Interview with Parul Sharma

It is a pleasure to be sharing with all the readers, an e-interview with Parul Sharma - the much acclaimed and appreciated author of 'Bringing Up Vasu' (reviewed here) and 'By the Water Cooler' (reviewed here).

Do you think you were destined to be an author or did the writing happen by chance for you?

Well, I have always loved writing but the way things were going, it seemed unlikely that I would ever make a profession out of writing. I did the usual thing - studied Economic (not Literature) in college, got a diploma in communications, worked for brands - before I finally decided to reach out for that elusive book. It was a risk, a huge one in fact but it paid off.

When did you realize, you have enough content to start on a big project like 'Bringing up…'? What all preparations went into writing your first book?

I did not have content to begin with. The content appeared as I sat and wrote. I am not a very structured person and that reflects in my writing. I don't have ready chapter themes or even characters before starting out. They come about once I commit myself to sitting at my desk everyday and putting in the hard work.

Which piece of writing turned out to be more fulfilling for you - 'Bringing up Vasu' or 'By the Water Cooler' and why? Are you satisfied with the end products?

I think I am a very long way from being fulfilled by any of them. Honestly, I can't bear to read them without cringing. That's just the way it is. Hopefully this means that I will attempt to improve on them in further books.

What is your dream project? What other things are you working on right now?

I'd like to write a funny travel book. I have a feeling I'd enjoy that. I am working on a novel right now and editing another script too.

How has been your experience so far in the literary world? Any highs or lows being a part of this space, that you would like to share here?

Oh I don't know how much a part I am of the literary world. I don't know many authors or people who work in the industry. It's liberating to be your own boss and do the one thing that you are good at but it's a lonely sort of place to be in.

There have been a lot of budding authors on the Indian literary firmament. Who among them are your favourites? What significant changes do you see in Indian literary scene?

Yes, you are right in that but I haven't been doing too much reading other than my old favourites. I plan to rectify that at the earliest.

I think there is something of a genre-creation happening in the Indian literary scene and publishers are open to books that don't fall into traditional genres.

Both your books are contemporary fiction, do you want to continue in this space itself or would you like to diversify in different genres as well? Which would be your preferred one if you think of doing so?

I am open to writing everything - mysteries, travel, non-fiction.

Who among these - the one protagonist in 'Bringing up Vasu' and two in 'By the water cooler', defines you closely as a person ?

None and both, I would say. There is a bit of me in each and every character that I have written about but they are not all me.

Would you like to share any potential pitfalls of this world with the aspiring authors ? Any suggestions?

Oh but I don't think I have reached a place where I can offer advice to others. I'd say, read 'On Writing' by Stephen King. He says it all.

Book Review : By The Water Cooler

Title : By The Water Cooler

Author : Parul Sharma

Publisher : Westland

ISBN : 978-93-80658-37-7

Mini and Tanya are good friends who - studied together, left their previous jobs in an ad agency and are about to commence a new phase of their career in a fashion house - JR Enterprises. They begin their first day in the new place with stars in their eyes and hopes to have a promising career. But within the first day, the reality comes crashing down to them and their dream turns into nothing less than a far fetched one. The HR manager who hired them gets fired on their induction day and CEO is a conceited, egoistic person who hunts for the opportunities to make his employees know how dimwitted they are and how they are nothing but big recruitment errors. To top it all Mini's boss Shipra takes keen pleasure in trying every possible way to wreck Mini's career.

Mini is more ambitious but grounded of the two while Tanya is a little queer and is more focused on her upcoming marriage with her boyfriend Prithvi. Mini is made the incharge of a critical project which is literally pushing a non swimmer into the deepwater without any protection, to survive or drown. Tanya on the other hand is literally removed to the basement next to the kitchen of the office and is deliberately kept away from any kind of work whatsoever. But both of them take these extreme shockers in their stride, Mini with grit and determination learns the hard fact 'corporate bitches are made, not born' and implements it to her benefit while Tanya uses her 'no-work' time to plan a perfect and a well organized wedding for herself.

The readers are on to a roller coaster ride with Mini and Tanya and their funny incidents.

The other characters like the office secretary who is a detective in her own rights, an oily personal assistance, a lovable old photographer, the attitude-throwing model - create a colourful ensemble and make the whole story an entertaining reading experience.

Parul Sharma has offered everything from office gossip to office politics, from friendship to back stabbing, office romance to treachery, management basics to self defined principles - typical 'all masala' corporate culture and how the water cooler aides in propagating the rumors and gossips. What I liked about Parul Sharma's writing is that she takes time to define and describe each character which feels like a slow progress initially but then the same characters are so beautifully etched in the minds of the readers that the scenes from the text can easily be visualized as if happening in front of the eyes. The narrative gradually builds and towards the end it reaches the peak which is the perfect time to peak, in my humble opinion.

As the right balanced proportion of all ingredients - is the key to having a delicious meal, so is the perfect mix of wit, humour, sarcasm and satire to have an enthralling and amusing page turner and 'By the Water Cooler' successfully manages to offer this lovely potpourri.

pencil sketch...

an imitation of a sketch from here

Interview with Devdutt Pattanaik

An author, illustrator, orator and a mythologist - all rolled in one. Yes, this is Devdutt Pattanaik for you. His books - 'Jaya', 'The Pregnant King', 'Myth=Mithya' and many more are much acclaimed in the literary world. He has also penned down some wonderful children's books, a great way to introduce mythology in contemporary context. He has more than 20 titles to his credit including the children's books.

After having read his book 'Jaya' (reviewed here), I so wanted to know about the author's views on varied topics hence availed the opportunity of conducting an e-interview with him. Its my pleasure to be sharing his views with you all.

You are an esteemed author, an orator, a brilliant illustrator and well read mythologist. How would you like to be known as?

Mythology is the core; the rest are expressions of that mythology. And no, I am not a well-read mythologist. That assumes that what I am writing is merely regurgitating what others have written before, and there is nothing original. I feel I am finally expressing what mythology, especially but not just Indian mythology, is all about. Too long have we been fettered by mediocrity imposed by European and Amercian academicians and scholars who have never taken Indian wisdom into account.

How do you manage your time between these different vocations and which interests you the most? Do you ever feel that one of these gets lagged behind because more time and energy being spent on one of the other things?

Not really. I just go with the flow and do what takes my fancy.

Which is your favourite piece of writing among the ones that you have penned so far or do you feel the best is yet to come?

The one I am writing currently. There is no best. There is just bettering…

When did you start feeling that you do have something unique to offer in the literary world and should start writing?

After I passed out of medicine, somewhere around the age of 25. I never realized that what I took for granted and understood very easily was not very common.

What are research work has gone behind the written work that we see in your books? How long has been this journey? What has been your learning curve and where do you see yourself ten years from now?

No research. This is just natural for me. I keep learning as I write/draw/speak on the subject.

What is more fun and fulfilling - writing books for children or for adult readers? How do you make a balance between the two styles of writings? What comes naturally and easier to you?

Both are the same actually. The idea is the same. The method and vehicle changes with the audience.

Why and how did you pick mythology as your main area of interest?

Mythology picked me. I know nothing else. I am student of medicine and science and yet I understood this subject very effortlessly.

There are many versions of Mahabharata offering different perspectives and unique points of view, what do you think 'Jaya' offers which no other interpretation does?

It looks at the whole story with fresh eyes and not based on assumptions that are often based on Western linear templates.

How did 'The Pregnant King' happen?

I wanted to try my hand at fiction and the story just fell into place. I had finished two non-fiction books, one on women (Five Faces of the Divine Feminine by Inner Traditions) and one on queer tales (Man who was a woman, Haworth Publications) and I realized there were so many tales that people did not know and I wanted to create an age that people never could really visualize.

What do you see as the next step - as an author, an illustrator and a mythologist?

Nothing…just doing what I have always been doing….

Thanks Mr. Pattanaik!

Please check his site for more information.

Book Review : Moin And The Monster

Title : Moin And The Monster

Author : Anushka Ravishankar

Publisher : Puffin

Following one of the monster rules - Rule 17 : 'A Monster can be sent to the human world', an invisible monster enters Moin's life.

One night, in the dim darkness of his room, Moin heard something shuffling and sniffling under his bed.

'Who's that?' he squeaked.

'A bonster,' said a shrieky kind of voice.

Moin flashed his torchlight all over the room.

Nothing.

'Abonster, where are you?' he asked in a wobbly wisper.

'A monster, not abonster.'

'A m-m-monster? Where are you?' asked Moin.

'Udder the bed, obviously. Widd a very dusty old suitcase add a pair of blue socks which are horrible add sbelly. That's why I'b holding by dose.'

The monster is invisible but he threatens Moin to draw him as per his instructions to make him visible. But monster finds Moin a challenged artist and Moin thinks the monster does not know how to describe himself. And the end result is a pink colour monster (since Moin ran out of purple crayon and found pink colour closest to purple), with autorickshaw horns, bamboo (drumstick) legs, broom like feet (skis in Moin's terms) - all of this giving him an appearance of rather funny than fearsome and a monster is supposed to be fearsome not funny.

Shocked to see his legs, the monster grumbles - 'These are not bamboos, they're drumsticks. If I don't watch where I'm going, some cook will pluck them off and make a sambhar of them,'

But this is not all. The monster rule 54 says : 'A monster has to stay forever with the human who has given it a body', which means Moin and the monster are now stuck together. The trouble begins for Moin as he has to hide the monster from everybody including his parents. Monster's extreme liking for bananas gets Moin into trouble and monster's craving to sing in (not so) melodious voice makes Moin's parents believe that Moin is very keen on learning music and hence music classes begin for him.

One fine day, Monster decides to accompany Moin to school which leads to some very chaotic and hilarious situations in the school. The head girl considers the Monster as an illustration of an imaginary alien and chooses to stick him on the notice board along with the write up on the UFOs. Even the principal Mr. KuttiKrishnan finds himself in some medical emergency - nothing short of madness, calls the doctor and informs him that he has been seeing pink things and hearing things.

This is not all, the fun goes on till the very last page.

Anushka Ravishankar has successfully created the magic once again with 'Moin and the Monster', which will surely make children laugh heartily on almost every page. And lovely illustrations by Anitha Balachandran work wonderfully in tandem with the text. Clueless Moin while drawing the monster and the pink monster are really endearing to make the readers fall in love with them.

The nonsensical verses that the monster loves to sing reminded me of Dr. Seuss's style.

Book Review : 1) In Grandma's Attic 2) More Stories from Grandma's Attic

Title : 1) In Grandma's Attic (ISBN : 978-0-7814-0379-5)

2) More Stories From Grandma's Attic (ISBN : 978-0-7814-0380-1)

Author : Arleta Richardson

Publisher : B & B Media Group

'True Stories of Yesteryear with Timeless Lessons for Today'. Grandma's Attic Series is a treasure of stories brought to us by Arleta Richardson in a new avatar. She recalls the stories that her grandmother shared with her from the childhood spent on a nineteenth-century farm, in the company of her parents, two brothers and one very dear friend - Sarah Jane. These short stories transport us to that time by bringing out the history, family life, unflinching faith in the supreme power, values and life lessons that have withstood the tests of times. This series can truly be categorized as 'fun-filled' and 'character-building' series.

The late Arleta Richardson, once discovered a chest of secrets hidden away in her grandma's attic and every single article inside that chest brought out the old memories and a delightful story for her. Every patch on a quilt, every single button in the button box, a simple slate, the hoop of a hoopskirt, a slate and many such things make the grandma reminisce about her childhood days and provide a lovely trip into the past in the form of an enchanting story. Grandma is such a wonderful story-teller that while narrating the story about the particular article, it seems as if Arleta is under a spell and so will be the readers while reading these age old stories.

Grandma Mabel shares everything with Arleta, her adventures, misadventures and stories of mischief. A wonderful way to reiterate the fact that innocence of childhood and the fun of growing up remain the same across all times.

Besides giving a sneak peak in the lifestyles of those times, these stories work wonderfully in teaching some indispensable life lessons and moral values which are applicable to everybody at all times - lessons on honesty, truthfulness, pride, vanity, deceit and many more. Arleta recalls all these stories and most of all the loving and magical touch of her grandmother which brought the past again to life in front of her eyes as if she is a part of those times herself.

The stories in the second book 'More Stories from Grandma's Attic' are equally fun to read as the ones in the first book, but they are more Christian-world centric and focus on teaching more. This time around, Arleta and her grandmother are actually staying at grandma's old farm house where Uncle Roy lives now. Every story evokes many emotions be it the one when pig wears doll's clothes or when Pa accidentally locks Mama in the cellar.

Readers will experience a myriad of human emotions through these endearing small capsules of fun and learning. These are basically Christian stories with a mention of verse from Bible or a little prayer here and there.

Book Review : Jaya

Title : Jaya - An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

Author : Devdutt Pattanaik

Publisher : Penguin India

ISBN : 978-0-143-10425-4

A friend of mine gave 'Jaya' to me to read and going by the first instinct, I read the back cover of the book and what I read greatly intrigued me, fascinated me, captivated me and enthralled me, despite the fact that I have heard the story many times atleast in bits and pieces from different sources, watched almost every episode of the BR Chopra's serial by the same name on television, read it as a part of our school curriculum in one of the middle classes and later read some other interpretations of the story - as told by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in 'Palace of Illusions' and the brilliant parallelism to the current scenario that Gurcharan Das drew in his 'Difficulty of Being Good'.

Without much ado, I think I should just copy the gist of this great epic as is shown on the back cover:

The Mahabharata is an ancient Hindu epic where:

A son renounces sex so that his old father can remarry

A daughter is a prize in an archery contest

A teacher demands half a kingdom as his tuition fee

A student is turned away because of his caste

A mother asks her sons to share a wife

A father curses his son-in-law to be old and impotent

A husband lets another man make his wife pregnant

A wife blindfolds herself to share her husband's blindness

A forest is destroyed for a new city

A family is divided over inheritance

A king gambles away his kingdom

A queen is forced to serve as a maid

A man is stripped of his manhood for a year

A woman is publicly disrobed

A war is fought where all rules are broken

A shift in sexuality secures victory

The vanquished go to paradise

The victors lose their children

The earth is bathed in blood

God is cursed

Until wisdom prevails

I do not feel the need to give even a small glimpse of the story here. The one of its kind epic, unmatched, unparalleled, abundant with all possible forms of emotions and feelings, very rightly lives up to the fame of 'what is here can be elsewhere, what isn't here cannot be anywhere else'. Such is the vastness of this epic. It has been a great research topic for many religious gurus, research community, warriors, businesspeople, sociologists and even after thousands of years since its inception, there is a lot that we all can learn from it. One of the significant parts of the epic, the discourse between Nara and Narayana - Arjun and God at the beginning of the battle - the Bhagvad Gita (presented as 'Song of the God' here), teaches the doctrine of life, the ultimate knowledge of being in the transient world.

Devdutt's book covers a wide range of plots and subplots in a very detailed manner while at the same time keeping it brief so that the main story line is not forgotten in the details of the subplots. Some of these short stories are very self contained and can be a good source of stories to read to children. Since Mahabharata has been written, translated and interpreted by many and in many different languages, there are many variations in the main story as well as the tertiary streams of stories that join the main saga. At the end of each chapter, the author has summarized some of these variations, cultural influences on the narrative and elaborated upon some specific portions even further.

Jaya is an extremely well written story presented systematically in 18 sections and 108 chapters maintaining just the right balance between detail and brevity. The readers will find many of their doubts getting answered as they go along, even the reason why this book is titled 'Jaya' and which victory is actually the one that is being referred to here. Weaving the tales from classical Sanskrit and regional and folk variations make it an enriching and enlightening reading experience. How can I forget mentioning the line illustrations by the author himself beautifully capturing the essence of the chapters - they work as the icing on the cake.

Some of the excerpts from the book which I really want to share here:

• Vyasa classified the hymns and created four collections - Rig, Yadur, Sama and Atharva. On completing this monumental task, Vyasa has this inexplicable urge to write a story, one that would convey the most abstract of Vedic truths to the simplest men in the farthest corners of the world in the most concrete of forms. The gods liked the idea and sent the elephant-headed Ganesha to serve as his scribe.

Ganesha said, "You must narrate without a pause." This would ensure that what Vyasa dictated was not adulterated by human prejudice.

"I will", said Vyasa, 'provided you write nothing unless it makes sense to you. This ensured that all that was written appealed to the divine.

• The war between Kauravas and Pandavas was about Dharma and not for justice. And dharma is not about justice, it is about empathy and wisdom. Dharma is not about defeating others, it is about conquering ourselves. Everybody wins in dharma. When the war at Kurukhsetra concluded even the Kauravas went to paradise.

• Neither the Pandavas nor the Kauravas learnt the lessons of - futility of rage and the value of forgiveness - something that ultimately cost the Kuru clan dearly.

• Story of Ram, Ramayana speaks of a model king and his model reign. The Mahabharata by contrast, is more about imperfect kings and their imperfect reigns. In the Ramayana, Vishnu upholds rules as Ram while in the Mahabharata, Vishnu changes rules as Krishna. In the Ramayana, God is king while in the Mahabharata, God is kingmaker.

• Krishna offers Arjuna two things : what he is and what he has. Arjun chooses what Krishna is. Duryodhana is happy with what Krishna has. This divide between him and his, me and mine, what one is and what one has, is the difference between seeking the soul and being satisfied with matter.

Book Review : A Walk To Remember

Title : A Walk to Remember

Author : Nicholas Spark

ISBN : 978-0-7515-3894-6

If you are looking for a sweet, simple, emotional and touching love story which can be read in one or two sittings, you have picked up the right book. I was exactly looking for one such book and thankfully had one right on my bookshelf in the 'to be read' category.

The story begins with fifty-seven years old Landon Carter reminiscing about his days forty years back when he was 17 years old and how that year completely changed his life for good. He introduces us to a small town Beaufort in North Carolina where he was in high school with Jamie Sullivan - the daughter of a widower minister of the local church. Being in a small town like Beaufort, they knew each other right from their preschool days but Landon never felt the need of acknowledging Jamie's presence as he never considered her to be 'his type'. Jamie was a 'good girl' who loved her father dearly, liked to carry Bible in her hands all the time, read the Bible during lunch time, went to orphanage to help the kids and abstained from socializing in the way other young adults of her age did.

As the fate would have it, they both find themselves together on more than one occasions, initially by the turn of events later by their own volition. They share their dreams, aspirations and passions with each other and strangely Jamie nurtured a very simple dream to get married in the Church full of people where she could walk the aisle and her father could give her away to her groom. Landon could not comprehend how a girl as brilliant as Jamie could have such simple aspirations in her life. Gradually their acquaintance bloomed into friendship and later to love. Everything felt just picture perfect but Jamie had one secret and she wanted to shield Landon from that. But does she succeed in doing the same and does she get to live her dream in reality?

Nicholas Sparks brilliantly captures the emotions of human heart which will tug the readers hearts but strangely falls short on the passion that this kind of story desperately deserves. As it is, the author is adept in the art of writing flawlessly and enthralling the readers till the last page but I felt something missing as I turned the last page over. I was reminded of one of my all time favourites 'Love Story' by Eric Segal but 'Love Story' had everything to make it to the list of classics which unfortunately 'A Walk to Remember' lacked.

Book Review : A Beautiful Lie

Title : A Beautiful Lie

Author : Irfan Master

Publisher : Bloomsbury

ISBN : 978-1-4088-0575-6

When I read the review of this book on SaffronTree, I knew I have to read this book very soon. Being born in a family where the bedtime stories ranged from mythology, highlighting the glorious past of India, the freedom struggle, to the first hand experience of the turmoil of partition, it was inevitable to harbour a deep desire to know more about that time and the incidents which led to the unfortunate time of division of a great nation. And to satisfy that craving, what better way than books. So whenever I got a chance, I read many books (fiction or non fiction) on freedom struggle and partition of India written by stalwarts of literature like Khushwant Singh, Amrita Pritam, Gulzar, Gurchanran Das and likes of these. This summer, while having some relaxed time in my native place, I overheard my mother narrating her personal experience of the partition to my children on their request. It was hard for them to comprehend the country as a colony of Britain, the hardships that freedom fighters underwent but most of all how one day some people were told to leave their homes all of a sudden by just drawing a line on the land where there was none.

'A Beautiful Lie' is a story set against the backdrop of extremely volatile situation of the months leading to the eventful midnight when India attained freedom which came with an exorbitant price of partition. The readers are introduced to deep friendship of five boys in their teens - Bilal, the protagonist, Manjeet, Chota and Saleem, all of them in their most cherubic selves enjoying their carefree school days.

What impressed me most about the story is that this is one of the few ones which bring out the special loving bond between a father and his son. Bilal's world completely revolves around his dying father and he is determined to go to any lengths in order to shield/isolate him from the stark reality of that time if it could buy just a few more days for his father or reduce his father's distress of seeing the country bleeding. To live this lie, Bilal finds himself in many sticky situations but his courage and grit to make even the impossible possible sees him through, even if it means involving many other people in the lie or publishing a customized newspaper for a certain pair of eyes, he does all.

The way Bilal's character is etched, anyone will fall in love with him, a character sure to stay with readers for a long time. The parts where Bilal's tryst with truth/lie are brought to the fore are admirable and will surely encourage the readers to introspect a little. As the story progresses, there are many strong characters along the way, who win the admiration of the readers - Bilal's wise father - a voracious reader, the teacher Mr. Mukherjee, the Doctorji and all of Bilal's friends.

The story is very well narrated till almost the three quarters of it but fails to carry it to the same scale till the end. The crispness that the tension of the final hour deserved is mired by the confusion created by many small incidents towards the end. But for me, the best part was a letter in the Epilogue of the story.

Book Review : Miss New India

Title : Miss New India

Author : Bharati Mukherjee

ISBN : 978-0-618-64653-1

Anjali Bose or 'Angie' is introduced as a 19-year old, born in an orthodox middle class family in Gauripur - a small town in Bihar, India. This does not conclude her description, she also happens to be attractive - not the traditional Indian beauty though, very smart, ambitious, extremely fluent in English and with some streaks of rebelliousness. Her expatriate English teacher, Peter Champion identifies these characteristics of hers and encourages her to dream big beyond the almost predestined arranged marriage on the cards for her. From time to time he boosts her self-esteem and stimulates the desire in her to write her own destiny rather than watching her destiny being written silently without her consent. But finally it takes one disastrous experience in the marriage market which was enough to push her to take the extreme step of leaving the confines of her home to set off to Bangalore . Bangalore - one of the fastest growing cities in India, the new IT hub, the land of realizing the dreams.

Anjali sets her feet on the new promising land with Peter Champion's money and his introductions to a couple of contacts of powerful people who could help her in forming small footholds initially. She finds herself in a huge crowd of aspirants to be call-center service agents who are given American names, taught to speak like Americans, familiarized with America's geography - in short, trained to comfortably put up the garb of a regular American for specified working hours. Her Bangalore tryst turns out to be a huge roller coaster ride where - she is seduced into the freedom and modernity that the city has to offer to its inhabitants, the trickery of one of the co-residents pushes her into troubled waters and the gloomy side of independent life does not remain alien to her.

Some of the characters in the story just add more clutter and confusion without going anywhere and give an impression of half thought-out and half-baked effort. The character portrayal and the description of relationships that the protagonist has with her family, her teacher and her friends lack believability and depth.

Despite aiming to be a story reflecting the predicaments of many wannabes from small towns struggling to make it big in life, the narrative falters miserably. On many occasions it takes drastically melodramatic turns leaving the whole story line far removed from reality. The story spanning 300 odd pages bringing out the journey of Anjali Bose should have been able to establish some connection of the readers with the protagonist, on the contrary, the readers are left with no feelings whatsoever for a puzzled and lost Anjali.