We're going to read my hOle book, The Clockwala's Clues at my book club in April 2025! I've done many author events based on the book, but they've all been in-person sessions. Looking forward to my first online session with the book. Puzzles Jasmine and Sheba love puzzles. Do you? Can you solve a set of puzzles about clocks and time? Tongue Twisters If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?How fast can you say that? Have fun with Clockwala Uncle’s tongue twisters, trying to say each tongue twister faster and faster every time you try! Idiom Quiz There are so many idioms about time! Let's race against time and try to beat the clock as we do a quiz on idioms related to watches, clocks and the time. Join a book club! The Clockwala's Clues is part of a lovely series of … [Read more...]
Five Fictional Friendships I Loved Writing
Three years ago, to celebrate Friendship Day, I wrote about five times fictional friendships won my heart. For Friendship Day 2023, here's a post about five fictional friendships I enjoyed writing. And because I can't choose which one to write about first, I've put them down in the reverse order of publication. Dhara's Revolution "I wish for you a best friend as special as Carol. Equally, I wish that each of you can be like Carol for someone in your life"That's from the acknowledgments page of Dhara's Revolution, a book that's hot off the press and will be released at the end of this month. Carol and Dhara have a very special kind of friendship. They make charts together, even if they're competing. They learn each other's speeches.Until one day, the don't.A book about friendship and rivalry, I loved writing about Carol and Dhara and what makes them the friends they … [Read more...]
My Year in Writing: 2021
The year 2020 was such a boost to me as a writer! With a poem published by OUP, a picture book, a chapter book, a middle-grade book and a collection of short stories, how could 2021 even hope to compete?Even so, with two publications, an award shortlist, a book going into reprint and tons of reviews, 2021 was quite lovely too! How Big Is a Whale Shark? I wrote my first nonfiction picture book! It wasn't easy, but I enjoyed the process tremendously. Best of all, though, are the stunning illustrations. Mandar Mhaskar made How Big Is a Whale Shark? what it is with a beautiful colour palette and humorous illustrations. I love the artwork!Of course, the best part about being published on StoryWeaver is the number of languages into which the book gets translated. It's already available in four languages and will soon (hopefully) be out in … [Read more...]
Book Spotting!
When my first book, The Story-Catcher, was published, we started playing a game. We would go to every bookstore in every city we visited and try to find a copy of the book. It was impossible. And yet, it was exciting. I even got a spreadsheet from my publishers, listing the stores in which my book would be available, and we went to those stores in the city, hunting.I never found my book. Not even when it was on display like this:This was at Crossword, Mulund. Look at the number of copies on the shelf. You guessed right. I didn't see them.This was in the shop window of Chapter and Verse (now shut down), and I didn't see it. When I went for the Asian Festival of Children's Content in 2018, I knew my book Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells would be in print. I had not yet received my sample copies, and I didn't even know how the book looked. I hunted … [Read more...]
The Clockwala’s Clues – The Story Behind the Story
When I wrote of how Sisters at New Dawn and Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells came into being, I had every intention of documenting the journey of each published book.So much for that.It's been three months since The Clockwala's Clues was published, and I kept postponing writing the story behind the story. Yesterday, however, I visited Kolsa Gully, which inspired my Tipu Gully, so I decided to take a few pictures and finally write Clockwala Uncle's story.Unlike my other books, The Clockwala's Clues is heavily inspired by Pune, the city in which I grew up. In particular, it's based loosely on what is popularly called the Camp area, with its bakeries, old shops and diverse population.Here's an excerpt from the book:And here's a picture of Kolsa Gully: No, the key shop is not the first shop in the street, and no, it is not … [Read more...]
Reflecting on Reading on International Women’s Day
A few years ago, I was invited to judge a 'Come as a Character' competition at Symbiosis International School, and it was good fun. I encountered all kinds of characters, ranging from Matilda to Ebenezer Scrooge. I've now seen multiple schools that conduct similar activities; I've done so myself at my Writers' Club.Yet, for a while, I've been thinking about something that makes me rather uncomfortable. Dozens of girls dress up as Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton or Charlie Bucket. But no boys dress up as Matilda or Thea Stilton or Katniss Everdeen.This was brought into sharp focus recently, when a parent asked me for recommendations for a character for her son to dress up as. The idea of dressing him up as a female character seemed absurd to her. I wonder, would it have been as absurd to dress a daughter as a male character?Today, on international women's day, I find myself … [Read more...]
Happy Book News
On Saturday afternoon, the doorbell rang. It was a courier. For me. From Penguin Random House.When you receive an unexpected package, do you try to guess what it could be? I do. It was a slim package, so the easiest guess would be that it contained one book.But why would Penguin send me one book? Could it be a calendar? On the 6th of February? Or a review copy? But surely someone would have written to me saying they wanted a review!I opened it to find one copy of The Clockwala's Clues. There was no letter, nothing. I had no idea why my publisher would send me a copy of my book.So I wrote to my editor.Why did I receive another copy of The Clockwala's Clues?Probably a reprint! came the reply.Already? The book is less than two months old! But I was excited, so I opened the plastic wrap and looked to see if it said anywhere that it was a reprint. No. Nothing. Oh, well.My … [Read more...]
My Year in Writing – 2020
I'm beginning to write this post on a day when I received a miserable royalty report for one of my books for the year 2019-20. Yet, the year 2020 has been all kinds of wonderful in terms of publishing for me. So many of my projects have seen light of day, though they have suffered for it too, thanks to the pandemic. With ecommerce, distribution and retail taking a blow, perhaps it was not a great year to have books release. But how can I not be happy to see my work out there? Poetry Creatures of the Dark Published by Oxford University Press Buy Roots 5 January 2020 brought me my first publication of the year, and it was a first in many ways. It was the first time I had something published in a textbook, the first time I could download an app and watch an animated video of my poem, and the first time … [Read more...]