Tushar Raheja

Tushar Raheja, the young Indian novelist.

Tushar Raheja (born 1984)[1] is an Indian storyteller and researcher based in Delhi. His first book Anything for you, Ma'am, a comedy, was published in 2006[2] while he was an undergraduate student in college.[2] His writing was compared to that of P. G. Wodehouse by The Hindu[3] and The Times of India[4] and went on to achieve massive success. It has remained on the national best-selling charts since the time it was published.[5][6] Raheja chose not to climb on the bandwagon of formulaic books but instead devoted himself to mathematical research and the study of narration.[1] Romi and Gang (published July 2013 by Pirates), previously titled Run Romi Run is only his second book in the market.[1] The book about the unalloyed dreams of the young in the Indian hinterland revolves around cricket.[7] It has been praised by The Hindu,[7] Hindustan Times,[8] The Daily Telegraph among other publications. Raheja is one of the few authors in India to combine widespread popularity[5][6] with critical acclaim.[3][4][7][8]

Personal life

Raheja was born and brought up at Faridabad.[9] His parents are doctors, his father a graduate of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune (AFMC). Raheja did his schooling from Apeejay School[10] and DPS Faridabad. He obtained his B.Tech in industrial engineering from IIT Delhi[9] in 2006. Anything for you, Ma'am, his first novel was also published in the same year.[2] He followed it up with research in applied mathematics and completed Masters of Science in Operations research in 2010. Currently, Raheja is a doctoral candidate at IIT Delhi in the field of applied probability.[1] Dr. Kiran Seth of SPIC MACAY and Dr. Sandeep Juneja are his thesis advisors.[11]

Books

Anything for you, Ma'am

Anything for you, Ma'am shot to national fame after its review in The Hindu headlined Outsourcing Wodehouse.[3] The Times of India compared the plot to a classic Jeeves Wooster saga.[4] The main protagonist Tejas has a propensity to land himself into comical troubles like Wooster and has an array of Jeeveses around him in the form of his friends and family. The book was especially praised for 'cleverly localising the Wooster persona. So English aristocracy, the idle rich, the lad sent down from Oxford, the young man with great expectations and little ability, the chappie whose only survival tool is a smart gentleman's gentleman called Jeeves – all this is turned into rich material for humour of a local kind.'[3] There has been criticism of the book's ending which is compared to a Bollywood movie.[3][12]

Romi and Gang

Romi and Gang, while it has been likened to Enid Blyton's stories for its innocence and the sense of nostalgia it evokes,[13][14][15] and has been considered by Hindustan Times to be 'the equivalent of watching Lagaan',[8] it is closer in spirit to Swami and Friends.[16] It is the story of the boy ubiquitous in maidans all over the Indian hinterland who dreams of being the next Sachin Tendulkar[13]

Romi and Gang is unique for its subject. Not many novels have been written about cricket all over the world.[17] It has been noted for the remarkable shift in the Raheja's writing style from his first book. Raheja does not intend to stick to any particular genre and is working on a science fiction book at the moment.[18] Romi and Gang is also unique for the inclusion of 25 full page pen and ink illustrations by Biswajit Das which were included to lend the book an old-world charm.[14]

Short film

At the behest of his publisher, Raheja put together a non-commercial short film Sachin Sachin[19] for the promotion of Romi and Gang. It is dedicated to the memory of and inspired by Tony Greig whose commentary on Sachin Tendulkar's desert storm centuries against Australia in Sharjah in 1998 has stayed with all who heard him.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bhadani, Priyanka (29 May 2013). "Childhood revisited". The Asian Age. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Verma, Varuna (30 July 2006). "Write choice". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Duara, Ajit (11 June 2006). "Outsourcing Wodehouse". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 "Review – Archived from The Times of India". 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Print Pick". The Hindu. 9 June 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  6. 1 2 "Best sellers". The Hindu. 1 May 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 Dangi, Gaurav (11 August 2011). "More than just cricket". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 Sharma, Neha (8 October 2010). "Crazy abour cricket". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  9. 1 2 Aslam, Saira (17 July 2010). "Reliving childhood". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Anything for you, Ma'am". Crossword. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  11. ↑ "Thesis advisers". TIFR. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  12. ↑ D'Souza, Cheryl (30 July 2006). "Watch out, Nick Hornby!". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  13. 1 2 Ghose, Chandreyee (29 July 2013). "Archived from The Telegraph – Of Romi, friends and their cricket dreams". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  14. 1 2 "BookReview :: Romi and Gang by Tushar Raheja". b00k r3vi3ws. Retrieved 22 August 2013. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  15. ↑ Patnaik, Sunaina. "Book Review: Romi and Gang". sunaina-patnaik.blogspot.in. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  16. ↑ Kannan, Kartik. "Romi and Gang". myblogoncricket.blogspot.in. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  17. ↑ Massie, Allan (15 February 2012). "Why there are no good English novels about sport". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  18. ↑ "The jack of different genres". The Asian Age. 30 July 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  19. ↑ Raheja, Tushar. "Sachin Sachin". youtube.com. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  20. ↑ Coverdale, Brydon (29 December 2012). "Tony Greig dies aged 66". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
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