By Purvaja Yennamaneni
Two new titles published by Mind u Read Media, a Hyderabad-based company founded by Anuradha Mothali and Karthik Dayanand, were launched at a literary gathering recently. Though vastly different in form, the books Travel Tales and Close Encounters and Girl in the Meadow and Other Unusual Stories are united by a common thread 鈥 an exploration of how people experience the world, and themselves, through movement, memory, and the emotional logic of encounters.
Theatre personality Mohammad Ali Baig read excerpts from both books and shared reflections on the role of narrative and memory in performance and storytelling. Discussions followed with editors Maithili Rao and Rinky Roy Bhattacharya, author Jayanta Sengupta, and moderator Balaji Vittal, who is also a contributor to the anthology.
Edited by film critic and writer Maithili Rao and journalist-author Rinky Roy Bhattacharya, and priced at 鈧599, Travel Tales and Close Encounters is a collection of 29 stories written by 24 authors, most of which are drawn from personal experience. The stories range from chance meetings on long train rides to disorienting journeys through war-torn places and childhood travels remembered in fragments. While most stories are in the non-fiction category, the anthology also includes three fictional pieces.
The idea for the book began with a single bus ride 鈥 when an inquisitive fellow passenger made Rao consider pretending to be asleep just to avoid conversation. That moment sparked a deeper reflection: Have we become so absorbed in our devices that we no longer want to engage with the people right next to us? She later shared the story on social media, and the responses she received pointed to a wider, shared longing for real, fleeting human connection. That post became the seed for the anthology.
During the editing process, Rao noted that what surprised her most was 鈥渢he sheer variety of experiences and the honesty with which people wrote鈥 鈥 whether they were close friends or total strangers. A distinctive feature of the book is the section titled 鈥淢e Behind the Story鈥, where each contributor reflects not on their career achievements but on how they see themselves. 鈥淲e were not looking for biodatas,鈥 Rao said. 鈥淲e wanted to know how each writer defines themselves as people.鈥
Launched alongside the anthology, Jayanta Sengupta鈥檚 debut fiction collection Girl in the Meadow and Other Unusual Stories (鈧399) is a set of stories unconstrained by a specific theme. Across stories that range from nonlinear narratives to modern fables, Sengupta pulls the familiar slightly off-axis. 鈥淭hey are not unreal,鈥 he said during the discussion. 鈥淭hey are just the kind of things that could, and probably have, happened to each of us, but we struggle to explain them.鈥
The collection includes stories with unexpected endings (C++, The Dragon, Special FX), while others retell common experiences from unusual angles. Though this is his first work of fiction, Sengupta brings to it a confident voice marked by wit and restraint. The title story owes its existence to the cover art 鈥 a painting gifted to Sengupta years ago by a former student. His promise to feature it on the cover of one of his books came to fruition with this collection 鈥 and the image later inspired the final story in the book, which was written after the manuscript was mostly complete, eventually lending the entire collection its name.
The books are available on online platforms such as Amazon and the Mind u Read Media Store.
(The writer is an intern with The Hindu)