“My husband (D.V.R. Rao) writes a lot. I felt one writer is enough in the family to avoid confusion,” laughs Sesh Damerla as she looks back at the way a reluctant writer was born in her. Sesh’s latest book Darpan: Indian Women in Transition , a compilation of short stories, was launched recently and she was in Hyderabad for a reading session. At their relative’s house in Gunrock Enclave, 70-plus Sesh takes a step back at a time when she was married off early in the second year of her college. Since she couldn’t take up any profession because of family commitments, she educated herself.
“My literary inclination was there probably all along thanks to my subjects of qualification but I never took to writing in a serious way except a few articles, that too on demand,” she points out.
Different roles With in-laws staying with them in Pune, Sesh was catering to three generations. “It is not easy as one has to juggle tasks. And, having two teenage girls has its own set of handling,” she smiles.
A chance meeting gave her an opportunity to teach English and her first student was a Spanish lady, a principal of 1000 boys in Madrid. After that there was no looking back and she taught for 13 years. Sesh is also a communication trainer and was teaching corporates. “My stint with Garden Vareli, Surat, was for five months and I would travel to Surat for 20 days as a trainer. I later realised the real reason of employees taking up the English course. Computers had just come into the market and they wanted to get savvy and start their own business,” she laughs.
In the late 90s, a close family friend and mentor made an unexpected demand to Sesh. “He said ‘write’ and I refused to write. He had been observing me and knew that I also did my creative writing course, which was more of a fancy. But the gentleman wouldn’t give up and finally I relented. The topic was ‘Indian women in transition’. He felt I knew best the journey of Indian women because I have been a housewife and a professional. That was the beginning of the long journey because writing is time consuming, publishing may be never,” she recalls.
What began as a fluke gave wings to her writing skills and she has written 22 short stories, and a book on astrology is with the publishers. Her first publication was with Publish America (Now America Star Books) titled Life for a Life translated into Telugu as Prananiki Pranam . “I was the only Asian woman to publish in that anthology of stories. They did want me to give all my work but I wanted Indian woman to read,” she states.
Talking about Darpan: Indian Women in transition she says, “It is not a women-centric story. The subjects are varied and some of them even lead to management which is my forte. I have been a consultant and having done that there are issues like decision making, gender bias, parenting and broken marriages,” she explains.
