The Author of the Month Series is envisioned as a year-long curatorial initiative at BLR Reads – Library and Archive, strengthening its role as a shared cultural and civic space. Building on BLR Reads’ ethos of reading beyond books, the series will invite one author each month for an in-depth book discussion, situating literature within wider conversations on the city, history, design, culture, and everyday life.

The initiative aims to deepen reader engagement, foster sustained community participation, and build meaningful collaborations with authors, publishers, academic institutions, and cultural organizations. Each session will be accompanied by curated reading lists and, where relevant, allied activities such as talks, walks, or exhibitions.

The edition, we bring to you ‘ON THE ROAD, OFF THE RECORD: Over 50 Cab Stories’ by Ranjini Rao, with author Ruchira Ramanujam facilitating the conversation. This anthology, as Ruchira writes in the forward, “is a light-hearted set of reads set around everyday encounters with the drivers who get us wherever we need to go.”