Although In the Shadow of Legends is her first novel, Sujata Sankranti is not new to the field of creative writing.
“I am a compulsive scribbler. My sons used to tease me about my ominous black diaries ‘full of Mummy's secrets,'” says Sujata, an academician and a well-known short story writer who published her first tale in 1997 in The Hindu Literary Review . Soon afterwards, in 1998, she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her touching story The Warp and the Weft .
“When I write a short story I always have the beginning and the end in mind and then I follow my inner voice,” says Sujata. The author was in the city in connection with the release of her novel, when she sat down for a chat with MetroPlus .
Gradual progression
“Writing In the Shadow of Legends came naturally to me. It's been growing in me all these years,” muses the author, who says that writing a short story is actually more difficult than writing a novel, because “one needs to bring out the essence of the matter in relatively few words.”
In the Shadow of Legends is set partly in Kerala, in the village of Kattuvalli, near Mavelikara, where Sujata was born. “I have always loved the sound of the word Kattuvalli – its melody, its meaning. That's why it is in the opening line of the novel,” says Sujatha, the granddaughter of Malayalam grammarian A.R. Rajaraja Varma. A chunk of the novel is also set in Russia, where Sujata lived for four years in the early 80s with her husband while he was on deputation from Air India. She did her research at the Moscow State University.
“The years in Moscow were both interesting and disturbing. I saw great inequality in a land that was built on the ideology of equality. I saw people wait patiently in long queues for basic amenities. I saw people disappear overnight. Russia raised in me questions about justice. All this and more has deeply influenced my writing,” says the author, who retired as an associate professor in the Department of English, Sree Venkiteswara College, University of Delhi.
“I think teaching is a dignified job, the best part being you are your own boss,” she says. Perhaps that's why one of the principal characters in the novel is a teacher.
“A story does not always have to be a single point narrative. You can hear many voices in my book, for each chapter is a story in itself. If one is through one can connect the dots,” says the author.
Sujata is currently busy on her next two projects – a compilation of her short stories on women and a new novel on visual and literary art as the themes.
