COVER GIRL!

 

Touched and thrilled to be featured on the cover of Storizen Magazine Sharing a short extract from the interview where I take a shot at explaining why I do what I do. Will share the link in my stories. Many thanks to Saurabh Chawla

and Pria Raiyani for making this happen!

What inspires you to write?

A bolt of lightening from the sky! Pixie dust!

All kidding aside, I think writing keeps me sane. I am actually happy when the words are doing their mystical dance on the laptop screen. Reading and writing are my conduit to a magical realm ruled by beauty, truth, fantasy and imagination. Whatever, I gather from my sojourns into this fabled land, I try and share with my readers, hoping they derive something they can use in their own lives, the way I have in mine.

Can you give some insights on the book – Abhimanyu? What kind of research and factors did you consider when writing the character?

Abhimanyu is very special. He is one of the most beloved characters in Indian mythology and with good reason because he was the best among the best, in every sense of the term.

In a lot of ways, he is the pulsing heart and soul of the Mahabharata. TheGolden Prince was blessed with all the strengths of Arjuna, Krishna and the other Pandavas yet possessed none of their weaknesses. A rare hero who was every bit as good and kind as he was great and that is no small thing. It was a pleasure to unearth lesser-known nuggets of information about him and share the story of the Mahabharata entirely from his perspective.

As regards research I went back and explored the epic I have loved all my life by putting myself in Abhimanyu’s place. Thanks to him, the familiar material felt fresh, and I got

to plumb the psyche of fascinating characters like Subhadra, Draupadi’s twin - Dhrishtadyumna, his charioteer – Sumitra, Nakula, Sahadeva, the Upapandavas, his cousins in Dwaraka – Pradyumna, Samba, and his wife, Uttara, who usually get eclipsed by the razzle dazzle of more famous characters. But of course, the spotlight was on Abhi himself and being by his side from his birth to his untimely death. It was a heartening, often harrowing experience and I cried my eyes out while working on the manuscript, but in the end, it was entirely worth it.

How did you change as a person after publishing these many titles? What did you learn and unlearn from your experiences as a writer?

Writing my books has definitely been a transformative and life – affirming experience. Every single book that I have written and read has helped me navigate a particular chapter of my life, helping me traipse across the good and challenging times with a modicum of courage and grace. For that, they will always have my gratitude!

As a writer, I am constantly learning and unlearning only to relearn ad – infinitum. But it is part of growth and change and it is what it is. My main takeaway is to not strive so hard for control and to learn to trust and surrender to a higher process, the mysteries of which I can comprehend only in patches. But when I can pull it off, there is always a measure of peace and tranquility to be had. Getting into the zone is hard, but staying put in there, is the hardest thing to do of all. Someday, maybe I will pull it off!

You can check it out here: Storizen Magazine.

NO COUNTRY FOR LOVE

 

Last Sunday, I read a news article about two Bengaluru cops who were suspended after they extorted money from a couple returning home from a party, insisting that according to the rules, they were not allowed to walk on the streets after 11 pm. The married duo had their phones confiscated, were put through a gruelling interrogation and threatened with imprisonment if they didn’t pay up. The frazzled husband revealed the details about his ordeal on Twitter and after his tweet went viral, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, clarified that there was no rule preventing people from walking on the road at any time of the night before taking action against the errant constables.

Now, this qualifies as a happy ending since too often, justice is delayed and denied in India. It is also a heartening reminder that occasionally, social media can be a useful tool to redress a wrong. However, I couldn’t help thinking that this ugly incident is so typical in modern India. For some reason, so many get outraged and there is a lot of finger – wagging as well as outright condemnation when couples are spotted doing something as innocuous as holding hands and walking on the road. Practically everybody wants to throw the book at lovers if they so much as kiss in darkened theatres or parks. The backlash is instantaneous and often ugly, forcing smitten youngsters to sneak around and seek out isolated places far from prying eyes with the result that they often put themselves at heightened risk for harassment, blackmail, and further violence.

On the other hand, the average Indian doesn’t get hot and bothered when folks piss and poop in public uncaring about the strain they are subjecting unwary eyeballs to. Those who are critical about such unacceptable behaviour are themselves criticized for not checking their privilege and told that there are more temples than toilets in India, as if this somehow makes public defecation acceptable. Most are similarly unconcerned when gross uncles burp/fart loudly or dig their nostrils in full view of all and sundry. However, the same people insist that all things remotely related to love and sex be treated as filthy (chee!) to be confined to dark, dingy rooms, preferably beneath suffocating sheets if you are married and strictly forbidden if you are not.

After all, this is our culture, never mind that the Kamasutra was written in India and temples at Konark and Khajuraho reveal that in the distant past, Indians had a more enlightened view on intimacy and erotica. No wonder so many of us are incapable of healthy relationships and hopelessly ignorant about reproductive health or practising safe sex. We would do well to go for an attitude transplant as a nation, instead of persecuting lovers and blaming films like Arjun Reddy, Pushpa and Kantara for the prevalent toxicity or there will be more news stories about couples getting killed or gruesomely punished in a land where hatred and intolerance has prevailed over love and acceptance.

This article was originally published in The New Indian Express Magazine.

TRIPLETS!

I have been neglecting this space for too long and to a woeful extent. But it is hard to be a regular blogger in addition to being a mommy of two, author who made the somewhat wonky decision to release four books in one year (That's right!), stay active on Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp, maintain a journal, really long hair, a body beset by fat demons and do justice to a gazillion other chores plus assorted preoccupations that vary in terms of worthwhileness. Besides my deep, dark fear that I write and write and write only to be seldom read and have the words sucked into a void where words go to die gets terrifyingly exacerbated when I show up in these parts. (Its not like Facebook and Twitter are much better but there is always the forlorn comfort of a lone heart lighting up your smartphone display or the occasional couple likes)  Still when you are between projects and have nothing better to do on a Sunday (How come there is nothing decent on TV anymore?) you tend to take a stab at not being a completely hopeless blogger.

Anyways, so in case you are wondering about the "Triplets" in the title allow me to elaborate. Quick on the heels of Yama's Lieutenant and the Stone Witch which was released in July, I am back with three books - KARTIKEYA: THE DESTROYER'S SON , PRITHVIRAJ CHAUHAN: THE EMPEROR OF HEARTS , and RANI PADMAVATI: THE BURNING QUEEN all released somewhere between the last week of November and the first week of December. Kartikeya is dedicated to The Bickersons. For those asking, that refers to my Mum and Dad who are a lovely couple given to squabbling on occasion. Prithviraj is dedicated to my husband for giving me my own weird and wonderful love story (or horror story as a witty cousin once remarked though he amended that he feels that way about marriages in general and his, in particular). Rani Padmavati is dedicated to Veda and Varna, my brave, bright and beautiful boos.

For those wondering why the three books are coming out together all I can say is that I didn't plan it that way, it just happened. If you wanna know more about the books, what prompted me to write them, my journey as an author and the rest of it, I don't have a FAQs page but please do hit one of the links above or google me up and one of the many interviews I have given on this subject over the years will pop right up! My apologies for being not just a hopeless blogger but an incurably lazy one. 
Anyways, wish me luck on the babies! Really excited about them. Kartikeya has opened to some really amazing reviews which you can check out here and here. Both said really sweet things about Kartikeya and there are a couple more wonderful reviews out there where I even got compared to C. Rajagopalachari (like him, my stories are delightful as well as informative it seems) and Arundhati Roy. Kartikeya is also rocking the bestseller lists on Amazon India. So needless to say, I am absolutely over the moon! And don't worry, I am not too high. One particularly harsh critic who had read and hated Kamadeva, read and hated Kartikeya and took the time to let me know.

Prithviraj is doing well too and has broken into the top 25 bestsellers in the historical fiction genre listed by Amazon India .

There has been a major buzz around Rani Padmavati as well thanks to a needless controversy that has has been plaguing Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnus opus for months now. I have given so many interviews and written so many articles on the subject, I am even more worn out than I was when I actually wrote the three books. I'll post it hereabouts soon!

Sure you will agree this post has meandered on long enough, so I'll just share a super cute poster which hubby designed for me and sign off!

PRAISE for SHAKTI!

I got these really sweet emails from my readers and am sharing them with their permissions. They really made my day J

This one is from Rajinder Singh (Dr), Jalandhar: 

Dear Madam,
I have read Shakti and congratulate you  for writing such a wonderful book.   Those of religious bent of mind have only some vague ideas of what our gods and goddesses have been doing without any scruples. Shiva-Brahma-Vishnu, Shiva -Shakti,, Indra-apsras-gandharva, sages and savants find a mention in our religious books. The way you have written in such a forthright manner clears the mist around them. In our Granth Sahib (The Holy Book of the Sikhs) countless references have been to Pauranic characters. Similarly Guru Gobind Singh has written quite a lot about Chandi and Durga and her fight with Mahishasur.  I place this book at a higher pedestal than the most gripping novels, or world classics. Congratulations again. I would like to read your novels also in course of time.  I am also a writer, though a very ordinary. I have written 15 novels in Punjabi and English and Hindi too. I have translated 95 books into English from Punjabi-Hindi-Urdu. Insofar as wirting is concerned I am beholden to you. I have learnt quite a lot from your beautiful style and the great treasure of words/your command over the foreign language (English).

The second one is from Madhu Shikhare, Hyderabad:

Interested in shakti per se and in mythology, i am loving the book.

The context is different many time than my knowledge but its a different view. 

The lanuguage is so rich that being a lover of english language its acting like a healer to my soul where I see the langauge murdered every day. 

Also I cant miss the psychological angle when all is analysed. 

Over all i just loved it thank you so much for this piece of work.

With gods grace someday maybe I can meet you.

JJJ

FIRST REVIEWS OUT FOR SHAKTI: THE DIVINE FEMININE AND THE CRITICS ARE RAVING!

According to Vikas Dutta's review of SHAKTI: The Divine Feminine for IANS, "Old beliefs can however be surprisingly resilient and find a gifted storyteller to re-emerge before us - in this case, Chandramouli, who has earlier profiled the best-known of the Pandavas and the Hindu god of love, uses her imagination and a rare sensibility to spin a gently-provocative but more importantly, a considerably thought-provoking account of Shakti, and her manifestations as Usas, Durga and Kali." 
The piece has been carried by The New Indian Express, Business Standard, The Statesman etc. You can read it here.


 Supriya Sharma of ‪#‎TheNewIndianExpress‬ says of my Shakti: The Divine Feminine, "The author’s interpretation of Shakti as a spunky Goddess, her depiction of the damage done by patriarchy and puritanical morality to both men and women makes for a delightfully stimulative read." Do check out the rest of the review here.