Author Interview : Neelima Pudota, author of ‘From Everest, With Love' (Part 1)

Neelima Pudota

Read up, part one of the Interview with Neelima Pudota, mountaineer and author of 'From Everest, With Love'. This book gave me an all new sense. A sense, which kind of took me with it, took me to the mountains and left me there to understand them better, to feel them better and to discern it all better.

In this part, she tells us how she first fell in love with the Mount Everest, how she brought out her personal story and managed to blend it with what she has written, how her medical, social and economic backgrounds affected her writing. She also tells us, what the kind of research was, that was put into the book and what she feels is different about the book. Much more to this interview, and it will definitely come through next week,  Folks...

How did ‘From Everest, With Love’ first happen?

It happened the first time, I saw Everest (in 2015). 😉

It took me a while to realize that this book was in the making ever since I first crossed my gaze with Sagaramatha in complete reverence. It is not in my limited human capacity to write such a story. As much as this answer sounds spiritual and philosophical, there is little we can explain the logic behind the making of this book.

I was always fascinated with what was happening to me. I was aware and knew that some Magic was happening but was not able to put it in the right words. I struggled with 2 other versions before this book. One titled Mountains of my life and the other Find your Everest, each discarded after a significant work and time spent on it. When my mom finished reading the letters I wrote to her, she suggested to me to give it a reading. I randomly 
opened to read a page and just knew that this was what the book will be.

How did you bring out your personal story and blend it into the entire subject?

 

Because the book is a collection of letters to my Amma, the personalization was inevitable. In fact, the first set of edits went through my mom (who also happens to be an editor) with a series of discussions as to what can be kept in the book, how much of a personal life can be shared with the readers and how vulnerable I can get while opening up personally with the readers.

The second session of editing was with my Editor Varsha Naik, who introduced the technical jargon and a lot of stuff that my Mother knew, but the readers might not know. So, we had to blend the technicalities into the personal story for readers to understand better. It was the other way around.

How did it feel to write about yourself and your loved ones, as characters? 

It felt very Natural. Everyone became, just characters. None of my loved ones, who stood by my side, were with me. Only their spirit (read as character), was with me. I felt like a character out of a story too. The whole experience often felt so surreal.

How did your medical, social and economic backgrounds affect your writing?

Medical - ? (I’m looking at this as health) During the time period of writing the book, I had no health issues but I did take a break from my training. But it was a conscious decision to give all of myself to the book. I knew I would have a tough time when I’d restart my training, but that struggle and the pain is part of writing the book. You have to make sacrifices.

Social - I had to zone out myself during the time, I was writing this book. My phone was almost all the time in “Aeroplane Mode” while I was sitting to write. That’s almost a year. I allowed only my close Family members and friends to linger around me. Coming back to be a part of a normal social life after writing the book took some time.

Economic - Like I mentioned before, I put everything aside to make this book possible, just like training and climbing the Everest. This book has to be considered a part of the consolidated Everest experience from training, execution and documentation of this dream. I planned my economics for supporting myself during the whole period a lot ahead.

What kind of research was put into the writing of this book?

It’s a whole life; I have invested in the research. Let’s try to sum that up with the 3 Rules of Mountaineering – Its always further than it looks. Its always taller that it looks. And it’s always harder than it looks.

The book is not just about writing; it’s also about Technical details in Mountaineering, the physical and mental training it takes to be there, seeking of the unknown, unseen, unheard, forbidden and the impossible.

Mountains are the deepest teachers I’ve encountered and what they teach you cannot be measured. I have always shared my innumerable experiences and these lessons with my mom after every expedition. It is what I decided to share with my mom through these letters too. And I still feel there is so much more to share.

I’ve undertaken professional Mountaineering courses in institutes affiliated to the Ministry to Defence, India and I still feel there is so much to still learn.

I’ve read so many books, interacted with Mountaineers, Sherpas, Mountain Doctors and guides. But I still find my research (read as Love) so insignificant and there is so much more to know.

The Mountains are truly overwhelming for a research subject.

What according to you is different about your book?

Every story is different and everyone’s perspective is different. No two books are same. There is no comparison. What makes the readers select a book is the connect they try to form with the story of a Non-fictional book. People already know the story and want a detailed account of it. In that sense, my book is different purely based on its story. 

A story of a woman jostling, to make some space among men in a male dominant sport and every system that she goes against to fight and become the first woman to have climbed the Everest from her state. A story of her relentless pursuit that pushes the Government to allocate funds for Adventure sports for the next generation simply because she broke open new avenues of opportunities.

All that, and going beyond the summit to think of her Sherpa and to take accountability of every situation up there on the Mountain. To have gone back to him and confronted him. To have made peace and moved on. To have been grateful for this whole experience. And to have known that it’s a rare story and that needs to be told.

Whatever sentence in the above has rung a chord with you will make you want to read this book. You just need one reason to buy it and this book has so many of them.

You can Read the Review and Buy the Book, here as well.