Bestselling author of “Tell A Thousand Lies”, “28 Years A Bachelor” and “The Temple Is Not My Father”, Rasana Atreya, interacted with Spectralhues about her books, journey as a writer, the author she admires these days, self-publishing and a lot more.
When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I probably wrote my first story when I was five years old. But it wasn’t until eight or so years ago, when I happened to take up writing as a challenge, that I realized fiction is what I wanted to be writing.
You worked for an IT company before you took to writing. What made you take the plunge?
Working for IT companies as a systems adminstrator was fine, but the hours were brutal. There were times I had to be onsite for 36 hours at a stretch (this was in the Silicon Valley). I enjoyed it while it lasted but needed to slow down a few years down the road. I started to freelance for newspapers. Fiction writing came to me quite late, like I mentioned above.
‘Tell a Thousand Lies’ focuses on how the skin colour of a person can decide the person’s destiny. How did you come to think about such a unique topic?
I grew up with songs like Gori Tera Gaanv Bada Pyaara (How beautiful your village is, O fair one!). It never struck me how inherently racist these songs were, till I returned to India after living in the US for a number of years. My relatives have skin tones all over the place – it never occurred to me to judge them by the colour of their skin despite all the childhood conditioning. When I returned from the US and started to see all the fariness creams on television, it occurred to me that it was a terrible time for dark-skinned young boys and girls growing up in India because they were judged by their skin colour first, and their decency and kindness and everything else much later.
This bothered me so much that I decided to write a novel around it.
Is there any author in particular whom you idolise?
Very hard question, because I’m such a voracious reader. But more and more I am beginning to enjoy the boldness of Sreemoyee Piu Kundu in tackling social issues; I admire how she tackles even controversial topics head on.
How did it feel to have your book shortlisted for the 2012 Tibor Jones South Asia Award?
It was an amazing feeling. Ironically, it was also the shortlisting that gave me the courage to decline a traditional publishing contract and self-publish.
You have written a short story as well. Is it more difficult to write a novel or a novella?
A novella is much easier. Tying up all the ends in a full-length novel is, for me, a lot of work!
Why did you go for self-publishing instead of a traditional publishing contract?
Even before Tell A Thousand Lies was shortlisted for the award, I’d been researching self-publishing for a year-and-a-half. I was almost certain I would self-publish my books but I didn’t quite have the courage. My fascination with self-publishing was because whether the book sank or swam would completely depend on the choices I made. Eventually, I did self-publish, and I have no regrets.
Your own children have written and illustrated ‘The Mosquito and the Teapot’. How do you feel about that?
It felt wonderful. My daughter, Aamani Gurajada, wrote the stories when she was six years old. My son, Sunaad Gurajada, used graphics software to design the cover as well as illustrations when he was eleven. The book was formally released at the 2015 Hyderabad Literary Festival – an unbelievable honour for them both.
How have readers reacted to your stories?
UK’s Glam magazine calls Tell A Thousand Lies ‘one of their five favourite tales from India (June 2014).’
Since the time of release this novel has been in the top 1-3 positions in the Eastern fiction on Amazon US & UK. My novella, The Temple Is Not My Father, and comedic novel 28 Years A Bachelor, have joined it there. In April 2015, Tell A Thousand Lies hit #84 overall (amongst two or so million books) – the feeling was unbelievable!
I also get fan mail from around the world. One of the more memorable ones was from a woman in Mexico who said she could completely empathize with the heroine of Tell A Thousand Lies, because she saw a lot of the same things in Mexico.
Tell us a little more about your new book, ’28 Years A Bachelor’.
28 Years A Bachelor was a challenge to myself. My writing is invariable woman-centric, and also written from a woman’s point of view. I wanted to see if I could write from a man’s point of view. I also wanted it to have humour. From the reviews I see online, and from the comments of my readers (on Facebook and email), it has been very well received.
What would you message be for our readers?
Self-publishing is still very new in India but we have a lot of great books out there which are being overlooked because people are simply not aware of them. Check out http://theindiareadathin.weebly.com to see what’s out there.
Thank you so much for interacting with us, ma’am.
Tags: Rasana Atreya
