Writer. Editor
People. How many there are and just how different from one another! Their sheer variety gives rise to a fascinating world of characters jostling for space, waiting to stand out. Inspired by a face or a silhouette, a character is born in the mind of the writer and she or he grows to be a personality sculpted by words and they dwell, sometimes as the writer wants them to, and at others, just the way they wish. Welcome to the world of people. We, the people. The real ones, the imagined ones that are shadows of the real.
This story will probably be my first step to writing a novel/novella. It remains the longest short story that I have ever written. There is a whole lot packed into this story – the relationship between mothers and daughters, a wife and her husband, Carnatic Music, human nature and realisation. It’s the story of Jhanavi, Leela and Vaidehi – women belonging to three different generations.
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The tradition of arranged marriage is quite an old one in India. It’s a practice that raises many eyebrows these days but I do believe that magic can be found in an arranged marriage. The story of Vasundara and Sankaran was written to put forth this point of view. Vasundara is one of my favourite creations and she epitomises the balance between respect for traditional values and a rare and beautiful kind of courage in a woman. This is Vasu’s story.
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Time and again, we hear stories of how children are forced into prostitution by people close to them for the sake of money. The thought of a child being abandoned in a strange, cruel and unsafe environment and forced to live under despicable circumstances sends a chill down my spine every time. Meenakshi is the tale of a girl who grows up to be a woman that men come to for various reasons.
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Ageing is a mysterious reality and even stranger, the inevitability of death. Death is perhaps humanity’s biggest fear. Those who have conquered the fear of death have conquered life, conquered truth. When her grandfather falls sick, a grandchild ponders over the concepts of ageing and death.
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It’s important to preserve one’s individuality and space in a marriage. But is it worth it to take it to an extreme? Can there be no room for some compromise? There’s nothing more comforting than the enormous scope that fiction offers. This story was just the perfect outlet for presenting a point of view – that it doesn’t hurt to compromise a bit. It’s about a woman’s realisation.
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I love the idea of writing letters. I consider it an art that needs to be kept alive, no matter what. Nothing, I firmly believe, can replace the human touch and closeness that a handwritten letter can bring. The letter has been a central theme for a good number of my stories. This is one of the first stories that builds on the letter format. A daughter writes to her father discussing children and parenting.
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Musings on childhood led to this story of an English girl. Spring and an English setup seemed to go hand-in-hand when I thought this story up. And when you find just the right kind of picture to complement the story, it all seems perfect – just like the childhood that we unfortunately leave behind in the process of growing up.
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