In conversation with Volga: Telugu literature, translations & more
An interview with Telugu writer Volga, about her novels, translations and more.
A Terrible Matriarchy by Easterine Kire
It is hard, sometimes, to pick up the best book out of many great books. And what is harder is the dilemma you face even though the options are nowhere in comparison. Laying in front of me were three great books: Dickens’ Great Expectations (which, by the way, I have been yearning to read for […]
Performing Arts and Indian Literature: Two sides of the same coin
In everyday life, we come across many kinds of performing arts – movies, plays, dance performances, singing shows, street plays, etc – each distinct in their own unique way. Even the tapping of your feet in sync to the beats, the strokes of a colour in a painting you pause to admire and the hymns […]
In conversation with: Anukrti Upadhyay
I first met Anukrti a few months ago, at the book launch of Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup. Purple Pencil Project was then known as onWriting.in, she had just written a book in Hindi (Japani Sarai) and Daura and Bhaunri were both slated for a May 2019 release. We spoke of peripheries of Hindi readership and literature, and exchanged numbers. […]
Traitor translated by Rakhshanda Jalil
Originally written in Urdu as Ghaddaar by Krishan Chander The air in August 1947 was laced with poison. The overcast monsoon skies spelt doom. The wind though laden with moisture caked the skin and parched throats dry. Little did the people of an undivided India know that a cataclysmic event would rip their lives apart […]
Indian Literature Post Independence: A throwback
A shift from Indian to Western, more magazines, and the inclusion of a semi-modern reality – Indian literature post independence bloomed from a black and white canvas into a multi-coloured billboard of different genres and styles, both entertaining and enabling. In a previous post, we spoke to some of our grandparents and the stories they […]
I’m So Hacked by Gautam Mayekar
In I’m So Hacked, a regular worker in a software company by day, @v! moonlights as a hacker. He takes sadistic pleasure in “hacking” people; not just their computer, but their very being. Every twitch, every minute facial expression is a clue and @v! prides himself on being able to hack people with ease. Despite […]
A Requiem in Raga Janki by Neelam Saran Gour
The first thing that intrigued me about the book was its title; I thought that Janki is the name of an actual “raga” and started searching for it. It was only then that Google informed me there is no Raga Janki in the music tradition. Rather, this book is based on the life of Janki […]
Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi’s Small Days and Nights is the latest addition to her much-admired oeuvre of poetry, dance and fiction. In this book, she spins the tale of two sisters. Grace is a woman in her mid-30s who leaves behind a husband, a house and a life in America to return to her roots and redeem […]
Poetry & more: Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal
Circus Folk & Village Freaks, poet and now author Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal’s debut work of fiction, is an interestingly told, engaging and outright fun set of stories that talk about the ‘others’ in our society. The Pune-based poet, of both the written and the spoken word formats, spoke to Purple Pencil Project about the journey […]
