Debut Indian Writers Challenge
What is this | What is in this for you | What’s fun without rules |The Debut Reads | The WordMavericks | The Reader-Winners
The Tales Pensieve & Random House Publishers India celebrate the advent of Indian writing talent world over
Be the Reader-Winner of November 2013 & read the intense tale of a dysfunctional family; a relationship exploration like never before in literature – between a grandfather and a grand daughter.
A Cool Dark Place explores the harrowing relationship Zephyr has with her grandfather Don and how actions impact our past and future. There is like we said a lot happening in the book – a relationship with a loved one in the afterlife, memories stored in bags, and getting family ties altogether, give the book its brilliant shape and structure. Supriya Dravid doesn’t disappoint for sure, so much so that you cannot believe that this is a debut.
Answer the questions in the form is all you have to do. Click for the rules – What’s fun without rules.
Just about a decade back, I would consciously never pick up a book by an Indian writer, to me those books were like the national award-winning films that were the Sunday afternoon entertainment on Doordarshan in the 90’s – deep but dark, long and boring – simply unfathomable!
Then, enters a generation of writers who caught the Indian reader by surprise by writing stories similar to the lives they were living and lo-and-behold – magic happened! We readers did not just read, we lapped it up. A crater of literary void was triggered open which demanded to be filled up.
Cut to book shopping today – When I walk into a Crosssword or Landmark, without contemplation or confusion I am headed towards the section – Indian Fiction/ Indian Books. The recommendations at these stores, the books of the month and topping the bestseller charts are works by Indian writers, in-fact most of the wishlist on Flipkart is also Indian now and nothing pleases this desi reader more 🙂
Celebrating this ecstatic turnaround for Indian readers and writers alike, here at The Tales Pensieve, a challenge is up till the end of this year.
A challenge to read and review a minimum of one first time Indian writer every month. That writer also gets featured here as the ‘WordMaverick of the Month‘.
(Lekhak log/ publishers do not ‘the’ disappoint us, let a debut writer be born every month.)
What is in it for you?
Books and fun galore; while savoring some variety Indian writing.
The challenge for you is – BwP – Be word Philanthropic, give it back – while we read books and write reviews, you read and write too! Answer the questions in the form herein.
The best answer every month wins a book from Random House Publishers India.
What is a challenge without roadblocks: Rules
1. The reviews that will be part of the challenge will be indicated likewise – Only reviews of books by debuting Indian writers are part of this challenge. We would love that; we would also love it, if you would like The Tales Pensieve page on FB 🙂
2. A valid competing entry for a month’s challenge would be any entry that lands in our inbox via this form herein from the date of posting of the book review to midnight (23:59 hours) of the last day of the month.
3. You are allowed only one submission, though you are free to participate every month irrespective of earlier wins (or attempts).
4. For the challenge – ‘Every month’ means from the 1st to the 30th/ 31st of the month & ‘Indian writer’ means any writer who is of Indian origin, may or may not be based out of India.
5. In cases of more than one debut writer getting reviewed in the same month, we will pick the WordMaverick of the month based on our ratings and on how much we enjoyed the word-journey.
6. We reserve the right to decide the winner, the WordMaverick of the month or even discontinue the contest at our discretion.
So bookwormies Get. Set. Let. the creativity flow, fill the Pensieve, make the decisions tough for us.
Meanwhile don’t forget to spread the word and share.
Want to read an Indian Debut? Here are the reviews of what we have read…
| Book Title | Author | WordMaverick | Reader-Winner |
| November 2013 | |||
| The Storm In My Mind | Ayaan Basu | ||
| The Wordkeepers | Jash Sen | ||
| An Incurable Insanity | Simi K. Rao | ||
| English Bites | Manish Gupta | ||
| Aisle Be Damned | Rishi Piparaiya | ||
| October 2013 | |||
| The Disappearance of Tejas Sharma And Other Hauntings | Manish Mahajan | ♥ | |
| Love, Films and Rock ‘n’ Roll | Swayam Ganguly | ||
| Complete/ Convenient | Ketan Bhagat | ||
| Faraway Music | Sreemoyee Piu Kundu | ||
| Lady, You’re Not A Man | Apurva Purohit | ||
| September 2013 | Pratibha Sofat | ||
| The Last War | Sandipan Deb | ♥ | |
| Bollywood Fiancé For A Day | Ruchi Vasudeva | ||
| August 2013 | Samarpita Sharma | ||
| The Virgins | Siddharth Tripathi | ♥ | |
| The Caretaker | A.X. Ahmad | ||
| July 2013 | Om Prakash Ranjan | ||
| Life..Love..Kumbh | Aporva Kala | ♥ | |
| June 2013 | Vishal Anand | ||
| The Karachi Deception | Shatrujeet Nath | ♥ | |
| Arty Facts | Ankita Kapoor | ||
| Polka Dots, Pony Tails and Purple Pouts | Amrita Anand Nayak | ||
| May 2013 | Priyanka Roy Banerjee | ||
| 2012 Nights | Vipul Rikhi | ♥ | |
| Murder in Amaravati | Sharath Komarraju | ||
| Arjuna | Anuja Chandramouli | ||
| The Secrets of the Dark | Arka Chakrabarti | ||
| The Homing Pigeons | Sid Bahri | ||
| April 2013 | Surya | ||
| Tantra | Adi | ♥ | |
| March 2013 | Priyanka Roy Banerjee | ||
| Luwan of Brida | Sarang Mahajan | ♥ | |
| A Splash of Love | Rajeev Ranjan | ||
| February 2013 | Muhammad Ashik | ||
| Jack Patel’s Dubai Dreams | P.G. Bhaskar | ♥ | |
| January 2013 | Balkha Parikh | ||
| The Stopover | Ram Prakash & Deepa Pinto | ♥ | |
| Chasing Maya | Rohan Gogoi | ||
| December 2012 | Sapna Katti | ||
| My Magical Palace | Kunal Mukherjee | ♥ | |
| Once Upon the Tracks of Mumbai | Rishi Vohra | ||
| November 2012 | Alpa | ||
| Red Jihad | Sami Ahmad Khan | ||
| Toke | Jugal Mody | ♥ | |
| October 2012 | Vinod George Joseph | ||
| An Idiot, Placements and IntervYOU | Toffee | ||
| Quarantine | Rahul Mehta | ||
| Thundergod | Rajiv G Menon | ||
| Mumbaistan | Piyush Jha | ||
| Death in Mumbai | Meenal Baghel | ||
| 3 Lives | Srini Chandra | ||
| The Shadow Throne | Aroon Raman | ||
| Untruly Yours | Smita Shetty | ||
| Boats on Land | Janice Pariat | ♥ | |
| Govinda | Krishna Udayasankar | ||
| September 2012 | Ronak Baj | ||
| Prey by the Ganges | Hemant Kumar | ♥ | |
| August 2012 | |||
| The Evolution of Gods | Ajay Kansal | ♥ |