CMI Arts Initiative: Online Talks and Readings 2021
Date and time: Wednesday, 17 November 2021, 18:30 IST
Discussion on "What We Know About Her"
Krupa Ge
Writer.
17-11-21

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Abstract

Chennai-based writer Krupa Ge will talk about her debut novel "What We Know About Her", longlisted for the JCB literary prize, 2021. What We Know About Her (Synopsis)

Yamuna is adrift. A long-term relationship has come to an end. Her mother and she are at loggerheads about their ancestral home in Chingleput, which she loves and lives in. Even her PhD on early twentieth-century music in Tamil Nadu seems to be going nowhere --- until it leads her to an unexpected puzzle from the past.

During her research, she comes to be fascinated by her enigmatic grandaunt, Lalitha, who rose to prominence as a Carnatic musician at a time when thirteen-year-old brides were the norm. And then she chances upon a letter written by her own grandmother to her grandfather that opens up another window into Lalitha's life. She wants to know more. Only, the more questions she asks, the closer her family draws its secrets. No one will talk to her about this long-dead ancestor's life or death.

What lies beneath the stories they are willing to tell? Beyond the letters that Yamuna manages to purloin from her beloved grandfather's papers when she visits him in Banaras? What did this family do to Lalitha? Krupa Ge's debut novel is an absorbing tale of an angsty young woman who must unravel the secrets of her family before she can untangle her own life.

About the speaker:

Krupa Ge is a writer from Madras. She is the author of a novel, What We Know About Her (Context, 2021) and a narrative non-fiction book, Rivers Remember (Context, 2019). Her reportage and cultural writings have appeared in The Hindu, Firstpost and The New Indian Express, among other Indian and international publications over the last 13 years.

She received a Laadli Award for her column on women in cinema, Ms. Representation in The New Indian Express for the year 2017. She was awarded the Jayanthi Residency in 2017, the Toto-Sangam Residency Fellowship in 2016 and was shortlisted for a Toto Prize in Creative Writing. She's currently dabbling in screenwriting.

"What We Know About Her", set in Madras, Chingleput and Benares is Krupa Ge's debut novel. It explores the ideas of inheritance, ambition and violence.