Author Interview : Gayathri Ponvannan, author of 'Time Racers' (Part 2)

Read up, the second part of Gayathri Ponvannan's Interview, with regard to 'Time Racers'. In this, she tells us, how she relates the lives of her characters to lives today, the most challenging part of the book, the next book she has planned and also who her favourite authors are, and much more, Folks...

How would you relate the lives of characters to the lives today? Any similarities? 

Pratik is the quintessential underdog. He’s got a lot of relatable characteristics – ‘the parents are boring’ idea, the defiance against rules, even the ‘softie’ heart under all that nonchalant demeanor. The character from the past, Simha, is also similar to a typical teen, in spite of the widely disparate socio-cultural contexts.

 

Rebellion, awkwardness, emotional confusion, the ‘I-don’t-care’ attitude…these are aspects that don’t quite change over generations!

What was the most challenging part about writing the book?

Gayathri Ponvannan

Most certainly the time travel part. There was a lot of research involved in getting the technicalities right.

I suppose my editors at Penguin, Niyati Dhuldhoya and Nimmy Chacko, found the book’s development rather challenging too – my language and style is rather irreverent, and they had a good deal of pruning to do before the book could be published!

What book is coming from your desk, next? When do you see it released?

The next book is also pre-teen fiction, but with a female protagonist. I suppose it might be released once I’ve sorted out all the ideas I’ve spewed onto my computer, and found a publisher for them – possibly the next year or so.

I’m doing a Masters in Creative Writing just now, and I’m putting so much into this course that I feel compelled to incorporate all that I’ve learnt into my current manuscript. Which is all very well and good, but it does tend to slow down my headlong approach to writing!

Sandra Cisneros

Which book are you currently reading?

I’m currently re-reading Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Ernest Hemingway, Alice Munro and Sandra Cisneros…the set authors for my creative writing program at the University of Edinburgh!

Susan Coolidge

My all-time reads are works by Louisa May Alcott, LM Montgomery, Susan Coolidge and other children’s authors – ostentatiously for research, but more for pleasure!

Who are your favourite authors and why?

I’ve always admired Jhumpa Lahiri for her no-frills writing. I also like RK Narayan’s works – he couches the poignancy of growing up in such simple terms.

What else do you do on a daily basis?

I’m a network engineer, and I do technical research for corporate organizations – this is the writing job that actually pays!

You can Read the First Part of this Interview right here, Read the Review here and Buy the Book  here, as well.

 

Book Review : 'The Misadventures of Butterfingers' by Khyrunnisa A

Sadly have I begun this book, a little too late in life. But it is in my hands, nonetheless. And I began this book, and had wrapped it up, a little too soon, I felt! I am guessing that I missed about three other novels, on this great butterfingers, but I had begun somewhere, at least. So, I began Khyrunnisa A’s ‘The Misadventures of Butterfingers’. 

So, we take on, Amar Kishen’s adventures about the ghosts at Green Park School. Amar, who is an energetic and clumsy 13 year old boy, is nicknamed Butterfingers, by everyone who knows him. He gets into at least one misadventure at a time. And so, he gets in with the ghosts, and not just any ghosts, but Shakespearean ones too. Amar and his friends are roped in to write a play, and they do so, using a mix of Shakespeare’s masterpieces. How do they find the ghosts how would they defeat them? 

Then, Amar finds out more about his painting skills, which he thought he never possessed, and then we move onto his history paper and his umbrella. We also move on to his father, as he misses his flight, and on to the doctor that ol’ Butterfingers plays. It was over before I could say Butterfingers. Just as we know enough about Amar, we must know enough of his mom and dad, his principal Mr Jagmohan and his teachers, who never do get him right, and his best friends. 

We also find out about he has a screw up with the voice recorder, which he finds in school, and also the exchange student Pranav who must face a misadventure which was only possible at the Green Park School and ending with the second, Amar!

After all, we are dealing with the seventh fastest boy in all of the Green Park School, which had only one girl in its all - boys’ establishment. How and why is something you must find out, when you read this book.

The best thing about this book is the brilliant author, who comes up with these amazing stories. Her tone and language seem just right, for the book. She starts off so well, that if you aren’t laughing your ‘beans’ off, then I would be not be reviewing, this oh so funny book. 

You can Buy the Book, right here.