Tushar Raheja (born 1984) is an Indian storyteller and mathematics researcher based in

Cambridge, UK Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...

. His first book ''Anything for you, Ma'am'', a comedy, was published in 2006 while he was an undergraduate student in

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

. His first feature film
The Bizarre Murder of Mr Tusker
' , a

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univ ...

, noir, starring BAFTA nominee

Victor Banerjee Victor Banerjee is an Indian actor who appears in English, Hindi, Bengali and Assamese language films. He has worked for directors such as Roman Polanski, James Ivory, Sir David Lean, Jerry London, Ronald Neame, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shy ...

, is due for release. His writing has been compared to that of

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

by The Hindu and

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...

and his books have gone on to achieve massive success, consistently remaining on the national best-selling charts. Raheja chose not to climb on the bandwagon of formulaic books but instead devoted himself to mathematical research and the study of narration. ''Romi and Gang'' (published July 2013 by Pirates), previously titled ''Run Romi Run'' is only his second book in the market. The book about the unalloyed dreams of the young in the Indian hinterland revolves around

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

. It has been praised by The Hindu,

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

among other publications. Raheja is one of the few authors in India to combine widespread popularity with critical acclaim. In 2015, he obtained his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

from IIT Delhi in the field of

applied probability Applied probability is the application of probability theory to statistical problems and other scientific and engineering domains. Scope Much research involving probability is done under the auspices of applied probability. However, while such res ...

Personal life

Raheja was born and brought up at

Faridabad Faridabad is the most populous city in the Indian state of Haryana and a part of Delhi National Capital Region. It is one of the major satellite cities around Delhi and is located 284 kilometres south of the state capital Chandigarh. The ...

. His parents are doctors, his father a graduate of

Armed Forces Medical College, Pune upright=1.1, AFMC main building The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) is a leading medical training institute in Pune, India, in the state of Maharashtra. The college is managed by the Indian Armed Forces. Established in May 1948 as a p ...

(AFMC). Raheja did his schooling from Apeejay School and DPS Faridabad. He obtained his B.Tech in industrial engineering from

IIT Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

in 2006. ''Anything for you, Ma'am'', his first novel was also published in the same year. He followed it up with research in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemat ...

and completed Masters of Science in

Operations research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve dec ...

in 2010. In 2015, Raheja was awarded a

by IIT Delhi in the field of

Kiran Seth Kiran Seth (born 1949) is an Indian academician, Professor Emeritus in the department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is most known as the founder of SPIC MACAY (1977), a non-profit organisation which pr ...

SPIC MACAY ''Spic'' (also spelled ''spick'') is an ethnic slur used in the United States for people from Latin American countries and states. Etymology Some sources from the United States believe that the word ''spic'' is a play on a Spanish-accented pron ...

and Sandeep Juneja were his thesis advisors.

Books

Anything for you, Ma'am

''Anything for you, Ma'am'' shot to national fame after its review in The Hindu headlined ''Outsourcing Wodehouse''. The Times of India compared the plot to a classic

Jeeves Jeeves (born Reginald Jeeves, nicknamed Reggie) is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie W ...

Wooster saga. The main protagonist Tejas has a propensity to land himself into comical troubles like Wooster and has an array of Jeeveses around him in the form of his friends and family. The book was especially praised for 'cleverly localising the Wooster persona. So English aristocracy, the idle rich, the lad sent down from

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, the young man with great expectations and little ability, the chappie whose only survival tool is a smart gentleman's gentleman called Jeeves – all this is turned into rich material for humour of a local kind.' There has been criticism of the book's ending which is compared to a

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

movie.

Romi and Gang

''Romi and Gang'', while it has been likened to

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have be ...

's stories for its innocence and the sense of nostalgia it evokes, and has been considered by

to be 'the equivalent of watching

Lagaan ''Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India'' () is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language sports drama film written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. The film was produced by Aamir Khan, who stars alongside debutant Gracy Singh and British actors Rachel ...

', it is closer in spirit to

Swami and Friends ''Swami and Friends'' is the first of a series of novels written by R. K. Narayan (1906–2001), English language novelist from India. The novel, the first book Narayan wrote, is set in British India in a fictional town called Malgudi. The secon ...

. It is the story of the boy ubiquitous in maidans all over the Indian hinterland who dreams of being the next

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-sco ...

''Romi and Gang'' is unique for its subject. Not many novels have been written about cricket all over the world. It has been noted for the remarkable shift in the Raheja's writing style from his first book. Raheja does not intend to stick to any particular genre and is working on a science fiction book at the moment. ''Romi and Gang'' is also unique for the inclusion of 25 full page pen and ink illustrations by Biswajit Das which were included to lend the book an old-world charm.

Films

Raheja has moved on from writing books to directing films. The international rights of his first feature film, ''The Bizarre Murder of Mr Tusker'', were acquired at

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

by an American sales agency.

References