Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday! is a celebration of the complex mysterious inner lives of our fellow human beings by the award-winning novelist Meghna Pant. A dedicated friend undertakes one last labour of love for a childless woman. Nadia - married into money - finds herself facing uncomfortable truths about her comfortably numb marriage. A Mumbai slum-girl dreams of speaking words valuable enough to be translated into English. An American tourist seeking nirvana sets off a sudden chain of events when his bag is stolen and destiny plays her hand. A retired civil servant of modest means struggles to support his snooty foreign-returned daughter. Meghna Pants knife-sharp stories are compelling emotionally intelligent and provide a rare glimpse into the strange workings of the human heart. They evade neat categorization and are the perfect read for all curious spirits. Key Features Meghna Pant’s debut novel One & A Half Wife garnered both critical and commercial acclaim. This is her first collection of short stories Happy Birthday! recounts stories about a diverse range of characters that will appeal to many different groups of people. With its unique insight into the experiences of immigrants Happy Birthday! will be especially appealing to NRIs and expatsMany of the stories in Happy Birthday! are based in Mumbai and will be especially interesting to MumbaikarsMeghna Pant’s writing succeeds in discussing serious issues of gender and class in a tone that is light and humorous About the Author Meghna Pant is an author and financial journalist. One & A Half Wife - Meghnas debut novel was published in 2012 to critical and commercial acclaim. It went into multiple reprints won the Muse Indias Young Writer Award and was shortlisted for several other awards including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Meghnas short stories have been published in over a dozen global literary magazines including Avatar Review Wasafari Eclectica and QLRS. An economics graduate with an MBA in finance Meghna has worked as a TV anchor for Times Now NDTV Profit and Bloomberg-UTV. A nomad at heart she has lived in Delhi Singapore Zurich Dubai and New York City. She is currently based in Mumbai. Meghna will be donating fifty per cent of the proceeds from Happy Birthday! to Safar Trust a Mumbai-based NGO that helps slum children and trafficked girls lead financially stable lives. Happy Birthday! is Meghnas first published collection of short stories.