The Watermelon Story: Interview with Ajit Chandrasekhar on 'Yellow Watermelons'

The Watermelon Story: Interview with Ajit Chandrasekhar 

on 'Yellow Watermelons'

 

Read the story here.

Print.Able:
Good Morning Ajit. Thank you for sharing the story about the farmer’s family in Orissa.
We have some questions for you.
 

Print.Able:
Why did you set the story in Orissa?
Ajit:
Long ago, when I lived in Mysore, someone told me a story about watermelons in Orissa.
 

Print.Able:
Have you ever yellow watermelons?
Ajit:
Yes I have.

Print.Able:
Did you like them? Do they have a distinctive flavour?
Ajit:
Yes, I liked them a lot.
They taste very different from the pink watermelons.

Print.Able:
Are the weather phenomena, the drought and the cyclone you write about in the story
based on fact?
Ajit:
Yes, that is quite common in Orissa.

Print.Able:
Have you ever visited Orissa?
Ajit:
Yes

Print.Able:
Where did you go, and when?
Ajit:
We went to Bhuveneshwar, Puri and Konarak and also saw the battlefield at Dhaulagiri on
the banks of the Daya River where Ashoka fought the Kalinga war. This visit to Dhaulagiri
was on December 23 or 24, 1978.

Print.Able:
How did you think of the names of the characters?
Ajit:
Just like that.