Turns & returns in life

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(Left to right) Adil Hussain, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu and Bubbles Sabharwal at the book reading session in the city

‘Can we really ever go back to our roots the same way we left? Can returning home ever really happen?’ In her first book, Faraway Music, author Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, takes reader on a quest to find these answers.

During a book reading session the rich narrative of Faraway Music, published by Hachette India, was brought to life by theatre director and novelist Bubbles Sabharwal and actor Adil Hussain who joined the author in reading excerpts from the book at Lodhi Estate recently.
Since the protagonist, Piya Choudhury, starts her career as a journalist before making a career switch to PR, just like the author in real life, is Faraway Music an autobiography, asks Bubbles. “The trajectory of life that Piya follows is very similar to my life as well,” agrees Sreemoyee. “However there is a bit of the author in every book. As I moved from one city to another, like Piya, I wondered at how we leave a piece of us behind while going through this journey of life,” says Sreemoyee.
After a chapter on Piya’s experiences in Mumbai, Adil read out excerpts where the protagonist’s driver talks about how one needs to soak in the rain to really understand the city of Mumbai. This was followed by passages of Piya’s encounter with an artist she falls in love with, who ultimately sets her free on a creative pursuit, and Piya’s going back to her home in Kolkata in search of her roots.
Talking about her experiences in Delhi, Sreemoyee says that a transformation happened when she was in the city. “I arrived here during a harsh winter. I started writing a lot those days and for the first time I was not regretting things not working out,” says the author.
Sreemoyee insists that one should tell the stories one really believes in. And this is a story that she believed in. Though it took her just five months to finish the book, Sreemoyee wrote the first few chapters in Mumbai when she was stuck in office during the flood on July 26, 2005. “The story was with me all this time. As in life there are no endings. All our lives we search for answers and sometimes these searches outlive us. Piya also embarks on one such journey that I believe everyone will be able to relate to,” says author. Like the story, the title of the book was also with her all this while. The author insists that she had long back, even before she started writing the book, decided on the name Faraway Music, which turned out to be apt for Piya’s story.
Sreemoyee, now a full-time writer, is already about to finish her fourth book. She is also a prolific poet and has just completed her third novel, an adult fiction Sita’s Curse, while her second, You’ve Got The Wrong Girl, is out next from Hachette India.