The Winners take it all

First Prize Winner: Smitha Murthy

Title: Meeting Old Age

She pens under the name of Soul Muser (SM) on her blog. Life in the corporate world ended for her a couple of years ago when she bit the bullet, tucked in the doubts, and took an entrepreneurial leap to form Trippin Traveller, a curated offbeat travel start-up as well as Life Wordsmith, a content firm.

These days, she likes to call herself a wandering gypsy, seeking out places unknown for journeys that never end. She is currently working on her first novel and was previously the author of ‘Worlds Apart’, an epistolary memoir on China.

Smitha loves conversations over a cup of tea, and serenity in the midst of chaos. She swoons over dusk-tinted skies and the faintest smile on a flower’s heart. You can often find her with a book, staring out of the window, and discussing the meaning of life with a squirrel that passes by.

She truly believes that the world has more beauty in it than ugliness, and she is on a personal quest to incorporate true kindness and compassion in her life.

Second Prize Winner: Pritika Suzanne Sundar Rao

Title: An Appetite For Drama

Pritika Rao was born and raised in the small south Indian town of Vellore. Author of a book of poetry, ‘Eclipse on Joypiter’, she is also an economist and content marketer. When she isn’t writing, she is either drinking copious amounts of coffee or enjoying some spicy biryani. She resides in Bengaluru.

Third Prize Winner: Sharika Nair

Title: The Silver Anklet

Sharika Nair is a voracious reader and hopes to do justice to her long ‘to-read’ list someday. An MBA in Marketing & Advertising, Sharika started her career in the advertising industry. Her last stint was with the digital media start-up, YourStory, where she enjoyed profiling successful women in different fields and writing on women’s issues. Fiction remains Sharika’s first love, though she is trying her hand at the genre after a long break.

JUDGES

Anjum Hasan

She is the author of the novels ‘The Cosmopolitans’, ‘Neti, Neti’ and ‘Lunatic in my Head’, and the short story collections ‘A Day in the Life’ and ‘Difficult Pleasures’. Her published book of poems is called ‘Street on the Hill’. Her books have been nominated for various awards. Her short stories, essays and poems are widely published. She is books editor at ‘The Caravan’. She lives in Bengaluru.

Vasudev Murthy

He is the author of several books including ‘What the Raags Told Me’, based on 21 classical ragas, and ‘Sherlock Holmes in Japan’, first published in India and subsequently in Portuguese and Japanese. Then there are ‘Sherlock Holmes, the Missing Years’, and ‘The Time Merchants’, a collection of short stories, also to his credit. His book ‘How Organizations Really Work’ takes a mildly humorous look at the theoretical and practical aspects of organisations. His next book is a satire on publishers. Vasudev is a Management consultant and lives in Bengaluru. He is also a yoga enthusiast, a violinist and an animal welfare activist.

Milan Vohra

Milan’s journey in writing fiction began when she won a Harlequin short story contest to become

India’s first Mills & Boon author. She is an advertising professional. She also calls herself an expert juggler as she juggles writing short stories and novels, she juggles writing fiction and advertising, she juggles writing fiction for adults and young adults, she juggles living in Bengaluru and Delhi. Her books include ‘The Love Asana’ and ‘Tick-tock We’re 30’. Love is a recurring theme in her works. She insists her real claim to fame is that she is the world’s best worst dancer.