Let’s ExploreClouds

  • Author: Chandrahas Choudhury
Clouds
Clouds

A novel about disparate cultural identities subsumed by the city of Mumbai

Dr. Farhad Billmoria is fatigued with his life in Mumbai, the city he has called home since birth. As he's waiting to depart to the shores of San Francisco, leaving behind memories of his failed marriage and psychotherapy practice, he crosses paths with Zahra, a luminous Parsi American. In Zahra, Farhad sees the possibility of romantic redemption.

In another part of Mumbai, Rabi a young man belonging to the Cloud people tribe of Odisha and a former village crier waits on Eeja and Ooi, two demanding Danua Brahmins in a one-bedroom apartment. Remembering the tales of the Cloudmaker, the capricious god who occupies the centre of his people's lore, invigorates him even as Rabi occupies a Mumbai very different from that of Farhad.

Clouds is a tale of tribal loyalties complicated by the strong gravitational pull of a megalopolis.

ABOUT THE AUTHORChandrahas Choudhury

Chandrahas Choudhury was born in 1980 in Hyderabad. His first novel, Arzee the Dwarf, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth First Book Prize. He grew up reading lots of books, in a time when childhood had fewer distractions of an audio-visual kind. At some point a productive jealousy kicked in and he began to want to write them. "Nothing creates a writer as much as his own books. As soon as I had written one, it led me in the direction of another. Slowly you understand that writing books is a great way be to a living, thinking member of your society and you take that thought, that responsibility, that excitement, that anger, and run with it." If not a writer, he would have done good work in cinema or worked as a cricket or football commentator.

In his free time he loves to cook, wander through cities and continents, and play football. His real skill lies in throwing dinner parties for friends, going shopping for them in the day, and meeting all the tradesmen of the neighbourhood. He cannot do without his afternoon naps, which is why he likes to be self-employed. He lives between Delhi, Mumbai, and Bhubaneshwar.

Chandrahas Choudhury

The JCB Prize in Videos

The Prize Winnersover the years

The JCB Prize for Literature was first awarded in 2018, since then the Prize has been awarded to 6 books.

Perumal Murugan

Perumal Murugan

Perumal Murugan is an Indian author, scholar, and literary chronicler who writes in Tamil. He has written twelve novels, six collections of short stories, six anthologies of poetry, and many non-fiction books. Ten of his novels have been translated into English: Seasons of the Palm, which was shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize in 2005, Current Show, One Part Woman, A Lonely Harvest, Trail by Silence, Poonachi or the Story of a Goat, Resolve, Estuary, Rising Heat, and Pyre. He was a professor of Tamil at the Government Arts College in Salem Attur and Namakkal.

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Khalid Jawed

Khalid Jawed

Khalid Jawed is one of the leading Urdu novelists today. He is the author of fifteen works of fiction and non-fiction and is a recipient of the Katha Award, the Upendranath Ashk Award, and the UP Urdu Academy Award. He is a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University.

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M. Mukundan

M. Mukundan

M. Mukundan was born and brought up in Mahe. He rose to critical acclaim and popularity with Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil (1974). His stories and novels have been widely translated into various Indian languages, English and French. He has been awarded Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary honour given by the Government of Kerala, the Crossword Book Award twice, first in 1999 for On the Banks of the Mayyazhi and again in 2006 for Kesavan’s Lamentations, and the Sahitya Akademi award and N.V. Puraskaram for Daivathinte Vikrithikal (God’s Mischief). His other major works include Kesavante Vilapangal (2009) and Prasavam (2008). He was presented with the insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1998. He also served as the president of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi from 2006 to 2010. Four of his books have been adapted into award-winning films. Delhi Gathakal (2011), translated as Delhi: A Soliloquy, is based on his experiences of living and working in Delhi for forty years as a Cultural Attaché at the French embassy. In 2004, he retired from that position and returned to Mahe, his hometown.

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S. Hareesh

S. Hareesh

S. Hareesh is the author of three short-story collections: Adam, which received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, Rasavidyayude Charithram, and Appan. He is also a recipient of the Geetha Hiranyan Endowment, the Thomas Mundassery Prize, and the V.P. Sivakumar Memorial Prize. Hareesh is also the author of two screenplays - for the film Aedan, which received the Kerala State Award for best screenplay in 2017, and for the 2019 film Jallikattu, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and won a silver peacock at the International Film Festival of India. Hareesh works in the revenue department, and hails from Neendoor in Kottayam district, Kerala.

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Madhuri Vijay

Madhuri Vijay

Madhuri Vijay was born and raised in Bengaluru and now lives in Hawaii where she teaches children at a school is a schoolteacher. "A fortunate benefit of teaching young children,” she says "is that they neither know nor care about how many words you managed to write that day or whether you’ve hit upon the perfect metaphor - working with them is a refreshing and humbling reminder to keep one’s work in proper perspective.” She’s a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. Her writing has appeared in Best American Non-Required Reading, Narrative Magazine and Salon, among other publications. In 2010, she wrote a short story about a mother and a daughter and a Kashmiri man. "It was a maudlin story-abysmal, really-but I grew interested in writing a novel about Kashmir.” The Far Field is her first book.

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