Water Hyacinths
By Lolita Dutta | Sept. 2026
About the Book
Colours live in a land between black and white, a land we know best by sight
Water Hyacinths is a collection of short stories based on the seven colours of the spectrum. Each story begins with a flashback and continues into the present. The colour violet takes us to a rural landscape in Bengal, in red we travel to a city in Madhya Pradesh, indigo is set in Mumbai, and green in Delhi. Yellow is nuanced in Kolkata, and in blue we move from Uttar Pradesh, to Delhi, to Uttrakhand. Oragnge takes us from rural Punjab to several parts of the country.
It is as much a story of landscapes, as it is of simple relationships. Objects are metaphors, and the stories evolve around them.
About the Author
Lolita Dutta is a designer and educator by profession. An alumna of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, she grew up in Delhi, and it is the city she calls “home.” In her teenage years, she studied in Nainital, where her
imagination flourished.
Her storytelling journey began at a young age, but remained confined to pages untold. She has done academic writing and has also been published, but fiction has been a later foray.
As a design professional, she has had the privilege of working with several pioneers of design on projects ranging from trade shows and museums to festivals and other spatial and graphic design initiatives.
She is a traveller and enjoys the beauty of the world, which has inspired many of her stories.
When not teaching and being a dean at the World University of Design, she enjoys cooking, watercolour painting and writing.
Water Hyacinths is her first book of fiction.
