Explore the unexplored
Anand Neelakantan, the author who surprised the world with his take on Ramayana and Mahabharata was in conversation with Rachna Singh, the author of the humorous Dating, Diapers and Denial .
Rising to fame with his first book, Asura: Tale of the Vanquished , Anand said writing from Ravana’s point of view was not easy. In answer to a question of those disapproved of his works, Anand said such people understood neither religion nor the importance of tolerance.
Describing his writing technique, Anand said, he would sit in a closed room and transform into the character to understand and undergo the same emotions the character was going through. “When I was writing my first book, I had turned into Ravana.” In response to a question on why he chose to write from Ravana’s perspective, Anand said, “Ravana is not exactly bad. Qualities like materialism, greed and jealousy are required for progress.”
Parvathy Rajeev and Shambho Mondal
Life as a celebrity’s child
Aishwarya Rajinikanth Dhanush spoke of her life with her superstar father among other things during the launch of her memoir, Standing On An Apple Box .
On her relationship with her mother, Aishwarya said, “My father was a busy man who would do six to seven films a year. Being the mother of a celebrity’s child is not easy. My mother was like a CCTV camera. There were times when I could not enjoy what most other children could. I would always have an escort. This would lead to quarrels between us, but now that I am a mother myself, I find myself doing for my boys, most of what she used to for to me”
In her book, she also speaks of her brother-in-law, who has been mentor and has pushed her in all her ventures. Aishwarya is fighting for the rights of stuntmen, junior artists and background dancers, in her three- part documentary Unsung Heroes. “I intend to bring forth the hardships and uncertainty stuntmen face. India does not have adequate infrastructure or safety guidelines to protect them, and their work often goes unnoticed. I have written to Cabinet Minister Venkaiah Naidu to add a stuntman category in the National Awards to appreciate the work they do”.
Deepa Parmar and Gayathri Susheel
There is so much more to sleep
Senior neurologist, Dr. Manvir Bhatia, explored the brain in sleep state in a conversation with lawyer and writer Sumant Batra at the session, A Good Night’s Sleep. “Imagine a room full of clutter, you do not have space to put any additional thing in it, not even a needle. That is what is happening in our brain in these hyper-connected times. We have overloaded the brain with events, situations, memories and faces. We have no place to keep anything of importance for the next day. So when you are sleeping, imagine a cleaning process, like a vacuum cleaner clearing the junk, and keeping only the important things.”
Talking about taking sleeping pills, Manvir said, “They have a dampening effect on your brain. If you dull your brain, it won’t be able to do what it needs to do, so memories will not get store or created.” Sleeping pills also build up tolerance. Manvir said the best way to get a good night’s rest is to devise a “winding down or a pre-bedtime ritual. It is an individual thing, find your own thing which helps you relax.”
Aggression and impulsive behaviour is also connected to sleeplessness as sleep produces feel good hormones. Manvir wondered if road rage was a result of sleep deprivation.
Away from home
Moderated by author of The Casuals Sally Breen, four writers and an expat explored living away from home. Alan Johnson is an expert on post-colonial literature and theory and is currently a Fulbright Nehru Scholar based in Chennai. Carlo Pizzatti writes on culture and politics for the Italian national newspaper La Stampa , Claus Heimes is the director of Bengaluru’s Max-Mueller Bhavan, Manjiri Prabhu, is an independent film maker and writes mystery novels while Roswitha Joshi is a German writer and translator.
Some have travelled by choice, and some due to lack of one. Carlo Pizzati in particular, was inspired by his father and Ulysses, and was fascinated by the knowledge that comes from travelling. Literature has played a huge role in luring these writers out of their countries.
The authors touched upon the dichotomy of an ‘insider-outsider’ life they lead in detail. Sally said to be an outsider sometimes is quite important, particularly in some cultures where being an insider can lead to difficulties in expressing oneself openly. Sally went to Dubai to write an essay on the labour conditions there. “Nobody was covering it from the inside, it required somebody from the outside to take the risk, it was very difficult for me to find information, but some local people eventually opened up, it took time to actually see a labour camp. It was a combination of the inside and the outside which made the essay possible.”
Gayathri Suseel
