Books
Books
While I was steadily editing books on a range of subjects, I had begun to write my first novel, and was fortunate enough for it to be picked up by Penguin India. Several books of fiction and non-fiction followed over the next few years (a total of 9 books so far). And I am currently working on my 4th novel, titled Hiding In Plain Sight. I am currently uploading a chapter a week, as I write, on my Facebook page – a way of staying connected to a readership right from the beginning of the creative process.
3, Zakia Mansion
Penguin Books
It is the story of an urban Indian family in the Mumbai of the decades following the seventies. The story centres on Shaheen, a daughter who witnesses the slow fraying of the family fabric. Changing times, outmoded attitudes, a life-changing event within the family – all these come together in a cauldron from which Shaheen must leap out. The story spans about 25 years over which the family disintegrates in ways that only two people, Shaheen and Ehsaan, really understand. And with understanding comes the burden of memory and of acceptance.
It’s a tale simply told, tracing the fates of a family with its universally recognizable share of neurotic relatives, bizarre attitudes, humour and hilarity in the most unlikely of places, tragic happenings, irreparable damage, and salvation for some. The writer leads you with ease through a span of three decades and the timeless theme of drifting, dropping anchor at the wrong places and ultimately learning to journey on without maps.
The Counsel of Strangers
OMO Books
There are six reluctant guests at a boisterous Indian wedding up in a hill resort. It is the last place that they want to be, troubled as they are, by the recent events in their lives. They are strangers to one another. In a bid to side-step some of the festivities, they look for somewhere quiet, where they can drop the pretense of normalcy. They slip away to a spot, a viewing gallery suspended over the forest and river below . This is when they meet each other and begin to talk. As dusk turns to night and then dawn, their stories emerge. There is, for each one of them, a jagged journey behind them and a mapless one to come. The six people are: a 72 year old retired air force man; a 60 year old woman academic; a 58 year old nurse; a 41 year old voice-over artist woman; a 30 year old TV anchorman; and a 14 year old schoolboy.
Under an alien sky, amongst strangers, they have all felt safe to speak right out, things that they have never aired or voiced before.
Sometimes the best clarity and counsel comes from strangers.
Three-Dog Night
HarperCollins Publishers India
As Viva turns sixty-one, she decides to begin to bow out gracefully from life. But just as she has begun to back-pedal, de-clutter, disengage, go monochrome and all the other things people her age are supposed to do, life comes romping in again, with all its insistent, multi-coloured demands. Finding a fine balance between her old life and a new one that is opening up right in front of her eyes, is not easy. But Viva deftly bats the many googlys and doosras that life throws at her, playing her second innings with an inventive grace. Peopled with characters and events that range from the luminous to the ludicrous, Three-Dog Night is imbued with all the drama of lives passionately lived, with nerve and verve.
More ABCs of Parenting
Random House
The 21st century brings with it its own pressures on parenting – right from wondering whether to become a parent at all, to wondering if you are simply falling down as a parent every day!
Children are maturing earlier, and the elderly and experienced in our families have suddenly become irrelevant, or we have made them so.
Based on the questions that crop up time and again in Gouri Dange’s counselling practice, and in her long-running Q & A column for the weekend supplement, Lounge (the daily paper Mint), the topics for this book take into account the everyday exigencies to the more nuanced needs of both parents and children.
Yoyo-nama
OMO Books
Yoyo-nama. Like the Babur-nama, the Akbar-nama, the Shah-nama, this is a chronicle of the life and times, the 14-year reign, of a terrier named Yoyo, no less a Mughal in his own way. Starting out on an uncertain unwanted note, Yoyo found his real home, and quickly established himself as the quirky, sometimes charming, sometimes exasperating head of this household. His sparklingly unpredictable personality, paradoxically, brought purpose and focus into his owner’s then-floundering life. The reader will encounter here, Yoyo, his many shenanigans, and his legion of minions, fans and victims.
Belly Dancing – A Romp Through the World of Food
Notion Press
Food is a subject that simply grows bigger and bigger and readers/listeners seem to never have enough.
This is a collection of the writer’s food-related writing that ranges from the humourous, the sentimental, the nostalgic, the sociological, the anecdotal. The pieces, in 7 sub-sections, look at food, markets, cuisines, cultures, chefs, kitchen experiments and foibles, traditions, changing tastes. The book is a smorgasbord, a buffet, for the reade/listener, with its varied offerings.
Tipri & Khandu – Varun & Yoyo
OMO Books
Meet Tipri, the uber-cool cat. And Khandu, an anxious little dog. She teaches him many little lessons on how to stay safe, dry, warm and find a nice array of food.
Yoyo the terrier wonders why Varun won’t play with him sometimes. And then he understands – humans have to learn to read-and-write, and dogs have duties too.
ABCs of Parenting
JAICO Books
For the parent-child interaction, there are no textbooks, no written tests, no diplomas and degrees – only experience, life’s many demands, and finally the satisfaction of strong and loving bonds. ABCs of Parenting echoes many of the concerns of everyday parenting. The book offers suggestions, solutions, and most importantly, food for thought – for all those for whom being a parent or a godparent is a demanding, dynamic and hugely rewarding role.
ABCs of Parenting holds many Universal Truths that are contained within us all but are often forgotten in the hurly-burly of everyday parenting. Devoid of jargon and judgements, the book is an enjoyable as well as illuminating read, cover to cover.
Always A Parent
Fingerprint Publishers
Always A Parent looks at the many ways in which the parent and child relationship continues to remain one of our most important, even when it has moved beyond the early years. The book looks at managing the new imperatives that come with the maturing of children and the ageing of parents, in such a way as to avoid the usual pitfalls of overdependence at one end of the spectrum, and neglect and disconnect at the other end of it. This book offers solutions to unresolved family knots. It highlights how cleaning up our communication can save the family and the individuals in it, and help them remain connected in a healthy and enabling way. The contents of this book apply to just about every kind of family, across class, caste, community, and country lines.