Soliloquy

Nirmala peered into the windows of Om Nama jewellers. Heavy gold necklaces, like the ones locked in a box in Bikash’s possession and saved up for a rainy day, were displayed with wanton, vulgar opulence. When would she wear one again? She was reminded of corpses of married women decked in red wedding sari prepared for their pyre. Her gold would not melt with her. They would line her husband’s purse. Once again, she felt the pang of a lost child. A daughter would have been the proud bearer of such finery. Then again, she could have been a tom boy and shunned such feminine trinkets. Then again… an ugly thought pierced her mind, ‘she’, the unborn, could have been violated after birth. If she was not allowed to survive in her womb, what chance would she have outside?

Most stories begin in childhood. They appear in our first drawings, our childish patter and crucially the make-believe world we weave when playing with dolls, paper airplanes or invisible friends. These are the beginnings of a creative project. As we grow up, life steers us in other practical directions until those first imaginative steps are erased from our consciousness. But if we take time to connect with our creative soul, that world can be recreated with simple tools: paper and pen. Writers are usually avid readers and it’s a great place to start. Books feed our imagination, teach us our craft, inspire and uplift. But some books take us further when the characters leap out of the pages and populate our world, hovering over us like invisible, benign spirits like Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Moliere’s Alceste. Some like Meursault in The Outsider can have a lasting effect on a young reader’s mind. When I first read the novel at the age of fourteen, the emotional detachment of this ch

Join Anjana Chowdhury in Grenoble, France, on May 16 from 7-8 pm for the book launch of her debut novel Under the Pipal Tree. Set in India this story is told from the viewpoints of two women who represent the polar ends of society – the affluent and the impoverished. Their stories merge and boundaries are redrawn between a mother, daughter and her childhood nanny. There will be a short reading followed by book signing. Copies of the books will be available on the night at 12 euros each. Cash payments only please. Venue: Salle Polyvalente ‘Les Vignes’, 3 Avenue Marechal Randon. Tram B stop : La Tronche Hopital. Drinks and nibbles provided. RSVP: Anjana.chowdhury@hotmail.com

Fabulous book launch on 28 March for Under the Pipal Tree at West Greenwich library courtesy of Cinnamon Press. The room buzzed with enthusiasm and I could not have asked for a better audience.  Under the Pipal Tree is available from Amazon on Kindle and paperback. It can also be ordered directly from Cinnamon Press. The book has many themes - mother and daughter relationships, marriage, religion, mental health and social inequalities. It raises many questions about how we understand each other, about truth and its implications, about possibilities. How in one moment your life could change forever.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XJ2HSBH/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492621339&sr=1-1&keywords=under+the+pipal+tree

Book launch of Geranium Woman in Paris Hazel Manuel is a UK born novelist whose writing follows a career in education, first as a teacher/lecturer and after as a business leader within the education sector. Hazel now lives and writes full-time in Paris. The Geranium Woman, published by Cinnamon Press is Hazel’s latest novel and is a rare and timely glimpse into boardroom politics as seen through female eyes. Issues of gender, personal autonomy, and corporate responsibility are all explored with a deft yet nuanced touch in this ambitious and thought-provoking tale. The Geranium Woman has been launched in India and Paris and will be launched in the UK at Zestfestin June. Details may be found here: http://thezestlife.co.uk/zest-fest-top-line/ What inspired you to write The Geranium Woman? The Geranium Woman has been an absorbing and exciting project for me. Before moving to Paris, I worked in the corporate world, sitting on Boards of Directors for many year

I am hardly ever lost for words but a blank screen is another thing. Face it as you would a friend. Just chat for a while. Scribble. And soon thoughts will flow.  Having finished the first draft of my second novel, a psychological thriller, No Missed Call I was for a while stuck in a literary limbo. What next? Should I send it to a professional for feedback or plunge right in with editing? The standard advice is to put the manuscript away for a few months and then attempt editing thereby giving your brain a chance to gain objective distance. But as I needed to polish the opening pages for a course application I decided to jump right into the editing phase. So far so good. While the story is fresh in my mind, I find myself catching errors, inconsistencies, gaps in the plot and sentences that are clunky and need rewriting. My pet hate used to be editing, enjoying the first fling with the characters and abandoning them in their barely clad personalities. But now, I am actuall