Tulsi Badrinath

The Living God, 2007 Longlist

Melting Love, 2008 Longlist

Tulsi Badrinath lives in Madras, India. After working four long, dreary years in a multinational bank, Tulsi quit her job to devote herself to dance and writing. Her poems, articles, reviews and short stories have appeared in various newspapers and publications. From the age of eight, Tulsi learnt the classical dance-form Bharatanatyam from her gurus, the Dhananjayans, and performed widely, in India, and abroad. Meeting Lives on the MALP longlist 2007 was published in 2008. Man of A Thousand Chances is her second novel, and will be published by Hachette India in 2011.

The Living God (published as Meeting Lives) telescopes the time and space of myths, history and reality to recreate Aditi’s experience of life. But who is Aditi? Self-discovery is a process of growth, of travelling in the mind. The meaning of life is not immediately grasped by Aditi even as it unfolds before her. However, when she looks back into her past, happenings arrange themselves to the story of her life, that exists simultaneously with other narratives, other lives. This sets Aditi off in search of lost time, while propelling her slowly towards time regained, the time of stillness, and a crucial decision. Meeting Lives throws up questions largely considered taboo in traditional societies, and compels the reader to address them honestly. Her second novel Melting Love (published as Man of A Thousand Chances) is on the MALP longlist 2008.

Melting Love (published as Man of A Thousand Chances) is about an honest curator at the Madras Museum, Harihar Arora who pawns Mughal Emperor Jehangir’s gold coin (in his custody) to meet his daughter’s wedding expenses. The time seems ripe for the event, but a train of bizarre strokes of fortune, and misfortune follow the deed. After the wedding, when Harihar tries to redeem the coin only to learn that the pawn-broker has melted it, Harihar is thrown into an exploration of how life’s turns might be explained. In this compelling novel about love and family, big questions are asked— about karma, the power of art, and the novel’s deceptively simple surface offers up profound matter for debate.

Publisher 

Meeting Lives   Niyogi Books (Hardcover)

Man of A Thousand Chances   Hanchette India (forthcoming 2011)