Bukmuk Publishing · Heritage · Vol. I
Every family has them, and almost no family has them written down. Sit with a grandparent, ask about one thing that happened to them, and send it to us. The best stories are printed in an anthology with a real ISBN, under their name.
01 How it works
Pick one of the three themes below. Ask your grandparent about it, and write down what they say. Between 400 and 800 words, which is about one sitting’s worth of talking. Send it in before 31 January 2027, 11:59 pm IST.
Our editors read every entry. The selected stories are printed in an anthology with a real ISBN, sold in India and worldwide, with the storyteller credited as the author of their story.
You do not have to be a writer, and neither do they. Most of these stories are told out loud long before anyone writes them down. Typing up a recording is exactly the right way to do this.
It costs nothing to enter, whether or not you came through a school or a society.
Who writes it down
Usually a grandchild. Sometimes a son or daughter. Sometimes the storyteller themselves. Any of the three is fine, and the form asks which.
Whoever types it, the byline belongs to the person whose life it was.
02 The three themes
400 to 800 words
A home, a village, a street, a city left behind. What it looked like, sounded like, and what happened there.
400 to 800 words
A trade, a craft, a career, a field. The thing you did for years and what it taught you.
400 to 800 words
A person from your life your grandchildren never got to know. Bring them back for a few hundred words.
One story per theme. If a grandparent has three stories in them, all three are welcome.
03 Write it in the language it was told in
Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu or English. A story loses something when it is translated on its way to us, so send it in the language your grandparent told it in and let us do the rest.
The form asks which language it is in, so that an editor who actually reads that language is the one who reads the story.
In the anthology
Stories selected in another language are printed in that language, with an English translation beside them, so the whole family can read the book.
04 What the published storytellers get
What it costs
Nothing
Entering is free, on every route. If a story is selected, we write to the family about copies of the book. That is the only thing we ever ask anyone to pay for, and only once you can see that the story is in.
05 Send a story in
Before you start
Stuck on any of this, or something not working? WhatsApp Shefali on +91 81302 86286 or write to [email protected]. A real person answers.
06 For schools, societies and groups
If you run a school, a resident welfare association, a seniors’ group or an alumni association, we will give you a code and everything you need to put this in front of your families. It costs you nothing and it costs them nothing.
Write to [email protected] or WhatsApp us on +91 81302 86286 and we will set you up.
Why a code helps
It changes nothing about the price, because entering is free either way. What it does is tell us that a story came through you, so your name goes in the book and we know where to come back to next year.
Anyone without a code can still enter directly, on the same form, on the same terms.
07 Before you enter
On difficult stories
Many of these lives contain Partition, migration, loss and illness. Those stories are welcome, and they are often the ones most worth keeping.
We will not print anything that names a living person in a way that could harm them, and we will always come back to you before we edit anything sensitive.
Read the terms and privacy policy.
08 Questions, or something gone wrong
Whether it is a question about the themes, a file that will not upload, a code that is not working, or an older parent who would rather tell us the story over the phone than fill in a form, write or call. We would rather sort it out than lose the story.
If you have already entered, keep your entry reference from the confirmation email and quote it. That lets us find the story straight away.
Shefali Malhotra
Founder, and the person who reads the entries.
WhatsApp or call
Entries close 31 January 2027, 11:59 pm IST. If you write to us close to the deadline, say so and we will come back to you the same day.