Amol Gupte and Shrabani Deodhar unveiled author Soma Bose’s book collection of short stories titled Frenny and Other Women You Have Met. The unveiling was followed by an interesting interactive discussion with Roshmila Bhattacharya moderating the proceedings which aimed at delving into the different facets of relationships. Amol Gupte and Shrabani Deodhar chipped in with their insight into relationships and how their work reflected those thoughts. Roshmila Bhattacharya recounted her tough journey as a working journalist to an established author.
The book by debutante author Soma Bose aims to celebrate the lives of regular non-working homemaker women, who spend their lives looking after their families, yet are not given the due credit. “Frenny and Other Women You Have Met” talks about the 5 different characters located in different parts of the world and their experiences.
The stories of Frenny, Mrinalini, Shreyasi, Amiran, and Ananya are every woman’s stories as they navigate through life bearing their respective responsibilities towards their fathers, husbands, children, and teachers. Soma Bose’s book, titled “Frenny and Other Women You Have Met” explores subtle and intricate emotions, hoping that her readers appreciate women’s lives and contributions in all their richly varied forms. The motivation to write such human-centric stories comes from Soma’s experience of growing up in the coal-mining town of Dhanbad in Jharkhand, India.
In Soma Bose words- “A lot of times there have been discrimination between working women and not working women. It is always that people who are working are given accolades and people who aren’t working are not given any value. So, I really wanted to focus on the women who are at home looking after their families. They are doing a tremendous job and this book is for them. This book celebrates them”.