Close to life, close to reality

Jasmine Singh

She soaks in the morning sun. The green around glows, something like a firefly. “I just love this city,” her voices travels around, blending with everything around. Anu Singh Chaudhary, the multi-tasker, who claims to have made this attribute of hers public and is in Chandigarh on the invitation of Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, brings in a ‘real’ smile with her real observations, real stories and real self.

We hit the track from the adjective multi-tasker. Anu laughs, without an effort, “Aren’t we all multi-taskers? I have just declared it. Come to think of it, women are born multi-taskers, even while driving, she would be thinking of what to cook at home. As for men, they are disciplined at work,” adds the writer who has made news with her book Neela Scarf, a collection of short stories in Hindi. “The idea is that people should read Hindi,” she speaks, letting the sun flood her completely.

Neela Scarf, a collection of stories that has come from seeing real things around. “Let’s say it is fictional stories of real characters and incidents.” Anu finds her closeness to everything real. Her next book, Mamma Ki Diary, also falls in this category. She first talks about her penchant for reality, “Attribute it to my training as a journalist or my travel, but we all are fascinated with real characters. And, we all have stories that we need to tell.”

Her book, Mamma Ki Diary, is like a memoir. As Anu puts it, “It is not some regular book on parenting. It is about real mothers sharing their real stories that happened over a period of almost 3-4 years.” Anu in this book brings about how raising children has changed in due course of time. I have spoken to mothers of my mother’s age who have shared their personal stories, so you will find stories with real names and some where I have withheld names,” she offers.

String attached

There is something about her that pulls the strings of your heart. Maybe it is because of the strings of a violin that she has been pulling as a kid. Giti Chandra, associate professor at the department of English, St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, takes you on a flight of fantasy, through her books and her music both.

She laughs, “Violin, well this is where we start from. I got into music at an early age. I would have learnt the piano, but since we couldn’t afford piano at home, my father bought me a violin, which stayed with me till now,” shares Giti, as she weaves a beautiful comparison between her books and music. Giti plans to write a trilogy, already two books on this line have been out, The Fangs of Summoning and The Bones Of Stars.

Smiles she, “When I am playing in the choir, I am one among the 13 choir members, and we still play in harmony, like a book with different characters, which needs to be placed in a harmonious manner.” Giti finds music a fulfilling experience.

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