There's a new wave of authors in Indian writing in English: a group of young people juggling writing with career, their books characterised by SMS-speak and coming-of-age circumstances. Geetha Ravi seems to be one such author, with her debut novel Love, My Friend, Is Not That Easy! launching last week at Landmark.
“It's a light and breezy read,” explains Geetha of her book. “It's about three characters in the IT industry in the nineties. They narrate events as they happen and it's woven into a story.” Geetha consciously decided not to set her story in a particular city. “Since I am from Hyderabad, the city is obviously reflected in the narrative, but a friend said it reminded him of Calcutta. It could be any urban metropolitan; that gives it more scope.” An IT consultant, Geetha had blogged parts of the story many years ago. Comments and positive feedback led to the long and bumpy road of its publishing, until the polished version hit the stands. “It's been terribly exciting, especially the support from family and friends,” says Geetha. “I have two children, and I think they were my inspiration. Parents always want to prove something to their kids, and that forced me not to leave this halfway through.”
On her own reading habits, Geetha states that she's never read Chetan Bhagat, and she thinks comparing emerging authors to him is unfair. To Kill A Mockingbird has always rung a chord in her, and she's a great fan of British period authors like Austen and Dickens. “I used to read Dostoevsky as a teenager and now I've graduated to P.G. Wodehouse, whom I love. If there are shades of him in my book, it's unintentional,” she adds modestly.
Geetha has a few other ideas up her sleeve, which she says she needs to bring out, dust and work on. “I want to work on a book on management in the IT field,” she says. “It's a grey area in the country, and it's my area of expertise. I'm looking forward to it.”
