Devapriya Roy is an Indian author best known for her books, ''Friends from College, Indira'' and ''The Heat and Dust Project.'' She lives in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

with her husband Saurav Jha.

Early life and education

Roy was born in Calcutta and studied in Calcutta Girl's High School. She earned her bachelor's degree and master's degree in English literature from Presidency College and

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU; ISO: Javāharalāla Neharū Viśvavidyālaya) is a public research university located in Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university ...

respectively. She obtained a PhD on Bharata’s

Natyashastra The ''Nāṭya Shāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary b ...

from Jawaharlal Nehru University under the supervision of award-winning poet and playwright H.S. Shivaprakash, and her co-supervisor was Prof Katia Legeret of the

University of Paris VIII Paris 8 University (), or usually the University of Vincennes in Saint-Denis or Paris 8, is a public university in the Paris Metropolitan Area, Greater Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public ...

Career

Roy began her career with ''The Vague Woman’s Handbook'', a quirky novel that was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

in March 2011 and subsequently appeared on the ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'' Bestseller List. Her second book was ''The Weight Loss Club: The Curious Experiments of Nancy Housing Cooperative'', yet another quirky novel published by Rupa & Co. in July 2013. Her 2015 book, ''The Heat and Dust Project'' (written along with husband

Saurav Jha Saurav Jha is an Indian economic analyst, author, and commentator on geostrategic affairs. His first book, ''The Upside Down Book of Nuclear Power'', was published by HarperCollins in March 2010 and it was translated into several Indian langu ...

) chronicles the story of travelling through India on local buses "on a very very tight budget" which debuted at no.1 on the Hindustan Times-AC Nielsen list and also got excellent reviews. ''The Heat and Dust Project'' is also a first-of-its-kind dynamic book as the couple used

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

to document their journey even as it was underway. A teaser for the sequel of ''The Heat and Dust Project'', called ''Man. Woman. Road.'', was published in ''Indian Express'' recently. In 2017, Roy authored a graphic biography of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

, ''Indira,'' with artist

Priya Kuriyan Priya Kuriyan is an Indian comic book writer, illustrator and animation filmmaker, based in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Education Kuriyan graduated from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2004. Career She began her career as an illustra ...

– a unique book about a young student, Indira Thapa (named after Indira Gandhi), who is set an unusual assignment by her favourite teacher: to write an essay around her name. The book, published by Westland's imprint, Contxt, alternates between chapters of fictional prose and graphic biography. In June 2018, she started the publication of a serialised novel, ''The Romantics of College Street,'' in

The Telegraph India ''The Telegraph'' is an Indian English daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Kolkata since 7 July 1982. It is published by the ABP Group and competes with the Middle-market newspaper ''The Times of India''. The newspaper is th ...

. It was then consolidated as a book, and published by Westland under the title
Friends from College
' a year later. A love letter to College Street in Calcutta, it follows various characters returning to Calcutta more than twenty years after college.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Devapriya English-language writers from India 1984 births Living people Bengali writers Indian women novelists Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Women writers from West Bengal 21st-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian women writers