Vibha Batra loves Chennai. The young, vivacious writer is Punjabi by descent and was born and raised in Kolkata. “I am one-third Bengali, one-third Punjabi and one-third Chennaiite. All four of my novels are set in Chennai. I moved from Kolkata to Chennai many years ago. And Chennai just gets under your skin. I love it. As a woman, I feel safe here, and I love the food,” says Vibha.
The Activist and the Capitalist is Vibha’s first romance novel, and tells the story of Jai and Anusha, who meet on a moonlit night, and fall in love. But when they meet again, they realise they hold divergent views on a certain issue. Jai is a capitalist who wants to develop Rasa Vihar, a heritage building that Anusha and her NGO are fighting to protect.
The idea for the plot came to Vibha when she was working as a copywriter for an ad agency. “I was working on a launch campaign for a residential building, which replaced an iconic building in the city. I chose to set the story against this background,” says Vibha, who is an advertising consultant, author, poet, lyricist, and columnist.
“Anusha is very passionate, but also fun. The book is written in a light, breezy style.” Jai is the classic dreamy hero. “He is the ideal caring man. He makes it clear that he wants to take care of Anusha, and is demonstrative of his feelings.”
Vibha’s books include a young adult trilogy, published by Penguin, Sweet Sixteen (Yeah, Right!) , Seventeen and Done (You Bet!), Eighteen and Wiser (Not Quite!) , and Ishaavaasya Upanishad , a translation of her grandfather, Vishnu Kant Shastri’s book published by Rupa Publications, a poetry collection, Tongue-In-Cheek and a collection of short stories, A Twist of Lime . And she also wrote the Hindi lyrics for Thuppaki .
“I am a compulsive writer. I love to write. My maternal grandfather loved books. And I grew up surrounded by them,” she says.
