Sruti's BookBlog: Author Interview : Kalyanaraman Durgadas, author of ‘Songs of the Cauvery (Part 2)

Friday, November 24, 2017

Author Interview : Kalyanaraman Durgadas, author of ‘Songs of the Cauvery (Part 2)

Here is more to this very Interesting Interview, with Kalyanaraman Durgadas, author of 'Songs of the Cauvery'. Here, he explains how he relates the book and its characters to day to day lives, which particular character he feels most close to and why, the next book he has planned, who was it that told him he could become an author, his favourite authors and why, and the books he is currently reading, and much, much more, Folks...

How would you relate the book and its characters to your day to day lives?

This is an extremely interesting question. As I researched more and more of the public persons of that era, I found that there was any number of people with unshakeable integrity. I can name, off the top of my head, fifty public figures of unimpeachable integrity. I cannot name too many such public figures of today.

The characters in the book were not run-of-the mill, average people. They were ‘outliers’. It is certainly difficult to relate these characters to the people you meet in our everyday transactions.

In this day and age, where evolutionary theorists are finding it difficult to explain altruism in living beings, often explaining it away as a kind of overarching selfishness, I hope the book points to an alternate way of thinking that has prevailed among us and hopefully will continue to grow and flourish.

Which particular character did you feel most close to? Why?

I felt closest to Janaki. My mother, an extremely intelligent and sensitive woman, got married at the age of 14 and her dreams for continuing her education came to an abrupt stop in her Form IV. Even though she went on to become a well-known writer in Tamil, having published around 100 stories in Tamil literary magazines, she never got over the sense of ‘incompleteness’ of her education till her death.

Janaki, in a sense complements her by obsessively pursuing education.

Could you tell the readers about your experiences and how it was related to

Kalyanaraman Durgadas

what you wrote?

My training as an engineer and entrepreneur helped me in meeting and interacting with a lot of people. Perhaps that is the only extent that has helped. My extensive reading also helped.

The plays that I have written and produced helped me to set the scenes with a sense of drama.

What is the most fulfilling part of writing a book?

Writing the powerful scenes in the book, seeing it all come together, some characters simply deciding to what they want to do despite your initial plans, people writing letters saying they were born in the land of my story and the story transported them there…

The many great reviews the book has received from The Hindu, Deccan Herald, Pioneer, Bangalore Mirror, Deccan Chronicle, Youth ki Awaz and other readers has been a great motivator in the validation of my ideas of what makes a good story.

If I had to choose, I would say the reader reactions are the best part.

What is the next book that you have planned?

I have already started ideating and trying out a few chapters. These are the things I definitely know about it:

I have a theme.

It won’t be a historical novel.

It will be engaging.

I have some characters. Let’s see what they do.

Who was it that told you that you could become the author, you are today?

I started reading early, at the age of four, soon with a kind of omnivorous ferocity, in both English and Tamil and when my mother wrote, I was the official proofreader. That must have been from when I was nine on wards. I even gave suggestions on plot, character and word-choice.

My mother encouraged me and was certain that I would be a writer. Sounds rather lame, considering that she also thought I was good-looking, but that is the truth.

Any advice to writers that would like to be published today? How tough is it to be published?

Unfortunately, my experience has been rather smooth, unlike the usual stories of even famous authors plastering their walls with rejection slips and exulting when there is a hint in one of them that the editor has actually read their manuscript.

The very first publisher I sent the manuscript of ‘Songs of the Cauvery’ to, Rupa publications, wrote to me within three weeks of submission and told me they will be sending me a contract.

The publication of the comic fantasy that I wrote, ‘The Sorcerer of Mandala’ was even smoother. I had sent it to a beta reader. She liked it so much that she sent the manuscript to a publisher in the USA and I received an offer from Yali Publications even before I submitted!

In case, you are wondering, I wrote both ‘Songs of the Cauvery’ and ‘Sorcerer of Mandala’, more-or-less simultaneously. I finished the latter within a month of finishing the former. The publication of SOM was just 15 days after SOC!

Who are your favourite authors and why?