(This is an excerpt from an interview writer Jayant Kaikini had with the late Yashwanth Chittal, nearly two decades ago. This interview has been published in Yashwanth Chittal’s Sahityada Sapthadhatugalu . Chittal says that this is a revised version, and the reader can understand his answers even though the questions have not been printed. The interview perhaps had 11 questions, and the answers are numbered accordingly.)
One
My first story, Bommiya Hullu Hore , was actually a divine accident. It was only after I wrote this story did I dream of becoming a writer. Truly, it is a huge wonder that I became a writer.
In 1949, I was a namesake highschool teacher in Bada, near Karwar, for three months. I used to teach matriculation students science and maths. Even though I taught all the students in English, since Konkani was their mother tongue, I had to explain in Konkani when they failed to understand. Forget literature, it was impossible to even hear a Kannada word in this small town. One afternoon, I woke up after a nap, and said to myself: “I am going to write a short story”. I imagined what I wrote was a short story and sent it to a newspaper without revealing it to anyone. The editor not only published my story, he sent me a copy of the paper along with a letter of appreciation! Under the title of the story was “Writer – Yashwant Chittal”. When I read this, I jumped in joy.
Whatever be my literary inspiration, for more than half a century it has taken all my creative energies and has not only given meaning to my life, but has also left me with a sense of fulfilment which is something that never fails to surprise me. That is because I did not even have the merit to pursue literature. As you all know, Kannada is not my mother tongue and neither am I a student of literature. I am a student of science, and I studied Kannada up to matriculation and only as a subject. After my Inter, I studied in Mumbai, went to America on work, and lived in Mumbai, far from the land of Kannada. Except me, nobody at home even knew Kannada, of course that’s apart from our domestic help, Sarasa. But, the first reader of my writings, was always me, and me alone!
Despite my circumstances, what was the force that brought me so far on this road? Can I say it is my conviction? Or is it my birthplace Hanehalli, which was the unending source to all my stories? Or must I say that it is the good fortune of having been born as the younger brother of the poet Gangadhar Chittal? Is it my five years stay in Dharwad which was bursting with literature? Your guess is mine too.
Two
Instead of answering why I like the short story format, I will share some random thoughts about this form that is dear to me.
The ‘story’ is a natural outcome of any man who lives his experiences. There is a story in each of us. This is because each of us wants to share our experiences. A child pleading, “Amma, tell me a story,” or the mother saying, “this is my own story” is something that we have all heard in our growing up years. There is a story in the growth of every living organism, says famous scientist Gregory Bateson. This is true of our experiences also. Experience begins when we are in the womb of the mother, and in the process of growing there is a pattern which connects. This can be exclusive to every individual and can also be common.
If I hadn’t become a writer I would have been a painter perhaps. I used to paint with water colours right from when I was a little boy. My older brother, Shreedharanna, brought me to Mumbai from Dharwad and put me in the art school, Kalaniketan on Grant Road. But once I joined the Radical Democratic Party of M.N. Roy, I lost interest in these classes. I was perhaps always drawn to activities that were intellectually more stimulating.
Eight
I have lived in Mumbai for half a century and it seems impossible for me to separate my creative work from Mumbai. Even though Hanehalli in Uttara Kannada is my home and keeps reappearing in my work, my first story “Bommiya Hullu Hore” is the only one that I wrote from my home soil. In terms of my writing, I have felt that Mumbai is creatively very provocative. Apart from my wife, the only other being that nagged me to ‘write, write’ is Mumbai.
Mumbai came ‘into’ my writing only in Shikhari and some other short stories. It was there to humiliate my dear Hanehalli or came as a dark force that counters Hanehalli. In Siddhartha and Purushottama, it comes as a place that force people in to an extreme situation, and I doubt if it ever appeared as a situation that invites an individual into a philosophical adventure.
My recent collection, Kumatege Banda Kindara Jogi , finds its roots in the soil of Kumta.
Eleven
When I speak of contemporary writers, Tejaswi and Lankesh are my favourites. Their writing is so different from mine and that’s probably why I admire them so much. More than Lankesh’s short stories and novels, his non-literary writings have made an impact on me. From that point of view, his “Teeke Tippani” is an extraordinary work. I am mesmerised by the dynamism of his prose and feel it is a great contribution to Kannada. More than the science writings of Tejaswi, I like his fiction.
Translated by Deepa Ganesh
