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For the October 2016 Muse of the Month, we take inspiration from Anuja Chauhan. The 5 best entries will be published.
Step 1. Read the writing cue (which is either a direct quote from the featured author, or a quote from one of their works, mentioned down below) and get inspired.
Step 2. Write your own story/poem/narrative/essay/piece based on the cue. You could use it as the opening line, the closing sentence, or somewhere in between! You could even choose not to use it anywhere in your story – just write a story using the cue as a prompt. (And the ‘story’ can be fictional – or not – as you wish).
Step 3. Send your work to us. Please email it to [email protected] with ‘Muse of the month – October 2016’ in the subject line, and your story as a word/txt attachment. Do include the name we should use if we publish it, and a brief introduction of yourself (2-3 lines) in the mail.
Please note: Given the number of entries received, we won’t be able to respond to each, but every single entry is being read through very carefully and is much appreciated.
Please send in your stories by Tuesday, 18th October, by 3 p.m. IST. The 5 best stories will be published on Women’s Web between 24th Oct to 28th October, one on each day.
The material should be previously unpublished elsewhere. (Copyright stays with you and you’re free to subsequently publish it elsewhere).
Keep it between 250 and 2000 words. (Please keep this in mind; in past editions, we have had to disqualify some good entries purely due to word count issues).
Please avoid typing the story as inline text. Send it as an attachment only.
The 5 best entries will each win a Flipkart voucher worth Rs 250. Plus, there will be 10 overall winners at the end of 2016 from among these winners!
Anuja Chauhan is an author and advertiser, and is often called the best writer of the commercial fiction genre. She worked in advertising for almost two decades before quitting her job as a vice-president of JWT (J. Walter Thompson) to take up full time writing. 17 years of advertising made her realise her true love of writing. As she says, “Advertising is like writing in a very tight box. I had begun to tire of it.”
Born in an army family, she grew up in various cantonments, finally doing her post graduation from Australia. As a teenager she would concoct stories to entertain her friends. She is often referred to as the literary pop-star owing to her elegantly spicy and witty urban slang, use of hinglish, and a humorous take on the absurdities of Indian life. Her male characters are delectable and female characters are strong women, because she likes girls to have strength of character…those who have a larger life plan with a perpetually thinking brain.
Her first two books, The Zoya Factor (2008) and The Battle For Bittora (2010) happened during her full time job. With her third book Those Pricey Thakur Girls (2013) being converted to a television serial, she has taken up screen writing as well. Her latest offering The House That BJ Built is a sequel, which again revolves around the Thakur girls and family drama.
With a love for big houses that shows in her stories too, she stays with her husband, who is a television producer, and their three kids in Bangalore, and hopes her house is the place where her grandchildren would come and visit.
“If I had low self-esteem, how could I have done what I did tonight?” – Anuja Chauhan, Those Pricey Thakur Girls
Do not forget to send in your entries by Tuesday, 18th of October, 3 p.m. IST.
Image source: facebook
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Rajshri Deshpande, who played the fiery protagonist in Trial by Fire along with Abhay Deol speaks of her journey and her social work.
Rajshri Deshpande as the protagonist in ‘Trial by Fire’, the recent Netflix show has received raving reviews along with the show itself for its sensitive portrayal of the Uphaar Cinema Hall fire tragedy, 1997 and its aftermath.
The limited series is based on the book by the same name written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost both their children in the tragedy. We got an opportunity to interview Rajshri Deshpande who played Neelam Krishnamoorthy, the woman who has been relentlessly crusading in the court for holding the owners responsible for the sheer negligence.
Rajshri Deshpande is more than an actor. She is also a social warrior, the rare celebrity from the film industry who has also gone back to her roots to give to poverty struck farming villages in her native Marathwada, with her NGO Nabhangan Foundation. Of course a chance to speak with her one on one was a must!
“What is a woman’s job, Ramesh? Taking care of parents-in-law, husband, children, home and things at work—all at the same time? She isn’t God or a superhuman."
The arrays of workstations were occupied by people peering into their computer screens. The clicks of keyboard keys were punctuated by the occasional footsteps moving around to brainstorm or collaborate with colleagues in their cubicles. Most employees went about their tasks without looking at the person seated on either side of their workstation. Meenakshi was one of them.
The thirty-one-year-old marketing manager in a leading eCommerce company in India sat straight in her seat, her eyes on the screen, her fingers punching furiously into the keys. She was in a flow and wanted to finish the report while the thoughts and words were coming effortlessly into her mind.
Natu-Natu. The mellifluous ringtone interrupted her thoughts. She frowned at her mobile phone with half a mind to keep it ringing until she noticed the caller’s name on the screen, making her pick up the phone immediately.
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