the Chennai Launch

From left to right : the dark chasma is the film director, Myskin, the good looking fellow is actor Naren, the slim beauty is actress Rohini, and I am the lady in white. I almost same-pinched the actor Naren when I saw him arrive in white. All four of us are holding my baby, the one I made without Shiva.

The other baby was around, he distributed the press kits to the journalists. Later he badly wanted to go to the beach in Chennai. The film directer bought him off with a big toy, a power ranger, with a mystic force! Pavan followed him around after that and asked him his favorite question: How were we all started on this earth?

Rohini did the best reading. She took a long pause, longer than I did when I wrote the bit. But there is something in the way an actor can give life to a take, for it held my attention.

Here is a video of the launch. The cameraman must have been as stupid as Gopika, for he allowed a white paper to cover a handsome face. All he needed to do was to become six inches taller. My bit comes at the end.





After it was all over, the writer in me awoke and re-wrote the interview.

Q. 1. What is your book about?

A. As the name suggests, this book is a grasshopper's Pilgrimage. What appears as a grasshopper hopping about is actually a pilgrim who is resisting the inner call.

Q. 2. What made you write the book?

A. Longing for the Mountain made me write the book.

Q.3. Huh?

A. Ok, I don't know what made me write the book. But I can tell you how it happened.

Q. 4. Tell me.

A. My hubby was organized the Ahmadabad chapter of the international event, Writerthalon. A Writerthalon is a writing race. Writers all over the world connect to their nets and start writing together on a Friday morning. They continue throughout the weekend, with a few breaks for sleeping, and stop on Sunday evening. We are all supposed to complete a novel.
The first five hundred words of A Grasshopper's Pilgrimage were written in those three days. And something even more valuable happened to me. I learnt to sit on my butt. Writing was always a passion. Discipline came a little late.

(More mock interview to follow in the next post. Goodnight.)