Subhadra Sen Gupta (June 1952 – 3 May 2021)
was an Indian writer. She was the winner of
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
's 2015 Bal Sahitya Puraskar
and wrote over 30 books. Her book, ''Mystery of the House of Pigeons'', was adapted into a television series for
Doordarshan
Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...
as ''Khoj Khazana Khojher''.
Most of her books are in the genres of historical fiction and non-fiction, but she also wrote travelogues, comic strips and detective and ghost stories.
Life and career
Sen Gupta was born in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
. She held a master's degree in history. She began writing in college, working as a copywriter for advertising agencies.
Some of her works include ''Goodbye, Pasha Begum!'' from ''The Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories'' (a horror story where a girl holidaying in Delhi finds herself as a slave in the
Mughal era
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
), ''Bishnu - The Dhobi Singer'' (a
dhobi
Dhobi known in some places as Dhoba or Rajaka, Madivala is a group of community in India and the greater Indian subcontinent whose traditional occupations are washing and ironing, Cultivator, agricultural workers.
They are a large community, ...
boy who is taken under the tutelage of
Tansen
Tansen ( – 26 April 1589), also referred to and commonly known as Sangeet Samrat () , was a Hindustani classical musician. Born in a Hindu Gaur Brahmin family, he learnt and perfected his art in the northwest region of modern Madhya Pra ...
) and ''A Mauryan Adventure'' (the daughter of a soldier in
Ashoka
Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, ...
's army finds herself travelling the world). ''The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Cook'' (the child of two physicists who is bad at physics himself finds a diary written by a boy in a similar situation coming from a family of cooks) is part of a book series, ''World's Worst'', written in the diary format. This series also includes ''The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Cook''.
''A Flag, A Song And a Pinch of Salt'' features 19 freedom fighters of India and their inspiring stories.
She also wrote a book for
TERI, ''Caring for Nature: Bapu and the Missing Blue Pencil''.
Her 2015 book, ''A Children's History of India'', was about the history of India written for children over the age of 10 years.
In 2020, she released ''The Constitution of India for Children'' (sourced from books written by
Ramachandra Guha
Ramachandra "Ram" Guha (born 29 April 1958) is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history, and the field of economics. ...
,
Bipan Chandra
Bipan Chandra (24 May 1928 – 30 August 2014) was an Indian historian, specialising in economic and political history of modern India. An emeritus professor of modern history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, he specialized on the Indian ind ...
,
Granville Austin
Granville Seward Austin (1927 – 6 July 2014) was an American historian of the Indian Constitution.
Education
Austin received most of his early education at Norwich, Vermont, USA. Austin graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in American Lit ...
and
Derek O'Brien) and ''Mahal: Power and Pageantry in the Mughal Harem'' (about the social life of a
harem
Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...
in the Mughal era). She is also famous for her books ''A Bagful of History, The Teenage Diary of Jodh Bai and The Teenage Diary of Jahanara''
Sen Gupta died of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
on 3 May 2021, at the age of 68, amid the
COVID-19 pandemic in India
The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...
.
Awards and accolades
Her book, ''Mystery of the House of Pigeons'', was adapted into a six-part television series by Feisal Alkazi as ''Khoj Khazana Khojher'' on Doordarshan. Her works were also chosen as part of
NCERT
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India which was established in 1961 as a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Registration Act. Its head ...
textbooks.
Three of her books, ''Twelve O'Clock Ghost Stories'', ''The Teenage Diary of Jodh Bai'' and ''A Clown for Tenali Rama'' were included in the annual
White Ravens
The White Ravens is a catalog annually published by International Youth Library as a recommendation list for child and youth literature. An annual White Ravens catalog is introduced each year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy.
Selection ...
catalogue at the
Bologna Children's Book Fair
The Bologna Children's Book Fair or La fiera del libro per ragazzi is the leading professional fair for children's books in the world.
Since 1963, it is held yearly for four days in March or April in Bologna, Italy. It is the meeting place for al ...
.
In 2015, she was awarded the Bal Sahitya Puraskar by the
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
for her contribution to children's literature in the English language.
Works
Stories
* ''Goodbye, Pasha Begum!'' (in ''The Book of Spooky Ghost Stories'')
* ''Bishnu - The Dhobi Singer''
* ''A Mauryan Adventure''d
Novels
* ''Danger in Darjeeling: Satyajit Ray's Feluda Mysteries'' (2010)
* ''A Flag, A Song And a Pinch of Salt''
* ''Marching to Freedom''
* ''The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Cook''
* ''The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Friend''
* ''Caring for Nature: Bapu and the Missing Blue Pencil''
* ''A Children's History of India'' (2015)
* ''The Constitution of India for Children'' (2020)
* ''Mahal: Power and Pageantry in the Mughal Harem'' (2020)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sen Gupta, Subhadra
1952 births
2021 deaths
English-language writers from India
Indian writers
21st-century Indian novelists
21st-century Indian essayists
Indian women essayists
Indian women novelists
21st-century Indian women writers
Writers from Delhi
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India