HarperCollins is delighted to announce The Blue Scarf: Short Stories by Anu Singh Choudhary Translated from the Hindi by Kamayani Sharma, Publishing from Harper Perennial in 2022

jaseya.fazili@harpercollins.co.in | 26 February 2021

In this book of short stories, we find young women from small-town India trying to find themselves in the cities that they have moved to. Even as their dreams, desires and ambitions jostle for space in cramped hostel rooms, work cubicles or dead-end marriages, our protagonists carve out moments of solace and solitude, sometimes encountering profound realities in the process. Through life-altering experiences of friendships, loneliness, heartbreak and humiliation, these short stories portray the myriad ways in which we turn into our true selves. Neela Scarf, when it was originally published in 2014, marked the arrival of a delightfully fresh voice in Hindi literature and became an instant bestseller. Anu Singh Choudhary’s earnest, intimate prose, translated for the first time into English, is sure to win over the hearts of many, many new readers.

 On being translated into English, Anu Singh Choudhary says, ‘I am delighted that HarperCollins will be publishing the translation of my first collection of short stories. These stories dare to peep into the hearts and minds of young women from the small towns, who dare to uproot themselves in pursuit of their identities and dreams. There is nothing revolutionary about these characters – only honesty and courage – which is more than enough to create ripples in the otherwise ordinary lives of these young girls, turning them into rebels who think, and question. I am also thrilled and grateful in equal measures that Kamayani Sharma is translating these stories. She has a distinct voice which reflects her innate wisdom, inquisitiveness, and keen observational skills – exactly what these stories need while in translation. I am really looking forward to this translation, not just as a writer, but as a translator and most importantly, as a reader.’

On translating Neela Scarf, Kamayani Sharma, says, ‘I am grateful to HarperCollins for commissioning me to translate The Blue Scarf. I am sure that Anu Singh Choudhary’s crisp, breezy tales of small-town women in search of something more will resonate with many young female readers. I look forward to rendering into English her slice-of-life narratives of an experience relatively new in our part of the world and rarely captured in the Hindi language. I am thankful to Anu for trusting me with her stories at once familiar and surprising and her protagonists who seem like ones I know in life. I look forward to translating The Blue Scarf and seeing the form it takes in English.’

Sohini Basak, Editor – Literary, HarperCollins India, adds, ‘We can’t wait to publish Anu Singh Choudhary’s bestselling book of short stories in Kamayani Sharma’s translation. The stories in The Blue Scarf are full of warmth and vivacity, and there is an enviable ease with which Anu has captured how city life and small-town life clash or come together. This is a book for everyone and anyone who has dared to leave behind their past and chase their dreams.’

About the author:

 Anu Singh Choudhary is a screenwriter, translator and filmmaker. An award-winning journalist, she has written extensively across formats, including radio, TV, films and new media, and has also written and produced documentaries and web-series. The author of Neela Scarf (a collection of short stories), Mamma Ki Diary (a memoir) and Bhali Ladkiyaan, Buri Ladkiyaan (a novel), Choudhary has also translated over twenty books from the English language to Hindi. As a screenwriter, she has co-written the blockbuster web-series Aarya, and is now writing its Season 2 for Disney+Hotstar.

About the Translator:

Kamayani Sharma works at the intersection of criticism, poetry, reportage and scholarship on visual and media studies. She contributes to Artforum, The White Review, Momus, ART India and The Caravan. Her critical practice has been recognised by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation and the Serendipity Arts Foundation. Sharma’s research on cinema has been published in Studies in South Asian Film and Media as well as edited volumes. Her poetry has been longlisted by the Toto Funds the Arts Award.

About HarperCollins Publishers India:

HarperCollins Publishers India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and the Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India has been awarded the Publisher of the Year Award three times: at Publishing Next in 2015, and at Tata Literature Live! in 2016 and 2018.  HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Egmont, Oneworld, Harvard University Press, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet.

About Harper Perennial:

Harper Perennial is a dedicated imprint for translations, showcasing the finest and most compelling narratives from Indian languages – books that are timeless and stories that capture the essence of their times and the region from which they emanate.In its entirety, the Perennial library which features well over a hundred titles presents the kaleidoscope of India as seen through the eyes of the greatest modern writers writing in the local languages, comprising award-winning and well-loved novels, short fiction, poetry, plays, memoirs, biographies and travelogues.In the recent past, Harper Perennial has published a select list of titles in translation that readers have enjoyed – including S. Hareesh’s JCB Prize winning Moustache (translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil), Jayant Kaikini’s DSC Prize winning No Presents Please (translated from the Kannada by Tejaswini Niranjana), Jnanpith awardee U.R. Ananthamurthy’s novel Avasthe (translated from the Kannada by Narayan Hegde), JCB awardee Benyamin’s novel Body and Blood (translated from the Malayalam by Swarup B.R.), the Crossword Book Award winning Diary of a Malayali Madman by N. Prabhakaran (translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil), Vinod Kumar Shukla’s Blue Is Like Blue (translated from the Hindi by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Sara Rai) which won the Atta Galata–Bangalore Lit Fest Award for Best Fiction of the year as well as the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award, and many others.

For more information please write to

jaseya.fazili@harpercollins.co.in