Booked: Literary Events for April 2019
It’s a new month, a new week, a new financial year and with it, come a new line-up of literary events across India that we think you will enjoy. Event Name: Deciphering Poetry What’s it about: A poetry reading and gathering, a one of its kind initiative in northern Mumbai. Location: Vasai Fort (Fort Bassein), […]
Mosquito and Other Stories by Premendra Mitra
A must-read classic of Bengali Literature The Context The one joy of curating a website that focuses on Indian literature is also the amazing literary gems, classics and otherwise, that one encounter in the process. To do this, I make sure to visit local bookstores wherever I am travelling, go to libraries and read syllabi […]
Booked: Literary Events for March 2019
Looking for book-ish events in March? We looked around, and there is a little of everything happening, from conferences, plays based on literary characters, Event Name: Rumi Aur Manto What’s it about: A satirical play where Rumi and Manto bump into each other at a lit fest in today’s times. Location: Atta Galatta, Bengaluru Dates: […]
Filmi Keeda: The new book and film club in Mumbai
It gives me extreme (and very nerdy) pleasure to announce a collaboration with The Red Sparrow, a content destination for Indian films. Starting March, Purple Pencil Project and The Red Sparrow will be conducting a series of events and meetups under ‘Fimi Keeda’, a monthly or bi-monthly gathering of book and film lovers. While what […]
The Durbar: Celebrating verse in Hyderabad
In December last year, we partnered with the Ethos Literary Festival, a two-day long celebration of the verse, which was presented by Hawakal Publishers, a poetry press that has for a decade, committed to bringing out the best of contemporary Indian poetry. This time tomorrow, the same passionate duo of Kiriti Sengupta (Chief Editor of […]
Half the Night is Gone by Amitabha Bagchi
Towards the end of Amitabha Bagchi’s Half the Night is Gone, one of the lead characters returns as a kathavaachak at the funeral of his own father, and says these lines in his sermon. “My friends, it is said that there are four ghats from which Tulsi’s holy lake can be approached: the ghat of […]
Booked: Your guide to literary events in February
January was all about the literature festivals, and looks like at least some of it will be spilling into February. In this post, we bring you a list of literary events in the city, from college festivals with a book-ish focus, to open mics, poetry gatherings, book readings, conferences, seminars and more. (Have an event […]
The Really Big List of Award-Winning Indian Novels of 2018
Some new names and some old, some popular choices and some critically-loved. 2018 was an exciting year for Indian literature, a time when the reading, writing and publishing community took the spotlight and this list of award-winning books tries to present the stars of the year of Indian literature. Here is a quick roundup of […]
Chinatown Days by Rita Chowdhury: Tales from a lost town
I grew up in Maharashtra. Throughout school, our Indian history syllabus was restricted to the North and the West. The South was represented by such names as Tipu Sultan and the East ended at Bengal. It’s a pity that I perhaps know more about the French revolution and the American Revolution than I do about […]
On our new chapter, the Purple Pencil Project
The new year has come, for us, as the calm before the storm. Saurabh Garg started onWriting as an Indian book review blog way back in 2014 with the sole purpose of connecting with authors and gathering their thoughts on (yes) writing, and publishing occasional book reviews. This stayed pretty much the same until three […]
