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| Gayathri Ponvannan |
Read up, Interview
with Gayathri Ponvannan, Author of ‘Time Racers’. This science fiction piece,
with a blend of history and mystery. We get to explore PP’s characteristics,
along with Simha’s histrionics. Why is it all so? We get to explore it and we have
Ponvannan giving us a few more details. There is even more to come in part two of this Interview, Folks…
How did ‘Time Racers’ happen? Could you describe the
journey?
‘Time Racers’ started off rather prosaically, with an
email. One of the editors at Penguin got in touch, after reading my work with
Disney’s Pitchkiaow contest. I was developing a vague ‘time travel across
generations’ idea then – percolating,
is the right literary word, I suppose. This took off as a full-fledged
manuscript.
The journey could be best likened to a see-saw…there
were many back and forth trips between my inbox and the editor’s, as well as a few
pit-stops at Siyahi, (the literary consultancy), along the way!
How did the story, especially Pratik’s come about? Did you
have a lot of personal experiences to go with it?
Much of this is from personal experience – I have a 14
year old son, who provided the language and style for the character. There is a
good deal of me in Pratik too - I was just such a doofus, when growing up in
the early 1990s (the mists of time, as far as the readers of this book are
concerned!)
Did any of the incidents happen, how much was fact and how
much, fiction?
The time travel, and all related incidents are
fiction, of course. The emotions are all factual, however, and so is the village
near Chennai.
How did you come up with the core idea and develop it?
‘Time Racers’ started off with a similarity – I’ve always found my son
strikingly similar to my grandfather. And I’ve always bitterly regretted the
fact that they never knew each other (my grandfather passed away well before my
son was born). This was the germ of the idea that then grew into the story.
Of course, there had to be an aspect of
time travel, since this is a relationship between two people who would never ever
met, expect in my own head!
What according to you is different about your book?
The book describes an underdog-to-hero journey of a thirteen
year old boy – the bildungsroman, a rather common genre. But the inspiration
for his metamorphosis comes from the past.
In this book, Pratik lives and learns in the
past, and carries his lessons into the future – this, I feel, is an aspect
that’s different from the usual coming-of-age books.
You can Read the Review, right here and Buy the Book here, as well.
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