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| Chhimi Tenduf-La |
The first book, ‘The Amazing Racist’, I just read and began
to believe in him, I thought that he would write and teach too with his words.
I must say, that this book has proved me right.
I guess that says
it all, but here is Part 1 of the Interview for ‘Panther’, where he tells us
how the book began, details about the book and its characters and what is
different about this book. There is more in Part 2, Folks…
How did ‘Panther’ happen? Could you describe the journey?
In May, last year after my agent, Kanishka Gupta sold my first book, 'The Amazing Racist'. Then he asked me if I had anything else, I had written. I had a
book called 'The Papadum King', which was a 40,000 word high school story of
friendship and betrayal set in Colombo.
Kanishka and his team liked this story,
but just wanted me to expand on it, so I gave the lead character, Prabu, a
backstory in which he was a child soldier for a fictional terrorist group.
Thus, Panther was born.
What kind of
research did you put into ‘Panther’?
I work at a school so I
was able to draw upon real life for the setting and for the behaviour of
students and teachers (although the students in my school are much more innocent
than in 'Panther'). Since I have never been a child soldier, I had to research that.
Yet, more than researching them in any particular war, I wanted to read about
the psychological impact on child soldiers in the aftermath of war. This formed
the basis of my story, because it explains Prabu’s difficulties with fitting in
and his reactions to being taunted.
How did the
two main characters, Prabu and Indika come about?
I wrote a book, a few
years ago where the overall story was a little bit ridiculous but out of it
came these two characters. I liked their friendship, their swagger and their
innocence, so I used them as the starting point for a new story. Their
relationship is similar to one, I had when I was 16 with a friend who came to my
school, having never been to Colombo before.
Hence, everything was new to him and
he was always optimistic even if he seemed a little out of place at times.
How would you
relate the lives of Prabu and Indika to the lives today? Any similarities?
Yes, indeed. Indika is
your standard school hunk whereas Prabu reminds me of any number of students, I
have seen who have come from out of town to take up scholarships at
international schools in Colombo. They are so grateful for the opportunity that
their enthusiasm becomes infectious.
In 'Panther', some take advantage of Prabu’s
enthusiasm and that can happen in bigger schools, but where I work the children
are too kind for that kind of thing.
How would you
relate the book and its characters, besides the two mentioned earlier, to the
lives today?
There are sinister
people in this book, who take advantage of children because they hold positions
of responsibility. This is the case in this book.
I took inspiration for such characters from real life stories I read, be it of warlords or sports coaches.
I took inspiration for such characters from real life stories I read, be it of warlords or sports coaches.
What according to you is different about your book?
I have used a different narrative style in some threads of the book,
where I write in the second person. The reason for this was to create some
mystery about who the narrator is. This
book is very different to my first, in that I try to create more suspense, yet I
have also tried to release tension through humour at times, because I am
dealing with tough themes.
It is also a book that I think could appeal to teenagers and adults of
all ages. That was my intention at least.
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