The literary landscape in India—as is in any other country—is expansive and constantly evolving. Soma Bose—a businesswoman-turned-writer from Dhanbad, Jharkhand—has taken the plunge into the world of stories by means of her debut book, Frenny & Other Women You Have Met. The book was launched on April 28 at the city’s India Habitat Centre in the presence of celebrities including Swastika Mukherjee and Mita Vashisht.
Bose’s stint as a visual storyteller started amid the pandemic through her blog called SomTales. Subtitled Where Lens Meets The Pen, this blog, as Bose shares, “is my own creativity; where I connect with images, and the images are my stories”.
Talking about her journey as a writer, she adds, “Over time, the blog became famous and people started saying that it was something they haven’t seen anywhere. That gave me the courage to write my book. So, I started writing.” Her debut book, according to Bose, is where she explores complex emotions with the hope that her readers will appreciate the lives of women and their many contributions to society.
In a tête-a-tête with The Morning Standard, the author speaks about the takeaway one can expect from her debut book, developing characters, and more. Edited excerpts from an interview…
Talk to us about your debut book Frenny & Other Women You Have Met. What expectations do you have from the readers… And what do you think they will take away from these stories?
This book is my tribute to all the homemakers in the country. When I started my journey as a homemaker, I felt that we have so many roles in our lives as women. We are mothers, daughters-in-law, and wives, and we have to be strong in playing all these roles.
But, at the same time, we also have the drive to be emotional, happy, and vulnerable. It is not that we have to show that we are strong all the time. We can cry, be happy, or show any other emotion because we go through so many physical and mental changes over the years.
I felt that only a woman can speak about other women because we know what is going on with us. No man can say what we go through. So, I decided to write about women, and all the stories in my book are about women. I hope that readers can understand and relate to these stories and take away the message that women can make their own choices in life. After writing the stories, a lot of women came to me and said, ‘Would you love to write my story?’. That is my achievement.
What inspired you to write this book? Also, take us through the process of how you developed
the characters and stories in this book.
Frenny’s is a real story. The character is based on a good friend of mine, whom I met years back, and we have remained close ever since. She is much older than me, and the relationship we developed over the years inspired me to write her story, which led to writing the other stories. So, Frenny inspired me to write this book. As a visual storyteller, I approached the process of writing this book by connecting it with my heart. I drafted the characters multiple times, and then I connected the dots, which led me to write the complete story. Even after writing the story, I created different drafts [about] five or six times. Then, one fine morning, I felt that I had written the complete story. I realised that I didn’t choose the book; the book chose to be written.
In what ways do these five short stories highlight the ability of women to make their own choices in life? Also, are there any common themes or messages that run throughout the stories?
How these five stories empower women and highlight their ability to make choices is something that I cannot say for certain. However, the stories revolve around the idea of making choices and living with them.
One common theme that runs throughout the stories is that each woman has made a choice and
has stood by it till the end. Living with every member of the family and being a part of the family is
another common thread that connects all the characters.
Book ‘Frenny & Other Women You Have Met’
Author Soma Bose; illustrations by Aarti Uppal Singla
Price Rs 195