Author Interview : Anand Neelakantan, author of ‘Rise of Kali : Duryodhana's Mahabharata' (Part 2)

Read up, Anand Neelakantan, author of 'Rise of Kali : Duryodhana's Mahabharata' (Part 2). We find out what the most challenging part of writing it was, the answer is incredible, as you get the most out of writing of the Gita. 

How he thinks characters are more important, and a little about his favourite authors and future books and also about the TV show, Folks...

What was the most challenging part about writing both parts, now that they are done?

Critically analyzing Gita was the toughest part. I have been learning

Anand Neelakantan

Gita from the age of 5. It is a part of my belief system. But when I write Mahabharata from Duryodhana’s side, I have to critically see Gita and it is very tough task. 

Subconsciously, I kept answering my own questions, just as I have been answering the doubts of many of my friends who care to ask me doubts on the Gita for so many years. 

I overcame it by writing down arguments from either side without pausing to think too much.  The result was surprising, as I found that the stock replies that many Gita scholars or even a layman like me who attempts to answer the doubts on Gita give are really not that logical and there are many questions that remain unanswered. 

I have put them across in the book. Gita is dealt in three parts, 1 - as conversation between Suyodhana and Krishna,  2 - between Balarama and Krishna and 3 - between Arjuna and Krishna, each attempting to answer the questions raised in the previous chapters.

If the reader ends up with more questions than answers at the end of the book, I will consider my attempt a success.

How much of your thoughts and feelings are included in your books?

My writing is thinking aloud and making the readers to feel for my characters, along with me. 

Authors have different ways of telling their story, with elements that are most important. Between your storyline and your characters, which takes precedence? 

Characters - I do not plot for novels, but let the characters decide the course. I write in a flow, often allowing the characters to possess me while I write. 

As far as TV writing is concerned, detailed plotting is required. I am writing Sita’s Ramayan for Star TV now.

Who are your favourite authors and why?

Charles Dickens

For characterization - Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, for plotting - Ken Follet and Frederick Forsyth, for sub text and depth - Somerset Maugham, for intuitive writing - Stephen King, for humour -  P G Wodehouse, for mystery - Agatha Christie, for depth of thoughts - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, for counter telling - Bhasa, SL Bhyrappa and M T Vasudevan Nair, for language - Salman Rushdie, for simplicity - R K Narayan, for imagination - JRR Tolkien, for dark humour- Joseph Heller. The list is endless. I read all genres.

How do you think your book was different from everyone else’s besides it being about the ‘defeated’?

I don’t know. I have not gone for comparisons with other popular authors. That is for the reader to decide.  I write what I know and in the way I know.

How is ‘Amatya’, coming along?  

As of now, I am writing 'Devayani', a young adult fantasy. 'Amatya' is after that.

Do you have any other books planned? What else can we expect from you in

KR Meera

the coming years?

I am also planning nonfiction self-help book based on ancient Lokayutta philosophy, apart from 'Devayani' and 'Amatya'.

Which book are you reading, currently?

Aarachar (Malayalam) by KR Meera.

  

You can Read the Reviews of 'Rise of Kali' here and 'Roll of the Dice' right here.

You can also check out the First Part to this Interview, right here.

You can also Buy the Book here.

Book Review : 'Clouds Don't Pass' by Abhishek Krishnan

Clouds Don't Pass is a story that revolves around Abi and his adventures, over the next few years. Abi is a college student, and basically, everything which some of us have seen, felt, and noticed during the college years, are here in the first half. His life, his passions and the love of his life, Shruthi are all present in this book. 

The first part is all about Abi and Shruthi, when he meets, falls in love and even loses her. There is also, of course the friendship, which he has with some of the characters, which is hilarious. Some of it kind of, took me back to my college days. Abi’s failure in love with Shruthi going out of the picture, ends the first half. Shruthi was married too.

The second half deals the failure in his life, when the mood is set by cinema. Since cinema is a major part of this book, it does not fail to make an appearance here too. Firstly, it does in the first half, when Abi is doing well, and then it goes down in the second half, when he is down in dumps too. He seems to be conned around by the so-called big shots in the film industry. His life takes an unexpected twist with Shruthi’s death.

He finally gets to Bangalore, where he joins up at a call centre. Here, he enjoys his job and seems to be doing well for himself. He even has a new girlfriend. That is when, his life takes another twist, and he ends up meeting Shruthi, all over again.

Now, what is up with Shruthi? What happened to her and her husband? All these questions get asked and answered. All his friends come out to help, in this part.

It basically ran a normal course, fun, love, grief, and twists. Well, I liked it in parts. The writing was good, did not find too many mistakes, besides a few in the beginning, especially with names of actors. But they do say that proper nouns cannot be particularly mistaken. :)

Author : Abhishek Krishnan

Publisher : Notion Press

ISBN : 9789352062201

Price : Rs 300/-

A Teacher's Day of Storytelling @ 'Easy Library, Hyderabad'

Another morning, this time it was a week before Teachers' Day. And so, as Teachers' Day was on schedule, the ‘Easy Library, Hyderabad’ decided to have a storytelling and a craft session, for the kids. It was called, ‘Dear Teacher, With Love’.

I had two teachers' stories with me, ‘The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon’ and ‘Miss Nelson has a Field Day’. So, I had kids who seemed fairly excited. Sports are different from classes, are they not? :)

Anyway, the first book, I read to the kids, was ‘The Gym Teacher from Black

Lagoon’ and it happened to be a book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It spoke of a little boy, Hubie on his way to school. Hubie is pretty nervous, as he has to go for a gym class, with a new teacher, who would train the kids at school.

He is really scared, as he thinks that the teacher would look very huge, with green hair, all over his body and is known as 'Coach Kong'. He is also known for making the kids run around everywhere, and play weird games, like jump over a horse, or play dodge ball with his truck chasing after them, and actually ‘pick up’ the truck. Hubie is really worried about the entire set up…

Would he survive the class, and pick up the truck? Would he play ball and not run around the world? With these questions in mind, I read on. Author Mike Thaler and illustrator Jared Lee were responsible, for this book being a success.

We moved to ‘Miss Nelson had a Field Day’. In this one, we are introduced to lazy kids at school, who refuse to play football as they believe that they would lose, anyway. So, they never win a single game, that year.

Their coach falls sick with measles, and they have a new substitute teacher. Known as Miss Swamp, the substitute teacher puts them all in place. She trains them to kick, run around, and basically whipped to shape. Harry Allard is the author and James Marshall is the illustrator of this book! Incidentally, both author and illustrator are the same person, but he writes and illustrates with different names.

All the kids at ‘Easy Library, Hyderabad’ were jumping around and asking questions. And coming up with their stories, of how they would react to new teachers coming to class or sports teachers training them. A few stories on substitute teachers, too. 

The kids were excited and I kept remembering, what a weird time I had when I went to class, in all the different schools, I went to! Scary!!

And so, my session ended, and I was happy to turn the class over to a craft making session. This time, a greeting card making one, handled by Sasirekha Srinivas! They made some cool cards too, as you can see…

Author Interview : Anand Neelakantan, author of ‘Rise of Kali : Duryodhana's Mahabharata' (Part 1)

Anand Neelakantan

Anand Neelakantan has written the Interview of ‘Rise of Kali : Duryodhana's Mahabharata' with so much precision, that it becomes difficult for me to say anything beyond thanking him for it.

So, here's the Interview in which, he shares how he managed to change the ‘Gita’ into a discussion between Balarama and Krishna,  the growth between the first and the second books, the similarites and dissimilarites between Karna, Duryodhana with the lives of today, and the difference between a stand-alone book and a series. 

This is not all, and the Second Part is to come, next week. :)

‘Rise of Kali, Duryodhana’s Mahabharata’ was a brilliant book. The research seems tremendous. How can you tell the best parts, from all your research that you actually use in writing your book?

The book is part research and part imagination. It is reading between the lines, giving voice to the silenced and reimagining the story from the other side. The list of reference books is given in the last pages of the book.

How long did it take for you to research this book?

The book was researched along with ‘Asura’. I have been reading various versions of Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Puranas since my childhood.

It took almost 6-8 years of intense reading for ‘Asura’ and ‘Ajaya’ series.

You managed to change the ‘Gita’ into a discussion between Balarama and Krishna. It was a very well-placed read. How did you manage to touch upon the relevant factors and how was the experience? 

 

I approached ‘Gita’ like how a child with no religious prejudice would approach it. I kept asking more questions for every answer that ‘Gita’ is supposed to have. I was left with more questions at the end than I had started with.

What are your expectations from ‘Rise of Kali’, considering ‘Roll of the Dice’ did so well? 

Like any author, I also wish my book to be read by a large number of people.  I had put a lot of effort to research the subject and my heart and soul in writing it.  

Going by the reviews and sales so far, I hope this book will do better than my previous books.

What would you say is the growth of the characters, from the first to the second book?

The first book was just a set up. I was just setting up the tone and tenor of the book. In the second, every character undergoes a radical change.

In the first book, the princes from either side have not yet seen the world. They are young and impractical, swayed by the ideas of elders.

 

It is in the second, that they experience life up close. I have tried to bring the changes suitably.

How would you relate the life of Karna and Duryodhana to the lives of today? Any similarities or dissimilarities?

I bet everyone would have felt he has a Karna or Duryodhana in him. These characters are eternal. 

For the society’s sake, we will agree that Yudhishtra or Rama are the ideals and may be they are, but practically, we all are closer to Ravana, Karna or Duryodhana than we dare to admit. 

The entire ‘Ajaya’ (1 and 2) must have begun a long time ago. Could you describe the journey? How did it begin?

I had the wish of rewriting Ramayana and Mahabharata from the age of 14. 

Though I started writing ‘Asura’ at the age of 32 and completed it at the age of 38, and took another 3 years to complete the Ajaya series, these books have been always inside me for the past 26 years.

How different is writing a series compared to writing a stand-alone book? 

‘Ajaya’ was not meant to be a series. I had written it as a huge single book of 750 pages, but I felt I was not doing justice to the great epic. I decided to do it in two parts and it required rewriting the entire manuscript.

It would have been a commercially sound decision to have a one book. The problem with serialization for a counter telling is that it will not give a sense of completion to the reader if she or he reads only the first book. 

It took 18 months for the second book to come out and there is the problem of reader losing interest or forgetting the first part. I have tried to overcome this problem by giving a summary of first book in the second. 

I cannot presume that everyone who is picking up ‘Rise of Kali’ would have read ‘Roll of the Dice’. ‘Rise of Kali’ can be read as a standalone book also. Serialization works best with fantasy books.

You can Read the Reviews of 'Rise of Kali' here and 'Roll of the Dice' right here.

 

You can also Buy the Book here.