When his brother Vivek narrated a story for a short film, Pratheek Thomas immediately knew that he wanted to adapt it into a comic. Thus was born Hush, one of the first silent graphic novellas in India, which was unveiled at Oxford Bookstore, Park Street, on July 9. The launch was followed by an interactive reading of Hush, the maiden publication of the Bangalore-based Manta Ray Comics.

Hush comes with the tagline: “Some things are not meant to be talked about” and depicts one day in the life of a schoolgirl who has been sexually abused by her father, repeatedly.

Pratheek admitted that the story was hardly new. “But Hush unfolds in a different manner,” said the writer, who is also the co-founder of Manta Ray Comics.

Being a silent novella, Hush has no dialogue. The reader — or viewer, or what you will — gets to know the names of the characters only at the very end. The paneling has been done by Pratheek and the illustrations by animation film designer Rajiv Eipe. The sketches are all drawn by hand. The marketing was mostly word of mouth, followed by the mother of all marketing tools — Facebook.

“When I was writing Hush, I didn’t think much about its publication. Then my friend Dilip Cherian and I got talking about the comic book publication scenario in India and ended up launching Manta Ray in 2009,” said Pratheek. Manta Ray was recently named a finalist in the publishing category for British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur Awards.

Sneha Paul

The trend of campus novels that started with Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone has another addition — Reality Bites by Anurag Anand. The book was recently launched at the Elgin Road Crossword bookstore, where Anand, a banker-turned-author (what else!), said Reality Bites was based on his own experiences. “This is my fifth book and my first attempt at campus fiction. It draws heavily on my student days. It has lots of interesting events, curious characters and bizarre situations within a love story,” explained Anurag, who has written self-help titles of the corporate kind and on personality development.

In Reality Bites, Anand tells the tale of Atul, who lives in the campus hostel. Peer pressure forces him to lose his “still single” tag and lands him in bizarre situations, threatening his life and limb. Anand is confident that his book has “immense cinematic potential with interesting dialogue and a star cast thrown in.” Do we hear three idiots chuckling?

Mohua Das

A simple story told simply, 46+14=06, A Story of a Genius is about a boy who is different and his mother who celebrates that different-ness. It’s also about the boy’s struggle to remove the “failure” tag from his name and live his dream on his own terms. The book was launched at Reliance Time Out at Axis Mall in Rajarhat on July 10.

Spanning nearly 30 years, the 122-page book is a semi-autobiographical tale penned by NID student Ravikiran and his mother Sapna, a classical dancer and writer on classical dance. Possibly the first mother and son endeavour, 46+14=06 offers glimpses of a close bond forged over cups of Bournvita and big dreams.

Peppered with funny and poignant moments and hopeful messages, the book also holds up the faults in our education system. Speaking at the launch, Ravikiran, who is now pursuing photography design at NID — like protagonist Rohan does in the book — said: “We started ideating about this book when I was studying in Loyola College, Chennai. My mom and I became like buddies then. Most incidents in the book are inspired by things that happened in my life and also in my friends’ lives.”

Madhurima Chatterjee