How did you know you wanted to be a writer? When did you decide to become a writer? Why did you become a writer?
These are probably the questions I hear most often from children during school visits. Honestly, I think the answers I give are wholly unsatisfactory because I cannot remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. During the summer holidays after class one, I began to write. I wrote in a five-line notebook, making sure the top of my f curved and touched the top line and the bottom curve touched the bottom line. I started ten stories that summer and I remember finishing at least six. I wrote about mice who turned into fairies, a dame who hated plants, a pixie who never drove or gave away his car and a pig who loved payasam. I wrote an Amelia Jane story, which my mother asked me to change to a story about a girl called Jane because Amelia Jane was Enid Blyton’s idea. That was my introduction to copyright and intellectual property.
The following year I wrote about a brownie who discovers a washing machine in a field and a journalist who interviews a spider that wants to take over the world.
And I never stopped writing. I won prizes once in a while, I received my first rejection letters before I turned 10, and I was ghosted by editors – all good preparation for my adult writing life!
My writing has come a long way since then. I worked for a while with Junior Herald, the children’s section of the Pune-based Maharashtra Herald, and I grew more disciplined about writing because I had to write a story a week. At the same time, I also contributed to a weekly column on myths from all over the world in addition to coordinating and writing for Campus Herald, the college page of the same newspaper.
My first major publication was in July 2010. An editor from Puffin wrote to me asking me if I was willing to write a sports story for an upcoming anthology, and I jumped at the idea. My story “The Nationals” was published as one of twelve in an anthology for children titled Let’s Play! The Puffin Book of Sports Stories. This book was reprinted and released with a new, swanky cover several years later.
In April 2012, Happy Squirrel (an imprint of Leadstart Publishing Pvt. Ltd.) published a collection of my short stories titled The Story-Catcher, which went on to become the second runner-up for the Parents Kids Choice Awards 2014.
From about 2014 to 2018, I worked on two series of books on trains in India. This was a fun project I undertook in association with the National Rail Museum in New Delhi, learning about trains, about Bholu (the mascot of the Indian Railways) and about the way engines work.
In 2016, another collection of short stories, Dragonflies, Jigsaws and a Rainbow was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award.
It was published as Dragonflies, Jigsaws, and Seashells by Scholastic Asia in September 2018 and was a finalist at the Singapore Book Awards 2019 for the Best Middle-Grade/Young Adult Title. In 2020, it was published by Scholastic India.
In 2018, I was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award once more, this time for a middle-grade novel titled Red Eyes. It was judged the first runner-up for the award and was published by Scholastic Asia in 2022 and Scholastic India in 2024.
Outside of the railway project, my first middle-grade novel was The Prophecy of Rasphora, published by Mango Books in 2018. In 2020, Young Zubaan published my next middle-grade novel, Sisters at New Dawn, a school story that was part of the NLF Reading Challenge 2023.
Side by side, I also wrote four picture books, all published by Pratham Books: Today I Am, What Will Happen?, How I Feel, and How Big Is a Whale Shark?
My first chapter book, The Clockwala’s Clues, was released in December 2020 and went into its first reprint less than two months later. Published by Duckbill Books, an imprint of Penguin Randomhouse India, it was shortlisted for the Neev Book Award 2021.
Karadi Tales published my second chapter book, The Best Idea of All in September 2021. Nested between chapter books and middle-grade books is a 2023 publication from Puffin Books, Dhara’s Revolution.
In 2023, Duckbill Books published my first novel-in-verse, Uncontrollable. Fantasy in verse is quite an ambitious project! In 2024, Duckbill published my second verse novel too, Fishbowl. This is another middle-grade book, one which explores grief, healing and mental health.
Other publications include three poems with Oxford University Press One is part of an ICSE textbook; the other two are part of their Reading Portal: Making a Clone and Nail Tree. I have a story in Flipped – Mystery Stories and Sci-Fi Stories, published by Harper Collins, another in Dance, Nani, Dance, published by Speaking Tiger, and articles and poems in online and physical magazines. Let’s see what’s next!
In addition to all this, I am also a classical dancer and teacher. I completed my Master’s degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University Kolkata in 2009, winning two medals for Shakespeare studies.
I now work with schools and publishers to conduct teacher training programmes, especially for English Language Teaching, reading and creative writing. Since 2020, I have also been conducting online reading and writing programmes for children.
A Bharatanatyam dancer with over 30 years of training, I have performed in India and abroad under the banner of the Academy of Indian Dances. That’s why my blog is about so many things – books, travel, workshops and writing!
