Rukshana Chenoy-Horwood | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Rukhshana Chinoy-Horwood, a first-time author who splits her time between Hyderabad and London, was inspired by Mark Twain’s words ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story’ while writing her semi-autobiographical book . life on a postcard, The book follows the journey of Charlotte Baxter who, like Rukshana, is torn apart from her familiar environment in London when her father decides to move to Hyderabad, India.
The family re-establishes itself in the cultural milieu of Hyderabad. Rukshana tells through Charlotte’s eyes how her father quickly immigrates to Hyderabad, while her mother tries to stay as British as possible with little success. Charlotte grows up in Hyderabad to find her first love and after an unexpected play of destiny, moves back to London to join the cabin crew of an airline to travel the world. life in postcards The anecdotes are the protagonist’s recollections, presented as bite-sized chapters, as if narrated to his mother through postcards from her various travel destinations.
Life on a Postcard by Rukhshana Chinoy-Horwood
Rukshana’s story can be as moving as giving birth to a child or her experience of giving CPR mid-flight, yet full of humour. Rukshana states that these anecdotes are mostly “word for word”, while she admits to embellishing some memories and completely making up some others. “While writing the book, I realized that humor made me resilient. I wanted this to reflect in my writing,” says Rukhshana over coffee at the Secunderabad Club.
A fan of PG Wodehouse and the comedy of British-Australian actor Miriam Margolyes, Rukshana says she intended her book to be a “stand-up routine in the written word”.
Some humor pops up when you least expect it. The book mentions that Rukshana has been a corporate professional for over 25 years, and hastens to add that she started working at the age of three! “I don’t want anyone to know my age,” says Rukhsana.
life on a postcard Does not strictly follow a chronological pattern. The first postcard is numbered 30, recalling the challenge she had to perform CPR on a flight to a passenger in turbulent conditions. She describes how she worried whether she would be able to effectively administer CPR to the well-endowed woman! “The editors of the book wanted me to start with an attention-grabbing anecdote, rather than telling a chronological story.” She then digresses to recount how she became part of an airline crew and her childhood spent between the UK and India.
Rukhshana’s book was in the works for a decade. She has been writing her humorous thoughts in the corporate sector in her annual internal letters. Friends and colleagues encouraged him to write the book. Rukhshana wasn’t convinced: “I didn’t think anyone who didn’t know my dry sense of humor would relate to what I wrote. I have also been a private person and hesitate to talk about my life. However, she shared a draft with a journalist friend who encouraged her to complete the book.
Rukshana Chenoy-Horwood | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
As an airline crew member and later in a managerial capacity, Rukshana had traveled extensively. She learned from that experience of going to new places, meeting new people and her transformation. He decided to keep the chapters short to suit the shrinking attention span in the digital age. At times she became overwhelmed and almost gave up on the book. A close friend of hers, Asmita Marwa, a Hyderabad-based fashion designer, influenced her to see the book through to the end. “She told me that the journey would take some time and that I needed to enjoy the process.” She says the response she has received so far is her biggest reward. “We’ve lived through a pandemic and when someone tells me they laughed out loud while reading my book, it fills me with joy.”
Since the writing process was spread over 10 years, was she struggling with changes in her thought processes and writing style? Was she tempted to rewrite the pieces she had initially written? “The chapters about my young days were written as a teenager. As the book moves towards the later years, I kept the writing more mature and sophisticated than rudimentary.
Rukhsana is working on her second book, inspired by her experiences as a sleep-deprived new mother, but says it will be mostly fiction.
(Life on a Postcard by UK-based Olympia Publishers is available as an e-book on Amazon. The book will be launched on January 8, 6 pm at Secunderabad Club, Hyderabad)