!”

    She admits, “Well... some books are terrific, some are plain bad. It’s a whole new language out there, a different ball game, a fresh market. Why sniff at innovation?”

    Why, indeed? So, if you were toying with that idea for a book, this is the time to go for it. Who knows, a publisher may be waiting for just that manuscript to pop into their inbox!

anuradha.varma@timesgroup.com

Bitten by the writing bug: Madhuri Banerjee (left), Rajorshi Chakraborti (centre) and Parul Gupta