The Confident Teenager

This book is for, and about teenagers. It is also meant for the parents of teenagers, and for anyone else who interacts closely with teenagers on a daily basis. Teenage is a phase that everyone necessarily goes through, but it does not have to be the minefield it is usually portrayed as. Beginning with the real or imaginary fears of a teenager about not being physically attractive, the book goes on, through ‘love’ in all its stages and phases, to the role of parents and teachers, finally ending with a timely reminder about giving thanks where thanks is due.

The book is in ten chapters, each, dealing with one aspect of a teenager’s life. At the end of each chapter is a comprehensive reading list of books, written by eminent (English) authors from different parts of the world. The author hopes that by the time the reader finishes reading “The Confident Teenager”, she will also have read and appreciated 80 of the best works in Literature.

Ladies' Compartment, 8.47 Local

"Ladies' Compartment, 8.47 Local" is a collection of twelve short stories about the women who commute daily on Mumbai's local trains.Twelve, strong women characters, coming from different backgrounds, with different needs, desires and priorities form the back bone of every story. Their daily struggles with what society expects of them, and what they themselves expect of their own lives and the inevitable, head-on collision of these two disparate forces forms the story line.More than conventional conversation and dialogue, the language of the senses and sensual stimuli to create situations or explain them have been used.Binding the stories together,in a throw back to the old Greek chorus, is the narrator, a teacher in a suburban college.