Sreelatha Speaks to Spectralhues

Sreelatha – writer, poet, doctor …;  the list could run long. Spectralhues is  happy to introduce its readers to this versatile personality.

Sreelatha was born and brought up in Rourkela, Orissa, and completed her graduation from V.S.S Medical College, Sambalpur. She is a writer by compulsion of the muse who invaded her while on her trip to Ghana with her husband and two children. ‘An Eternal Romantic’ is her debut work.

In  conversation with Susmita Bose, Sreelatha spoke on her dreams, her future plans and her life…

Congratulations on the release of your first book “An Eternal Romantic”. What kind of response you have been receiving?

Response has been encouraging and revealing. It has been positive and especially appreciative of the poetry that appears in the book alongside the story. Discerning readers have expressed hopes that my book should turn out to be a success and I am riding on that hope.

What motivated you to write this particular story?

For a couple or more years, I wrote one poem a day with the unrelenting muse dictating my moods. Then, when the poetry muse eased a little bit I detected a story within the loose structure of my poems. From that, emerged the character of Indira, the story of an eternal romantic. And once the outline became clear, motivation was never a question. I had to do it, I simply had to put the story on the word document.

According to you how easy or difficult is the art of writing?

There is no easy or difficult art in writing. It is expression; you cannot manipulate your writing if you are absolutely honest to what you are feeling. Yes, if you try to hide behind big words or verbose passages, it will be difficult for the reader to discern your expressions. I think the art of writing is best when the most truest and complicated feeling is expressed in simplest terms and terminologies. Only that writer is difficult who writes to please themselves instead of expressing to communicate.  

Please tell us your journey from being a doctor to a writer?

Being a doctor was always a half-hearted effort by me. I realized that quite late. Though I tried to balance my sensitivity with my creativity yet the creative urge won the fight in the end and I had to ignore my medical career to heal my proliferating creative tumour. When I was a doctor, I always gave up on opportunities and now that I am a writer I feel I am at my best and can even be a better doctor than I ever was.

What is the message you want to convey through your book?

I have no message to convey as such, my only concern was to remain true to the characters. Yet, if the reader wants to take away something from the book I hope it is a feeling that diseases like schizophrenia and other delusional psychoses are basically arising out of maladjustments of a creative, sensitive mind. Such individuals are not to be shunned, stigmatized or isolated. Instead, they are the ones who need more of the love, warmth and caring any sorted out person can give them.

How was your experience with your publisher?

The publishers are Mumbai based Leadstart publishers. They have worked on my script well to make a very attractive and competitive product. However, I wish they had more confidence and trust on my book and had done more for its promotion.

For the debut novel you have chosen the safe subject of internal love, romance and trust; would you like to write on different genres in future?

If I have chosen love, romance and trust I have also chosen the addiction, delusion and disease associated with it. So, I have not exactly played safe. As for writing different genres, if it comes naturally to me it will be done. I will not choose a particular genre because it is popular and sells. So far, the genre of the book has chosen me, I haven’t chosen it. I’d like to believe I write a new genre—that of psychological reality fiction where I try to deconstruct an interesting character’s mind through his or her actions and responses to situations in life.

Coming back to your book, I find that despite Indira’s several heart-breaks she continues to believe in love – how difficult is it to hold faith on love and trust again?

Faith on the romantic kind of love experienced between boy and girl is subject to the experiences incurred in early stages of life. I believe, it is hard to say no to love in the teenage years and early adulthood. However, when the mind has become habituated to the romance of it, self-love takes hold over us and we start to question whether it is advisable to flow uninhibitedly in the passion of a new romance in case of being in love once again. Indira, is therefore, a child-woman who grows up the hard way and yet retains her faith in a celestial kind of love and romance.

How much was the book influenced by the real life incidents?

Real life incidents did not dictate the flow of the story, the poetry I wrote did.  So it is real and honest as far as the sentiments are concerned though the incidents in which the characters find themselves in, is completely fictitious. Therefore, I can safely issue a warning that any character in the story resembling any person living or dead is purely co-incidental and un-intentional. Girls and women, especially beware, because you might find a lot of you in Indira, the main protagonist.

Finally, tell us how much of Indira is Sreelatha?! 🙂

The answer is almost same as above. I am as much Indira as you, she or her. I am a doctor-poet and author and so is Indira, I have been to the places Indira has been, I have quite a romantic, creative and delusional disposition but the resemblance stops there. I never had a Raja, Anshuman or Srikant in my life and my love affair has always been very sorted out and steady. I grew up differently and my sensibilities have been much more logical than Indira’s. However, Indira is every woman in some way or other, so I cannot escape her shadow.  

Do you have anything to say about the support you got from your family and friends while writing the book?

Family has suffered at my expense during the time I was writing this book and yet they have rallied around me with great caring and trust. Real life friends have provided the social and entertainment opportunities to unwind where as virtual friends have literally made me feel as if I belonged. Writing the book was an out worldly experience. I am glad I am back on earth, thanks to people around me.

Any particular book which has influenced your life…What kind of books you like to read?

In context of this book, I would say, Gone with the wind and Love in the time of cholera have influenced me besides the exquisite poetic style of Arundhati Roy’s God of small things. But later, after my book was out, I read Kamala Das’ “My story” and saw my Indira in her very strongly. She may have been my muse.:)

I like to read more according to my mood nowadays and my moods are very varied, so anything goes if the right chord is struck. From Calvin Hobbes to Osho, everything seems profound to me if I am in the right mood.

Could you tell us something about your future plans?  Have you started planning for your next book?

Future plans don’t exist. Someone said, Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans. So I only plan to exist, rest will unfold itself in proper time and place.

My second book’s draft is already complete, yet on the editing table it may change a little shape. If schizophrenia plagued Indira, in my second book, a new character fights polycystic ovarian disease.   

Any message for the Spectralhues readers…

My message is always incomplete. As the books are written, so will my messages unfold and all that you can take away from my writing is my very personal message to you. One point I have been trying to make is—the mind dictates health; a happy, peaceful, sorted out mind is what we should aim at.

That was Sreelatha! Spectralhues wishes her glorious success and hopes she would come up with many more remarkable books.

• About the Author

About Sprightly Spirit

“I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares more is none”. And all, may be. It may be the vigor. Or the spirit. Or the courage to avoid being “politically correct” or bent. And, ban all averse with immaculate overture of graciously fathomable words firm in views. Subtle. Justifying the undying conscience. Values. Knowledge. And, dares to stay true. True to own. True to the world. And, to the words. With a dream in eyes it exists. In you. In me. In all. The sprite that never shies away. The spirit that never dies!