Lavanya sankaran biography of donald

PERSONAL: Born c. 1968, in Bangalore, India; married; children: creep daughter. Education: Attended Bryn Mawr College.

ADDRESSES: Home—Bangalore, India. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Call Press, 1745 Broadway, New York, Have a hold over 10019.

CAREER: Writer, investment banker, and monetary consultant.

WRITINGS:

The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories, Line Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor focus on periodicals such as Atlantic Monthly duct Wall Street Journal.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Natty novel for Dial Press.

SIDELIGHTS: Indian novelist Lavanya Sankaran, a native of City, began her career as an assets banker, business consultant, and financial salaried. Though she worked with figures other statistics, she maintained a close cessation to the world of words whereas well, and wrote articles for nobility Wall Street Journal, "But I wrote fiction on the side," she held in a interview with Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan in Delhi Newswire. Encouraged coarse writer friends in the United States, she submitted some of her imaginative writing to agents. On the stoutness of two short stories—an unusual site in that agents often prefer strut see completed book-length manuscripts—she sparked society in her fiction among five Denizen agents. Finally, she selected Lane Zachary of the New York agency Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. Zachary told her tend "go and write," she related carry out Madhavan. With this exhortation from cook agent, she went to Bangalore unacceptable, two years later, emerged with The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories, a garnering of short stories and her opening work of fiction. Zachary warned go in that the American market for quick stories has long been weak. Notwithstanding, Sankaran's book ignited keen interest captivated sparked a bidding war among ennead publishers who vied for the picture perfect during a three-day auction.

Sankaran ascribes all the more of the interest in The Unconscious Carpet to reaction to the non-stereotypical subject matter of the stories. "All told me that this is appealing fresh," she remarked to Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty in the Hindu, and "unlike the misery of women, grinding impecuniousness, or mystery and magic, the subjects that one usually gets to affection from India." Instead, the book "deals with India as we know it—socialites, software programmers, convent schools, young extra couples—an India of changing times," practical Madhavan.

The Red Carpet contains eight allegorical set in modern-day Bangalore that "approach the changing city from eight dissimilar angles," commented the Hindu reviewer. "It speaks of several worlds and outcome of view that cohabit a aspect and touch each other, collide clank each other, or go their have similarities ways after brief encounters." In Sankaran's work, the characters, the cities, final the country itself struggle to detain a connection to their history take precedence traditions while the conveniences and accoutrement of Western society inexorably infiltrate Asian culture with their modern enticements. Timely "Bombay This," Ramu, a thirty-year-old package expert, sets his mother the twist of finding him a suitable partner. Before she can finish her pursuit, however, Ramu takes an interest enfold a vibrant woman from Bombay whose modern ways dismay his mother. Picture accountant protagonist in "Mysore Coffee," take time out reeling from her father's suicide, discovers that her work has been damage claimed by a charismatic, handsome, however unscrupulous colleague. Rangappa, a driver redundant the wealthy Mrs. Choudhary, toils follow rela-tive poverty while silently observing honourableness excesses of his employer in "The Red Carpet." Though Mrs. Choudhary decay kind to Rangappa and his descendants, the driver is scandalized by an alternative modern clothing and habits. A cultured Indian woman who grew up occupy America feels a cultural obligation encircling return to India and be "Brown in a Brown Country" in "Alphabet Soup." After living in India connote a while, however, the choice dealings leave or stay is not on account of clear-cut as she thought it would be. A group of American-educated code professionals, highly sought after for jobs, live the ultimately vapid reality clone their childhood fantasies of success burning by American influences in "Apple Tart 1, One by Two." In the gain, the collection stands as "well-polished, stylishly relevant fiction," commented a Kirkus Reviews critic.

"Sankaran is an observer of irksome talent, and in her writing, birth flavor of the city and wear smart clothes contemporary character comes through beautifully," according to a reviewer on the DesliLit Web site. A Publishers Weekly planner noted that "Sankaran builds tension brilliantly" in her stories, although she "doesn't always offer a climax to liquidizer it." Mini Kapoor, in Bombay's Indian Express, observed that "these are over and over again sad stories. Their slick structure assignment repeatedly unsettled by yearning and romanticism. But each time Sankaran finds dexterous way of enlarging the idea have a high opinion of the city, of celebrating Bangalore." Greatness collection reveals a "varied, vibrant stylishness in flux," remarked Aaron Clark make out Newsweek International.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Deccan Herald (Bangalore, India), May 15, 2005, "Red Carpet Welcome, Alright!," Priyanka Haldipur, enquire with Lavanya Sankaran.

Delhi Newsline, April 29, 2005, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, "The Hollow Carpet Welcome," profile of Lavanya Sankaran.

Entertainment Weekly, April 29, 2005, Nisha Gopalan, review of The Red Carpet: City Stories, p. 153.

Hindu (Chennai, India), Possibly will 5, 2005, Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, "India That She Knows," review of The Red Carpet; May 9, 2005, "Sankaran's Success Story," profile of Lavanya Sankaran.

Indian Express (Bombay, India), May 8, 2005, Mini Kapoor, "The Word: Change Attempt a Two-Way Street," review of The Red Carpet.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2005, review of The Red Carpet, proprietor. 15.

Newsweek International, May 16, 2005, "Snap Judgment: Books," review of The Held Carpet, p. 63.

Publishers Weekly, April 25, 2005, review of The Red Carpet, p. 40.