Poile Sengupta facts for kids
Poile Sengupta (whose birth name is Ambika Gopalakrishnan; born in 1948) is a talented Indian writer. She writes her books in English. She is especially well-known for writing exciting plays and wonderful stories for children. Even though her official first name is Ambika, she writes and is known as Poile. Poile Sengupta has had many interesting jobs. She has been a college teacher, a high school teacher, and an education helper. She also taught young children in Montessori schools.
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About Poile Sengupta's Career
Writing Amazing Stories
Poile Sengupta has written many books for children. Some of her popular books include The Exquisite Balance (1985) and The Way to My Friend's House (1988). She also wrote The Story of the Road (1993) and How the Path Grew (1997). Other fun books are The Clever Carpenter and Other Stories and The Naughty Dog and Other Stories. She also wrote The Black Snake and Other Stories (1993). Later, she published Waterflowers (2000), Vikram and Vetal (2006), and Vikramaditya's Throne (2007). Her book Role Call was translated into Bhasa Indonesia. Vikram and Vetal was translated into French. She also wrote a short story called The Lights Changed. This story is in a civics textbook for Class 6 students.
Stories in Collections
Her stories for children have appeared in many different book collections. These include The Puffin Treasury of Modern Indian Stories and The Puffin Book of Funny Stories. You can also find her stories in Favourite Stories for Boys and Favourite Stories for Girls. Other collections are A Clear Blue Sky and Bad Moon Rising. Her stories also appeared in More Mystery Stories (1989) and 24 Short Stories (1991). She also contributed to Sorry, Best Friend (1996) and One World.
Writing for Newspapers and Magazines
Poile Sengupta has written many regular columns for children. Her longest-running column was 'A Letter to You'. It was a funny column about a 10-year-old boy named Perky and his friend Raghu. This column appeared in the magazine Children's World for over thirty years. Another column she wrote was 'Role Call'. This column was about school life and appeared weekly in the Deccan Herald newspaper. A selection of these columns was published in two books: Role Call (2003) and Role Call Again (2003).
Her Plays and Poems
As a writer of plays, Poile Sengupta's first full-length play was Mangalam. It won an award in 1993 for having the most important social message. Since then, she has written many plays for both adults and children. Some of her plays include Inner Laws (1994), A Pretty Business (1995), and Keats Was A Tuber (1996). She also wrote Collages (1998), Alipha (2001), and Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni (2001). For children, she wrote Yavamajakka (2000), which is a musical. In 2008, her play Samara's Song was chosen as a finalist for an important award. Six of her plays were published together in a book called Women Centre Stage: The Dramatist and the Play (2010). She also received a special grant from the Government of India to write plays for children in English. A collection of these plays for children, called Good Heavens!, was published in 2006.
In 1991, a collection of her poems, A Woman Speaks, was published. Poile Sengupta also writes short stories sometimes. Her short story 'Ammulu' was chosen as a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2012. In October 2014, her novel Inga was published.
Acting and Theatre
Poile Sengupta is also a talented actor. She has acted on stage and in movies. Some of her movies include The Outhouse and Shaitaan. She started a theatre group in Bangalore called Theatre Club. She has also been a member of the Governing Council of the National School of Drama in New Delhi. She has also been a judge three times for an international competition for plays for young people, organized by Trinity College, London.
