Priya Hajela

Memoir or Fiction

March 27, 2023

A family means different things to different people in different parts of the world. It is often a word fraught with angst, duty, obligations, legacy, and secrets. Needless to say, family is a treasure trove of material for any writer. But writing about family, especially family trauma is not easy....

You Write Well If you Read Well

March 20, 2023

Reading well doesn’t just mean reading a lot. It also means reading closely to see what the author is doing with language, punctuation, tense, and words. Noticing these sometimes subtle nuances helps understand the writer’s craft and hone one’s own. Alice Munro is a 92 year old Canadian author whose...

Are women’s successes being recognised today?

March 8, 2023

Several lists of India’s most influential people include Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister at the top, followed by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon Executive Chairperson, Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar, HCL Tech Chairperson Rosnhi Nadar Malhotra, SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and Steel Authority of India Chairperson Soma Mondal within the top 100. Each...

Can Writing Be Taught?

February 27, 2023

The perennial question - Can writing be taught? - is asked by aspiring writers, by people without MFAs, by people with MFAs and by a whole category of people that believes that anyone can write if they put their mind to it. Clearly, most people think it can be, hence...

The Short Story-Short only in Form

February 20, 2023

There are standalone short stories that get published in literary magazines, one at a time, staggered across multiple publications and over a period of time, stories that writers write when the feeling strikes, when the muse awakens, when the light is just right, when the children have left for school,...

Rebellion of 1857: The varied voices

February 6, 2023

Much has been written about the Mutiny of 1857, referred to variously as the Sepoy Mutiny or the Indian Rebellion and The First War of Independence, in the years following the events and beyond. Most of the source writings are by English men and women. Many are diaries that have...

The Pale Blue Eye

January 23, 2023

The film The Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale and Harry Melling (as Edgar Allen Poe) is a story that takes place during Poe’s brief tenure at West Point Military Academy in 1830. The film is based on a novel of the same name by Louis Bayard, written in 2003....

The Pale Blue Eye

January 23, 2023

Anthony Bourdain in India

January 20, 2023

Anthony Bourdain is best known for his travel show, Parts Unknown and for his book, Kitchen Confidential. The immensely popular show ran on CNN from 2013 to 2018, till June 8, 2018, when Bourdain died by suicide while on location, filming an episode of Parts Unknown. His book came out...

The road not taken

December 24, 2022

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other as just...

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