Smart takes

Travel, satire, fantasy, and now theatre — young author Ilika Ranjan is game to try varied genres

Ilika Ranjan has taken a different route, not sticking to a set track.

At a time when all the budding writers are focusing on romance, Ilika Ranjan has taken a different route, not sticking to a set track. Her new book, “The Secrets of Zynpagua: Return of the Princess”, is aimed at children and young adults.

This fictional creation tells the tale of the cursed land of Zynpagua. The only way to redeem Zynpagua is to bring back its princess, who in turn has powers to influence the universe to send life to the land. “This book is written from the heart and I have worked a lot on my language,” says the author. “The USP of the book lies in its good English and the lyrical angle I’ve given to it. It is a fantasy book that has characters different from the other children’s books — the princess here is not our usual delicate girl. She rides a horse, and the other characters are Spanish-speaking, smart and contemporary.”

The author has also created an animated introductory song for the book along with sketches of each character.

A management graduate from Symbiosis Institute of International Business, Pune, Ilika worked in a bank for several years. However, finding herself in opposition to the banking culture, she thus quit her job to become an entrepreneur and author. Her debut book, “Puppet on a Fast Track”, was a satire on the corporate sector.

“The corporate sector exploits its employees in a very camouflaged manner. It has always been said that the consumer is king, but in my entire six-year stint with the bank, I realised that the consumer was anything but a king. The employee is only asked to make presentations and blindly follow what is put on their desk. Not everyone is ready for this kind of work, so I quit and wrote ‘Puppet on a Fast Track’,” she explains, adding, “I have been very polite in my attacks on the corporate sector, I should have been harsher.”

A blogger, an entrepreneur and also a travelogue-writer, Ilika says she wants to write a play next, “something like

The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie.” Referring to the world record of the celebrated crime writer’s play, now playing in the U.K. in the 62nd year of an unbroken stint, Ilika says, “I want to beat her record.”