Prema Sastri (pen name Lata Narain), prominent journalist, short story writer, novelist and playwright was born on 14th December 1932 to V. N. Rajan (I.C.S.) and Jayalakshmi in Dharapuram, Coimbatore. Prema had a predominately British education in English private schools and with English nannies and an English governess. Her early school years (1930s-1940s) were in Church Park Convent, Madras (now Chennai), a short period of home-schooling in Dow Hill School, Kurseong, Darjeeling, Bengal and finally Loretto Convent, Calcutta (now Kolkata).
In the early 1950s, she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in economics, graduating from Government Arts College, Coimbatore as one of the few women in her class. A scholarship to the United States, resulted in a second degree in Liberal Arts from Chatham College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although her major was in economics, she took a course in creative writing. Her first short story A Paper Package was published in the college’s literary magazine, The Minor Bird.
In the mid-1950s, it was on her return to India, that she met her future husband, Narayan Sastri, an electronic engineer and a Major in the Indian Army. Having declined the job of data analyst with the American Institute of Management in New York after marriage, she joined the National School of Drama, New Delhi to study script development, street theatre/ drama where she also had the opportunity to work with Ibrahim Alkazi at Unity Theatre. Moving along with her husband on postings to Lucknow, Pune and finally Bangalore (now Bengaluru), she continued to write for Sainik Samachar, the army newsletter, and short-stories and humorous essays for the Illustrated Weekly of India.
In Bangalore she worked for three years as a journalist and drama critic for the Indian Express. In her spare time, she continued her work in the theatre with Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT) directing and producing plays with the group. It was in the late 1960s that she started writing her first 3-Act Play Shivaji under the pseudonym Lata Narain.
As her confidence as a writer-producer-director grew, she started her own theatre production company - Kalidasa Theatres and Shivaji was premiered by Kalidasa Theatres at Ravindra Kalakshetra. The play received a national award at the Chatrapati Shivaji bi-centenary celebrations. The published version of the play was officially released by the then Acting President of India, B.D. Jatti in 1977.
Penning over a period of seven decades, she was a brilliant storyteller with a great sense of humour and could weave a boring incident into an amusing piece. She wrote several short plays for Raksha, a charitable organisation founded in Defence Colony, Bangalore by the wives of former army officers. Her novellas The Stranger and Vallera were serialised in Femina, a woman’s monthly magazine.
Her works include: The Blue Convertible, an anthology; Guiding Light, a short play that won a prize at the Times of India play festival; Gandhi: Man of the Millions (a three-act play); a 25-part radio series Changes, commissioned by the Christian Charity, FEBA; Across the Border (a one-act play); My dear Ba (a three-act play on Kasturba Gandhi); The Waiting Room (a three-act play); and short plays Goddess, The Wise Minister, Alms from the King, A Generous Donation, Home Sweet Home, and Forest Drum.
In the late 1990s, she published her second anthology A Fine Gift from Lakshmi (it first appeared in Reader’s Digest’s International Edition) under her newly established boutique publishing house Songbyrde Publishing.
In her later years, Prema was an active member of Katha Lok, an informal group of writers in English. She was also an active member of Inklinks, a group focusing on women writers in English. The Inklinks published two anthologies of short stories, Bhelpuri and Door in the Wall, both featuring her stories.
In 2015, her third anthology, Butterfly Dreams was brought out by Songbyrde Publishing. Her novella Water on a Lotus Leaf, which was published by Indus Writing, a digital platform for Indian women writers in English in 2010, was published as Madras to Manhattan by Songbyrde Publishing in 2017.
Prema Sastri breathed her last on 13th July 2017.
More on www.premasastri.com and www.songbyrde.com
About the Collection: The papers of Prema Sastri have been donated by her daughter Sumi Sastri. The collection contains typed and handwritten manuscripts of Goddess, The Wise Minister, Alms from the King, A Generous Donation, Home Sweet Home, Forest Drum, etc. The collection also comprises copies of plays written by her, short fiction stories, articles published in Illustrated Weekly, press clippings, reviews of her book A Fine Gift from Lakshmi, original prints of The Waiting Room, Rival Candidates, Tell me Why, From the Sea, etc. The collection is a useful source material for scholars of contemporary Indian literature. (Catalogue available)
Donor: Sumi Sastri
Acquisition: 2024