So we thought she must've been a well-established writer but turned out to be 16! It just goes to prove that you can't equate younger writers with immature writing and say that older ones lack excitement in their work
You will be launching the second edition of Engage Pocketful O' Stories 2.0, a book that features micro-tales on unexpected moments of love, submitted by readers, in Mumbai this evening. What was challenging about curating these stories?
We decided to make the submission criteria tougher than the last time and added two writing prompts — a supermarket and an aisle — so as to make our selection process easier. But we still ended up receiving more than 25,000 entries. The theme is pretty universal and when I'd read a piece, I would also try and guess the age of the writer, and was almost always wrong. A writer from Bangalore, for instance, had six of her stories selected. So we thought she must've been a well-established writer but turned out to be 16! It just goes to prove that you can't equate younger writers with immature writing and say that older ones lack excitement in their work.
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How do you see the book adding value to a reader's life?
This is a rather selfish perspective from a writer, but reading is on the decline. You see more and more people using Instagram or TikTok. Although a book will never replace any of these mediums, each story in this title requires the same time you'd spend watching a TikTok video. It's also designed in a way that you never end up reading only one story because it's so short. It thus becomes a gateway to reading bigger books, and hopefully that will help regain lost ground.
What do you love most about coming to Mumbai?
I have friends here who dictate the terms of my trip. We usually start our day at Soho House and end it at Marine Drive. We also squeeze in a visit to Prithvi Cafe for cold coffee. I've heard that there's a Blue Tokai in Kala Ghoda now and from what I've seen on social media, it looks amazing. So, I hope to head there, too.
As told to Dalreen Ramos
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