It isn’t everyday that some of the most popular Indian authors come together under one roof to share their stories and experiences, inspiring others along the way. What started as a mere competition for writing short stories has now given a new lease of life to 111 budding writers from various parts of the country.
Write India, a crowd-sourced platform for authors, is an initiative started by The Times of India group. As part of this programme, prominent authors — Chetan Bhagat, Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Preeti Shenoy, Anita Nair, Jaishree Misra, Madhuri Banerjee, Durjoy Datta, Tuhin Sinha, Ravinder Singh and Ravi Subramanian — trained aspiring writers over a span of 11 months in the nuances of the publishing industry.
Write India was initiated to recognize budding talent in writing and to discover the next generation of Indian writers. It originated from a broader vision to give a platform to budding talent in all facets which will not just stop at writing but will go on to search and groom talent in various creative fields. This is part of the Times of India’s brand philosophy of becoming a platform that provides an opportunity to young Indians to showcase their creative talent. It is a movement by the Times of India brand towards fulfilling a bigger responsibility towards society.
While the top 12 winners were selected from thousands of entries, the finest 36 stories out of 25,000 that were submitted were published. With people from age 10 to 90 putting their best creative foot forward, the stories touched upon all genres — right from psycho-thrillers to murder mysteries, mythologies, romances and tragedies.
The grand finale, which was held in Mumbai recently, saw the authors indulging in an interactive session with the guests. While actor Swati Das gave a dramatic narration of the winning story Palwasha’s Revenge by Nainesh A Jadwani, the event ended with authors coming together on stage to launch the much-awaited book that has stories written by the winners.