मार्च, माँ और साकुरा

by Geetanjali Shree

March, Ma Aur Sakura, Harper Hindi's first original Hindi title is a mixed bag of old and new stories from the author of Mai, Tirohit and Hamara Sheher Us Baras. It deals with ordinary everyday realities such as the routine of a woman in a middle class household, a morning walk, man-woman relationship, a writer's struggle to find a space to write in, old age, death, desire and loneliness in a very remarkable manner . ?Where should a writer head to finish an unfinished book ? to an empty house in the middle of nowhere or to the busy crossroads of a joint family?? Whose name must a woman utter in mid-sleep ?? her husband's or her lover's?? What does the first holiday? of her life mean to a woman who travels alone all the way from India to Japan to see her son? How does the memory of a shameful suicide in a house spread like fear in the air on a dark, stormy night?? How many minutes does it a take a man fancying his friend's wife to return to reality?????????? ?No two questions are alike, no two situations alike. Neither do the inner lives described in these tales flow in a single stream of consciousness. Each subject, relationship or human struggle dealt with is a pack of several voices jostling against each other to emerge as a solution to the writer's dilemma.?

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2008

About the author

Geetanjali Shree गीताजंली क्ष्री (She was known as Geentanjali Pandey, and she took her mother's first name Shree as her last name) (born 1957) is a Hindi novelist and short story writer based in New Delhi, India. She is the author of several short stories and three novels. Mai was short listed for the Crossword Book Award in 2001. She has also written a critical work on Premchand.

Her first story, Bel Patra (1987) was published in the literary magazine Hans and was followed by a collection of short stories Anugoonj (1991)

The English translation of her novel Mai catapulted her into fame. The novel is about three generations of women and the men around them, in a North Indian middle-class family. Mai is translated into Serbian, Korean and German. It has been translated into English by Nita Kumar, who was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for the translation. It has been also translated into Urdu by Bashir Unwan with preface by Intizar Hussain. Furthermore, it has been translated into other languages: into French by Annie Montaut, into German by Reinhold Schein...

Her second novel Hamara Shahar Us Baras set loosely after the incidents of Babri Masjid demolition.