Veteran actor and activist Anupam Kher will launch author Munmun Ghosh’s third novel, Thicker than Blood, on 16 February at Title Waves in Bandra, Mumbai.
The protagonists of Thicker than Blood are a young couple who have everything to celebrate except a child of their own. How that singular desire takes hold of beautiful Mayuri in its frenzied grip forms the plot of this kabhi heartrending, kabhi humorous peep into an important, urban issue that many women and men are silently suffering from. The detailed research, the wild abandon of love replaced by calendar calculations, the agonising cycles of hope and despair that take over the life of the couple, is captured beautifully by Munmun Ghosh in some of the most eloquent prose penned by an Indian author. A breathless page-turner about self-actualization in love.
The novel has been inspired by the real-life story of a friend of hers, reveals Munmun Ghosh. “The story moved me. I felt it needed to be told. Also, the story appealed to the romantic in me and Thicker Than Blood is really my ode to love.”
When asked about choosing Anupam Kher to launch the novel, she explains, “I have known Anupam for many years, from my days as a journalist. He has always impressed me as being extremely well-read with a keen interest in literature. I remember, when I would meet him on the sets for interviews, he would sometimes recount Anton Chekhov’s short stories to me. Thicker than Blood comes out of a lot of research and hard work, and is my most serious literary endeavour, so I sought Anupam to launch the book. He had also graciously launched my debut novel, Hushed Voices, and set me off on my literary career. His encouragement has meant a lot to me.”
About Munmun Ghosh’s works, Anupam Kher comments, “I like her writing because of her honesty. She stays true to facts and to the characters of her story. Her stories are identifiable and socially relevant.”
Thicker than Blood is garnering rave reviews, invitations to literary festivals and is currently available in bookstores and on websites. It is published by Jaico and will be formally launched in Mumbai on February 16.
Profile of author Munmun Ghosh
Munmun Ghosh is a Mumbai-based fiction writer, editor with CRISIL Ltd., a freelance journalist and passionate student of classical music.
With a 1st class 1st Masters’ degree in English Literature from Mumbai University, she worked as a full-time journalist for a range of publications – from Stardust and MOVIE to The Daily, The Economic Times, Mid-Day, and indya.com for over a decade before seguing to creative writing.
Her first work of fiction Hushed Voices (2007) explored the lives of Mumbai’s marginalized classes through a series of connected monologues.
In her second fictional venture, a full-fledged novel named Unhooked (2012), she spotlighted the metro phenomenon of intellectual mating between the sexes and its repercussions.
Noted columnist Shobhaa De had commended the book as “an unblinking view of the contemporary concerns that confront thirty-something career women looking for love, but not necessarily sex.”
Actor Vidya Balan who had launched the book in Mumbai had lauded it saying, “Every experience mentioned in this book will find a resonance with women somewhere or the other.” Thicker than Blood (just published) is Ghosh’s third book and her most ambitious venture.
A compulsively analytic mind and a heart that is constantly in revolt against cliches propels Munmun Ghosh into creative writing – a far cry from editing a variety of business reports for CRISIL Ltd.
To unwind, she turns to music – both singing and playing sitar. She is a trained sitarist and has featured in Pt. Kartick Kumar’s concerts in the past. Singing and translating the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s songs has also been an enduring passion with her. Creating beauty, benefit, and value every day is her guiding credo in life.
Synopsis of Thicker than Blood (from the back cover)
The poignant taleof a husband and wife who fight adversities to keep their marriage going Young and beautiful Mayuri wife of affluent businessman Vimal is crushed as she fails to conceive even with medication. Deeply in love with his wife Vimal gives in to her plea to seek help through reproductive technology. The treatments tax the couple physically and emotionally straining their relations. While Vimal grapples with his business challenges Mayuri plods along restless depressed painfully aware of her growing age and convinced she cannot be content unless she has a child. In her desperation she turns to religion and even hurtles to the edge of infidelity…
What makes a couple s life complete? Are children the indispensable glue binding a family? And does motherhood and fatherhood have to be biological?
Excerpts from ‘Thicker than Blood’
Excerpt 1:
“And then it occurred to me that if either of us had to be found to be lacking, would I rather be the one with the problem than him? If I truly loved Vimal with the intensity I claimed, I would wish to shoulder the blame and spare him. Did I feel that way? How deep did my love for him go? Could it transcend self-love?”
Excerpt 2:
“But now, lying with my own un-shared sorrow, I acknowledged that finally I was alone like he was alone. Like every human was alone in their thoughts. Even stretched so close to me, his knee touching mine, he was not aware that I was shattering from within, the doll having smashed into smithereens on the floor. He was lost in sleep. There was no complete union between a man and a woman, the reason why we needed to mate again and again.”
