Siddharth Shanghvi

Born Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi
(1977-08-25) 25 August 1977
Mumbai
Occupation Writer
Language English-language
Notable works The Last Song of Dusk (2004)

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi (born 1977[1]) is an Indian author. His debut novel The Last Song of Dusk (2004)[2] won the Betty Trask Award (UK), one of UK's most prestigious prizes for debut novels,[3][4], the Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy) for the Best Debut novel[5], and was nominated for the IMPAC Literary Prize (Ireland). It was translated into 16 languages, and became an international bestseller.

Shanghvi’s new novel, The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay (2009)[6], short-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008[7], was a number one bestseller. An exhibition of his photographic series, ‘The House Next Door’, opened in 2010 at Sweden's Galleri Kontrast and showed at the Matthieu Foss Gallery, Bombay, India Art Fair, and Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi. A second show, ‘Postcards from The Forest’, exhibited at Sakshi Gallery, Bombay.

As honorary director of Sunaparanta, an arts foundation in Goa, he has curated the work of Roger Ballen, Dayanita Singh, as well as William Dalrymple's visual arts debut, The Writer's Eye, which enjoyed a six-city world tour. Another show, under his direction, of Sooni Taraporevala’s Bombay photographs, is ongoing at The Whitworth, UK; it bears an introduction by Salman Rushdie.

Shanghvi has been voted: India Today’s 50 Most Powerful Young Indians; Times of India’s 10 Global Indians; Hindustan Times: 10 Most Creative Men; Sunday Times, UK: The Next Big Thing; New Statesmen UK: India’s Ten Bright Lights; ELLE 50 Most Stylish People; La Stampa, Italy: World’s 10 Best Dressed Men, Men's Health Style Icon 2011; GQ 50 Best Dressed List; ELLE Style Award 2015. Shanghvi lives in Bombay and Goa, from where he has contributed to TIME, New York Times, ELLE, VOGUE and other publications. He lives in Bombay, and is a contributor to Time, The New York Times, Hindustan Times, OPEN magazine, and other publications.[8]

Early life and education

Born in Juhu, Mumbai in a Gujarati Sanghvi family[9], Siddharth's father is businessman, while his grandfather, Arvind Vasavada, a psychoanalyst and a Jungian scholar.[10]

He pursued his MA in International Journalism at the University of Westminster, London, where he specialised in Photography in 1999.[11] His second masters, in mass communications, was from San Jose State University (MS, Distinction).

Career

He wrote his first book "The Last Song of Dusk," at 22, but dropped it when the agent suggested some changes, thereafter he moved to Northern California, having an aunt and uncle in Berkeley, and enrolled in a Master's degree in Mass Communications at San Jose State University. He graduated in 2002 and the book was finally published in 2004.[10][12][13]

Shanghvi has been compared to Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth in his writing styles, especially for using settings of magical realism, and themes such as karma, love and sexuality extensively in The Last Song of Dusk.[4][14] His essay, Hello, Darling, appeared in 2008 anthology, AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories From India.[15]

His second book, The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay (2009) which had events taken from the Jessica Lall murder case,[16] received mixed reviews,[17] and later he announced it to be his last.[18][19]

After his father was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, Shanghvi turned to photography.[20] His photography series The House Next Door, opened at Galleri Kontrast in Stockholm in 2010. In early 2011 it was shown at the Matthieu Foss Gallery, Bombay[20] and later at Delhi's eponymous Vadehra Art Gallery. Referring to this body of work Salman Rushdie (author of Midnight's Children) said, "These pictures touched me deeply. They are at once intimate and clear-sightedly objective, precise and affectionate. The quietness of their world is the silence of memory and sorrow, but there is, too, considerable artistry in the composition, and a joy taken in detail, and character, and place."

He divides time between Albany, California[10] and Mumbai.

Works

  • Last Song of Dusk. Penguin India, 2004. ISBN 0-14-303341-7.
  • Hello, Darling, AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories From India (2008)
  • The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay, Penguin India. 2009, ISBN 0-670-08175-2.

References

  1. ↑ Siddharth Shanghvi Biography Archived 29 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine. redroom.com.
  2. ↑ Sekhar, Vaishnavi C (3 October 2004). "Mumbai meri muse: A hundred stories bloom". The Times of India.
  3. ↑ Past Winners: 2004 Betty Trask Award
  4. 1 2 "Q&A with Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi". Verve. Volume 12, Issue 3, Third Quarter 2004. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ "Write choice". The Times of India. 10 February 2005.
  6. ↑ "Never Too Young". Indian Express. 11 January 2004.
  7. ↑ Siddharth Shanghvi Archived 31 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Man Asian Literary Prize
  8. ↑ Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi (14 March 2011). "Pocketful of Rai". Time. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  9. ↑ "Siddharth Shanghvi on sex and his city". Rediff.com. 2009-02-25.
  10. 1 2 3 Guthmann, Edward (26 June 2006). "It took a bad move and then a broken heart before 'a bloody reject' would release 'Last Song of Dusk.' Now he's a literary rock star". San Francisco Chronicle.
  11. ↑ "Never Too Young". Indian Express. 11 January 2004.
  12. ↑ "Difficult Loves: First Novel Heavy on Sorrow and Scandal". SF Station. 20 January 2005.
  13. ↑ "IN THE HEART OF SADNESS". The Telegraph (Kolkata). 4 February 2005.
  14. ↑ "Succumbing to temptation". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 13 April 2009.
  15. ↑ "Siddharth Shanghvi writes on AIDS in India". San Francisco Chronicle. 1 October 2008.
  16. ↑ "Famous Last Words". Indian Express. 28 February 2009. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012.
  17. ↑ "Mumbai in hyperbole: Self-indulgence, clichés and a wild prose style mar this novel set in maximum city". Live Mint. 27 February 2009.
  18. ↑ "My second book is my last: Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi". CNN IBN. 26 February 2009.
  19. ↑ "Lost with the flamingoes". MiD DAY. 18 March 2009.
  20. 1 2 Lalitha Suhasini (1 February 2011). "Black & White silences". Mid Day. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
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