A young member from the audience wanted to know what postcards are! "Postcards are like Instagram and Snapchat but on paper,” replied an unfazed Rukshana Chenoy-Horwood, author of Life on a Postcard .The book was launched in India on January 8, 2023 at Secunderabad Club’s Samanthik Hall. The institution’s heritage setting was fitting as Horwood recalled she spent her childhood there and it was her "second home.”
Clockwise from top: Rukshana Chenoy-Horwood signing copies;
Porus Munshi; audience at the launch
"I am a Parsi who was born in England and brought up in Hyderabad before I went back to England,” she stated. The book is part autobiographical and set in the UK and India. "The reviews I have had so far have been so amazingly positive. It has been read by 15-year-olds all the way to 84. Ok, I might have left out the fact that the 15-year-old is my daughter and the 84-year-old is my father!” The UK launch of the book took place at the Nehru Centre in Mayfair London on September 16, 2022.
"I am a storyteller, not a writer or an author. My parents are my inspiration. I am glad that I inherited my late mother Veera’s dry sense of humor and not my father Sohrab’s corny one.”
Chenoy-Horwood regaled the audience with her light-hearted and sometimes risqué anecdotal talk. She said she has a Parsi and British sense of humor and grew up reading British humorist writer P. G. Wodehouse. She looked resplendent in an Asmita Marva outfit. The designer, being a close friend, also attended the book launch.
"The entire book is a reflection of Rukshana’s life,” said chief guest Porus Munshi, an author himself. "I started reading it at my wife’s suggestion but I was hooked. It is innovative in its format as it is in the form of postcards… Reality bends for Rukshana, and Rukshana doesn’t bend for reality.”
The book is written as a series of postcards to the protagonist’s mother. In today’s era of 30-second attention spans hopefully this will keep people engaged, she said.
"It is about a young girl who is plucked from her middle class middle England home and taken to — where else, Hyderabad, India! There she experiences the culture, the people and of course, the boys. One boy in particular happens to be a Parsi.
"They say you should ‘write what you know.’ I wouldn’t know how to write anything else. This is the story of my life... well almost my life... well 50% of it... ok; a lot of it is made up!”
Munshi then hosted a question and answer session. He asked her if the Concord story in her book was taken from her life, which she confirmed. There were numerous questions asked with some hilarious responses from the author. Parvez Baria, who has known the author for decades, recollected her humorous end-of-the-year emails filled with anecdotes, "each funnier than the next!” Chenoy-Horwood, who "never lets truth get in the way of a good story” said editing was the most difficult part, not writing. She is writing her second book. "I would rather write another book than do social media,” she remarked.
More than 200 people turned up for the launch and over 70 books were signed and sold. The author has studied at Vidyaranya School and attended St Francis College, Hyderabad. Many of her classmates were present to cheer her on.
BEYNIAZ EDULJI