Interview: Aditi Sowmyanarayan

 Talking to an Author

An Interview with Aditi Sowmyanarayan

Aditi Sowmyanarayan was not quite 18 when she was awarded the J.K.Paper AutHer Award for Best Manuscript in 2023. The award by J.K.Paper was to partner with Publisher Readomania to bring out Aditi’s novella, Gobble Thy Prejudice. But Aditi was a published author even before this, having contributed to Talking Fingers, a book about non-speaking autistics. More recently, her collection of short stories was published by Booksomania in February 2023, titled Small Stories Big Thoughts, now in its third imprint. Besides, she is an avid blogger Small step big thoughts. In April 2023, Aditi made a video presentation for the United Nations World Autism Awareness Day. She is a member of the steering committee of the India Chapter of the Institute of Neurodiversity and also writes content for websites like Project Lattice and Avaz Megaphone that aim to enhance inclusion by posting relevant content on social media.

1. Aditi, when I picked up your novella I was fully expecting it to be a childish piece of writing (why was that?) but it ended up being a book where I had to consult with others to understand the intricacies of finance. From where did you pick up your knowledge of finance to be able to write about it?

So here is the deal about writing - you don't have to be an alien or even an astronaut to write a tale set in the outer space. But what you have to do is your groundwork; read up, ask questions and understand, in order to get your facts straight. I think the groundwork I did helped me get that part of the story right.

2. And food got woven seamlessly into the narrative. How did that happen? 

Food is where it all began. I remember visiting the home of my parents’ banker and relationship manager before the pandemic. He had just gotten married then and his wife, who was in her twenties, had cooked a scrumptious snack. When my mother complimented her cooking, my parents’ banker jumped right in and exclaimed, “In our families girls learn to roll the dough and make rotis when they are eight”. Mind you, not kids but girls! This statement stayed with me. Patriarchy and not acknowledging a girl’s autonomy and the right of choice, I figured along the way, would create an aversion for cooking. Cooking is just a life skill, but has sadly been used as a pawn in gender politics. So yes, this incident in a way helped me create Kusum.

3. There’s a lot of humour in the book. To mention just two bits, I really liked where Kusum saw Ramesh and thought in horror that Ranganayaki Caterers was catering to Mrs. V’s office as well, and the bit where Ramesh joked about cockroaches in the kitchen. Do you think a lot and write and rewrite before you are satisfied or does it just happen effortlessly?

Humour happens effortlessly. Any attempt to think and re-write would take away the humour and it would end up seeming forced.

4. Your favourite authors are Wodehouse, Ruskin Bond, and Salman Rushdie – each so different from the other. If you were to sum in up in one sentence per author, what is it that appeals about each of them?

I can tell you in one sentence what is common between these three writers - their writing is so beautifully descriptive that you picture the setting, characters and events in your mind, kind of like a movie playing out. I aspire to write like Ruskin Bond; capture the charm in everyday living. I want to write about the girl or boy next door who are superheroes in their own ways, and I want to write about the inherent goodness that most of us possess even to this day.

Writing fantasy fiction to highlight a few harsh realities and unpleasant truths; no one does it better than Salman Rushdie.

5. You like reading only when the writing is good! How would you define ‘Good’ for yourself?

Okay, I am just about to go down the annals of history as the biggest grammar nazi of Gen Z. I cannot read books with incorrect grammar, sentences where the tense changes randomly for no apparent reason, books with slapstick humour and books that make you wonder if the editor has gone into a retirement mode owing to sheer frustration. I am also not a big fan of books written in present continuous tense. I believe it takes a lot of literary prowess to pull it off well and sadly, most authors these days who do it, don't possess the prowess.

6. I was rather sorry when your book ended; I could have read a whole novel in place of the novella. But I do have a small bit of criticism and that is that even though the book is abundantly illustrated, the artist is not named. Why not? And who is this mystery artist?

Glad you asked me about this. I love the illustrations myself and I think the illustrator has done a good job of giving a face to the protagonists. The illustrator is Ajit Narayan and his name is mentioned in the credits. He is a part of the Readomania team.

7. Do you want to say something about your next big writing project?

I have completed writing the manuscript of my next novel. It is tentatively titled Thus She Rose. It is a story about courage, grit and standing by your convictions, even if that entails turning against your own family. I have submitted it to a publisher and hope it gets published soon.

Aditi's books are available at the links below:

Link: Gobble Thy Prejudice

Link: Small Stories Big Thoughts