3.7 Moni Mohsin: Using Social Satire To Capture The #MeToo Movement In Pakistan

06/22/21 • 49 min

Tara talks to the talented Pakistani writer, Moni Mohsin, about how she uses social satire to comment on current events in her 2 bestselling books ‘The Diary of a Social Butterfly’ and ‘The Impeccable Integrity of Ruby R’.

Moni shares how the ‘metoo’ movement inspired her to write her latest politically charged novel. And how the male politician character is inspired by Trump and 1970s Amitabh Bachchan! Tara loves how her opening line, ‘Haww’, immediately drew the attention of publishers. How did she go from writing columns to books? Why does social media make her uncomfortable? How has the writing community in Pakistan supported her? Tune in to find out!

Authors Moni Loves: Kamila Shamsie, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford, Elizabeth Taylor

Moni Mohsin was born and raised in Pakistan. She has written two novels, The End of Innocence and Tender Hooks aka Duty Free and two books of collected columns, The Diary of a Social Butterfly and The Return of the Butterfly. She now lives between London and Lahore.

Find the book here: https://www.amazon.in/Impeccable-Integrity-Ruby-R/dp/0670094315

'Books and Beyond with Bound' is the podcast where Tara Khandelwal and Michelle D'costa of Bound talk to some of the best writers in India and find out what makes them tick. Read more: https://boundindia.com/books-and-beyond-podcast/

Reach out to us at [email protected] for more information on our editorial services.

We’ve joined #PodForChange to raise donations for Covid relief. Donate here: www.auwa.in/podforchange

‘Books and Beyond with Bound’ is the podcast where Tara Khandelwal and Michelle D’costa uncover how their books reflect the realities of our lives and society today. Find out what drives India’s finest authors: from personal experiences to jugaad research methods, insecurities to publishing journeys. Created by Bound, a storytelling company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social media platforms.

Authors Moni Loves: Kamila Shamsie, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford, Elizabeth Taylor

Find the book here: https://www.amazon.in/Impeccable-Integrity-Ruby-R/dp/0670094315

Reach out to us at [email protected] for more information on our editorial services.

We’ve joined #PodForChange to raise donations for Covid relief. Donate here: www.auwa.in/podforchange

Previous Episode

3.6 Arunava Sinha and Anita Agnihotri: Farmers' Plight In India - A Translation

Tara and Michelle talk to bestselling Bengali author Anita Agnihotri and expert translator of 60+ books, Arunava Sinha, about their latest book ‘The Sickle’, the writer-translator relationship and the growing popularity of regional writing and translations in India.

In the last few years, translations are getting the attention they rightly deserve in India from readers and literary awards like the JCB prize. We chat with Anita about the plight of the women in the Marathwada region and how she decided to write about them in Bengali. Michelle is fascinated by how Anita picks up stories from all over the country through her work as an IAS officer. Arunava equates writing to choreographing a performance on a large stage and translation to doing the exact same steps on a tightrope! Tara is super excited by his prediction that translations will become very prominent in India in the next 5 years!

How have Anita’s books reached so many countries and readers? Why does Arunava translate from 10 pm to 1 am? Tune in to find out.
Want to get the translator's perspective first? Jump to 30:00 to listen to Arunava’s part of the interview.

Mentions:

Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh
Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba
Seventeen by Anita Agnihotri
Indira Goswami
Hiromi Kawakami, Mieko Kawakami, Sayaka Murata

Anita Agnihotri has published over thirty books and has won the Sarat Puraskar, the Pratibha Basu Sahitya Puraskar and the Bhuban Mohini Dasi Gold Medal. Her writing has been translated into several Indian languages and also German and Swedish. Her collection of stories, Seventeen, translated by Arunava Sinha, won the Economist Crossword Book Award for Indian Language Translation in 2011.

Arunava Sinha translates Bengali fiction, poetry and non-fiction into English, and fiction from other languages into Bengali. More than sixty of his translations have been published so far in India, the UK and the USA. He teaches Creative Writing at Ashoka University. Find the book here: https://www.amazon.in/Sickle-Anita-Agnihotri/dp/9353451566

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Next Episode

3.8 Rohini S. Rajagopal: The Reality Of Infertility In India - A Medical Memoir

Find out how she captured her journey with infertility and years of medical research into her one-of-a-kind medical memoir, ‘What's a Lemon Squeezer Doing in My Vagina?'

Rohini shares her writing process: from storing all her medical documents to writing for 30 minutes at a time. She recounts how her brother acted as her sounding board and beta reader: convincing her to write this book as a memoir instead of a nonfiction how-to book. Tara loves how Rohini was able to cover such a taboo topic with depth and vulnerability. Michelle loves medical memoirs! How did she come up with this title? How did she come up with this title? How did her family feel about the book? And what does she plan to write next? Tune in to find out!

Book Recommendations:

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
Educated by Tara Westover
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
The Small-Town Sea by Anees Salim

Rohini S. Rajagopal was leading a fairly humdrum life in Bangalore when an encounter with infertility stopped her in her tracks. In a temporary suspension of good sense, she quit her well-paying, flexible-hours job to write this book that narrates her journey from infertility to motherhood. But for her current penury, she has no regrets about that move. She has a master's degree in English (media and communication). Her special talents include fitting dishes inside overfilled refrigerators and taking three-hour-long afternoon naps without the slightest trace of guilt. You can find her on Instagram @rajagopal.rohini. Find the book here: https://www.amazon.in/Whats-Lemon-Squeezer-Doing-Vagina/dp/0143452002/

'Books and Beyond with Bound' is the podcast where Tara Khandelwal and Michelle D'costa of Bound talk to some of the best writers in India and find out what makes them tick. Now trending in 9 countries! Read more: https://boundindia.com/books-and-beyond-podcast/

Follow us If you need help starting your podcast, reach out to us at [email protected] or DM us @boundindia on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

We’ve joined #PodForChange to raise donations for Covid relief. Donate here: www.auwa.in/podforchange