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We present to you India's first e-author and the first Indian full-length single-author English e-book ... Rohit Gupta and The Oyster Club! The competition for the first Indian full-length single-author English e-book has been a tremendous success, as we have received over 1,700 entries from all corners of the country and beyond. The competition for India's first e-author was launched in March 2001, calling for first chapters of the novels of budding unpublished writers. The competition was very close and the panel of eminent judges - Amitav Ghosh, Shobha Dé, Vikram A. Chandra, Samik Bandopadhyay and Krishna Sen - had a difficult time deciding on the three best chapters. The writers of the four winning chapters were given three and a half months (till the end of August 2001) to finish their books and, after a second round of judging, we are finally able to reveal India's first e-author!
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Rohit Gupta |
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Rohit Gupta passed out of IIT Kharagpur with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and chose to explore writing as a career for no profound reasons. He writes for various magazines and is currently doing research on the Mumbai underground. He likes apple pie and hunter's chicken after a couple of whiskies.
It is difficult to slot Rohit's The Oyster Club into a particular genre. He collates several strands - comedy, mystery, literary fiction, esoteric philosophising - to put together what turned out to be one hell of a read! Rohit's protagonist Jamshed Tyrewalla, suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, is a man of leisure, falling in lust here, shooting a postmodern movie there, indulging in a bout of santra drinking here and a puff on his Rajasthani hukkah there - a charmed life indeed. Then he finds himself drawn into the mystery of the Oyster Club and a bizarre treasure hunt, along with his friend Pinto … A brilliant first novel! |
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Read his chapter
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Roopa swaminathan |
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A budding writer/ filmmaker, Roopa Swaminathan has a MS in Mass Communications from Kansas State University and has lived in LA for a couple of years. She returned to India last year to pursue her dream of filmmaking and her script for an English film has already been approved by NFDC. She dreams of winning the Oscar someday - for best picture and best script. We wish Roopa all the best!
Roopa Swaminathan's At the Stroke of Midnight has a fresh appeal about it - a welcome change from the laboured pretentiousness of a lot of current Indo-Anglian literature. She starts with a bang - 'I am a virgin. Physically I am a virgin…', recounting the tale of Vinu - a dark, plain-faced misfit in the wealthy and eminent Rajaratnam family. Starved of the affection of her parents and family, she often sets out to shock them out of their moneyed complacence into acknowledging her existence. Roopa impresses by her keen observing eye and warm understanding of human nature. |
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Read her chapter
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Debapriya Paul |
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Debapriya Paul has a B.E. in telecom engineering as well as a degree in Arts and a Masters in Business Administration. He nurtures his passion of becoming an author. One of his most interesting experiences has been bumping into a guy whose father had served with the German special forces during WWII! That's when this novel was conceived.
Debapriya's thriller, The Falcon Strikes Back, is set against the backdrop of World War II. It is 1944-45 and Germany is on the verge of defeat. An SS General, bound by a code of honour and harried by his own conscience, must beat all odds to secure the future of his country at this precarious moment and that involves getting Hitler out of the way … but will he succeed? It turns out to be a dangerous game where people live on the edge. As the mystery thickens, the leads wind through the labyrinths of power in Berlin … |
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Read his chapter
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