Andy Paula's Blog, page 2

An Interview with the Author

This interview was done by Debdutta Sahay in her Blog in early 2014.  b00k r3vi3ws: #SpecialFeature :: An Interview with Andy Paula, A...:

Tell us a bit about ‘Andy Paula’ at home :)
AP: Andy Paula at home is a world-class cook(ahem!) who loves her malpua and dahi vada as much as she loves hosting people. She loves the unusual, the quirky, the tant, the tortilla, the torkari. She is your every woman - the one who has henna on her head as she types this – and your gypsy woman – the one who wears her silver anklet as an armlet.
Now tell us a bit about ‘Andy Paula’, the Author
AP: AP the Author cannot write when the TV is on or the mangsho is cooking. She will take ‘earnest measures to secure her solitude and then find endless ways of squandering it.’
Tell us your experience of writing ‘Love’s Labor’
AP: I’m a little tired answering this one. Can I skip? You can read about it here if you really want to know. http://flight-of-fantasy.blogspot.in/2013/07/loves-labor-background-story.html
Do you have some unpublished work that’s lying in some old box or unopened drawers?  
AP: There was a story prompt on a site that claimed to break the Limca records. So I quickly wrote the story and it was only when it was ready that I realised they are asking for 1K to publish it! Now, as a poor author, that was inconceivable to me so I sent my story to an emag. From there it came back with a regret note and feedback. I incorporated the feedback, fleshed out the story and sent it to another portal. Just when I’d forgotten all about it, I get another rejection from this second place.
To my mind, DDS, this story is a masterpiece. I need to find someone who thinks it’s a masterpiece too! Now, that could be a challenge.

From conceiving an idea to marketing the book – it’s a long process. Which part of it did you enjoy the most?
AP: The marketing, un-authorly as that may sound.  The conception, the writing, the endless editing are so harrowing, I don’t even want to think about those!
Some day, when I’ve written enough for posterity, I’ll be a marketer.   
When you write, do you get into the character and decide the course of events or do you shape them as the plot requires them to be?
AP: There is no rule to this one. I start when a story needs an urgent telling and, sometimes, feel like the projector-man. His only role is to play the projector. What happens on screen is not in his hands. It’s uncanny how characters have a mind of their own and want to do their own thing. Is that the subconscious of Andy Paula playing up? Who can ever tell!    
All writers are readers first! So who are your favourite authors and what are some of your all-time favourite books?  
AP: Ruskin Bond for his easy style, P.G. Wodehouse for his comic timing, Louisa May Alcott for her everything, Bernard Shaw for his wit, Oscar Wilde for his philosophy coated in pithy dialogues, Emily Dickinson for her soulful lines, there are just too many to put them in a box. Maupassant’s short stories, Pablo  Neruda’s surrealism, Dicken’s realism – what master craftsmen they were. Closer home, I love Tagore and Sharat Chandra.
The Mill on the Floss, Wuthering Heights, Charitraheen, The Room on the Roof, Many Lives Many Masters, Soul Prints are some of my all-time favourites.
Do you think your favourite authors have influenced your style of writing?
AP: I’m sure they have.
There is always ‘someone’ who doesn’t like your book. How do you handle it?
AP: By reminding myself that there’re also some who don’t like Amitabh Bachchan.
Some rapid fire questions:
Your favourite movie: Shawshank Redemption
Your favourite genre of Music: Country
Your favourite Cuisine: Italian 
Your first celebrity Crush: Dev Anand – har fikr ko dhuen mein udata chala gaya
Top thing on your Bucket List: Visit the Self Realization Fellowship in Encinitas, California and meditate by the Pacific Ocean.
 What would you like to say to the people who haven’t read your book yet but are contemplating on whether to pick it up or not?
AP: Get your copy of Love’s Labor – very possibly you feature in it!     

b00k r3vi3ws: #SpecialFeature :: An Interview with Andy Paula, A...

b00k r3vi3ws: #SpecialFeature :: An Interview with Andy Paula, A...: Now Presenting: *** SPECIAL FEATURE - March'14 *** Piali Roy has run away from home and the two stubborn men who love h...

The Book Club Blog Tours: Blog Tour for Love's Labor by Andy Paula

I am away from my base the same week Love's Labor does a Blog Tour. Is this how you feel when your child takes its first flight without you? The I-wish-I-were-here-when-it-is-happening feeling? And the unmissable pride that it can do so without you?

Enjoy the video as you wait for the event.

The Book Club Blog Tours: Blog Tour for Love's Labor by Andy Paula: Andy Paula - slideshow

Meet Author Andy Paula

[U.S. Historical Romance Writer, Elizabeth McKenna, did this interview in Dec '13. It originally featured on her blog by the same name.]

Today I’m welcoming Andy Paula, author of Love’s Labor. Thank you for stopping by, Andy!

All about Andy. . .

Andy Paula is a corporate trainer, an avid reader, a near-passionate blogger, and now, a writer. When she met her editor during the writing of Love’s Labor, she realized how ruthless she may have appeared to all her enthusiastic trainees who nurtured creative dreams. “Never again,” she thought, “am I going to correct another article.” And she proceeded to make corrections in her own manuscript.
She confesses to never having made a kaleidoscope with broken bangles or taken apart a clock and put it back together, in her childhood. Two things that she did cherish were reading and falling in love. To the question, “What prompted you to write?” Andy gives a tongue-in-cheek reply.”They say there’s a book in each of us. Just wanted to check if they were right!”
When she is not making stories in her head, this Thinker does her pranayam and tries to meditate to keep a grip on her wandering mind.

1. How did your life as a writer begin?
It was written! I was always writing for my friends and relatives- their thank you notes, farewell mails, letters for adoption, even love letters, without ever thinking that I would or could make a career out of this. Officially, though, I became a writer when I had no other job! I’d quit my corporate training job in India and accompanied my husband to London on his project. It was there that I discovered the joy of blogging and did it diligently as there wasn’t much distraction in terms of relatives and social commitments. The universe conspired and put me in touch with the publisher of Indireads who was looking for writers from the South Asian diaspora. And my debut novella, Love’s Labor was born.

2. What makes you feel inspired to write? 
From the time I became aware of things around me, every experience I underwent made me wonder, ‘how will this read in a book?’ or ‘how will this look on screen?’. It’s probably strange for a child to have such thoughts but if you have it, you just have it. So, practically, everything inspires me to write. And this highly romantic thought (I don’t remember if reading Anne Frank did it to me or Emily Dickinson) that when I’m dead and gone, people should find scraps of paper in my study which will go on to become masterpieces! (laughter) The thought of fame, posthumously, is such an inspiration!

3. How did you come up with the idea for your current story? 
 

Love’s Labor only needed the telling, it had happened over a decade ago in my family when it was discovered that a sister had fallen for a man from another community. In the India of those days, an inter-caste marriage was frowned upon and one often heard of rigid parents disowning the ‘offenders’. My sister was put through similar trails, despite the educated family that we were, and asked to choose between her parents or lover. Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis, she disappeared from home one day amidst speculations that she had eloped. Investigations revealed that the lover was very much at home, which then threw my family in a quandary about her whereabouts.
I took some creative license with the dénouement to give my story a more desirable end. The rest of the book is real life, as I saw it unfold, in my own extended family.
My novella is a tribute to a sister who deserved a better deal than she got.



4. Tell us about your writing process. Do you outline, or are you more of a seat of your pants type of a writer?
For Love’s Labor, as I said, I did not have to outline because I was a spectator (albeit, mute) to the real-time occurrence. For my next manuscript, yes I have made a framework outlining the characters and the path they are to traverse. Let’s see if I can strictly follow it. Very possibly, my characters will develop a mind of their own and I may be left grappling with their errant ways, struggling to make them behave (smiles). I will know only as I proceed with my writing.

5. What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
This is like asking a mother who her favourite child is!
Lemme think…one of my favorites is when Sathya comes to drop Piali home, after they’ve returned from an excursion. This is the first time that Piali’s mother meets him and she reads at once, with a mother’s instinct, that her daughter has lost her heart to this young man. She finds him dashing but also knows that her husband will not approve of the alliance because Sathya is from a different community.


 ~ ~ ~
Mrs. Roy knew at once when she saw Piali and Sathya on their return from Panchgani. Coincidentally, they lived within a 3km radius of each other and Sathya had insisted on dropping Piali home. When they reached her house, he wanted to meet her parents. Piali was petrified; Sathya assured her he would meet them as her colleague, for the time being.

Mrs. Roy saw the way her daughter looked at the young man and blushed in his presence. Quite a dashing man, this fellow, she thought. As she led them into the drawing room, she observed the chemistry between the two and her heart sank. Piali had introduced her ‘colleague’ as Sathya Nair, the school chairman’s son and her colleague. Mrs. Roy knew about the family. Piali’s father would never agree. She knew her husband. She had been married to him for over twenty-five years; his beliefs were non-negotiable.

Mr. Piyush Roy, a government officer, was a traditional man, very progressive where his children’s education was concerned, very conservative when it came to their marriage. He had stopped talking to his elder brother when the latter married a girl outside his community. Mrs. Roy was proud of her husband’s convictions, his integrity, but she knew Pia found his stance on love regressive.

“Where’s your dad?” Sathya whispered as soon as Mrs. Roy went inside.

“Sathya, please, not now!”

“Chill, I’m only asking where he is. Stop being so scared.”

“He leaves for office at 10 and returns by 5.30pm. Bistupur mein office hai unka.” Piali regained her lost breath, “It takes him around 20mins from here.’’ “Ok, I’ll meet him after that then. Don’t get so hyper.”

“No, please!”

“No please? How else do I ask for your hand in marriage?”

“He will never agree. I know him.”

“He will! I know me!”

Mrs. Roy came back with home-made snacks and juice for the two. Elegant in her starched tant sari and a big sindoor bindi, she filled up the room with her presence.

“So how was Panchgani?”

“The best trip of my life, aunty!” Sathya smiled. Piali tried to put on a nonchalant look.
“We won the Best Team trophy, too! Piali was a great team leader,” Mrs. Roy beamed with pride. In all her phone calls from the camp, Piali had never gloated about her role but then, she always knew she had an intelligent and capable daughter.

“And how was Mumbai?”

In Mumbai, where the group halted for a day, the lovers finally found time to talk about themselves, their families, and the future they wanted. If the Panchgani air had brought out the romantic in Piali, Mumbai brought out her filmi side. Sathya saw in her a young adult who enjoyed the regular things of life; in her denims, check shirt and sneakers, she hardly looked the serious teacher. As for Piali, she had found her life’s hero in Sathya. In that short span, she lived her life to the fullest with him; she had never felt so alive before, so full of mirth and such gay abandon.

“I’ll leave now aunty, amma must be waiting for me.”

When Sathya got up to leave Piali found herself tossed back into the present. After the last week’s togetherness, she couldn’t think of staying away from him but they were back home. How would they meet? Where? In this small town, everybody knew everybody. Being a teacher made her all the more ‘famous’. If she were not bumping into students, she would be meeting their parents; there was no privacy, no secret would remain a secret in this township. God!

How and when could they meet? She left for school at 7 every morning and was back by 2.30. She took the school bus and everybody in it knew her stops; she could neither board nor get off the bus earlier or later without arousing suspicion. If Sathya picked her a little distance from her stop, they could be together for a while but ma would be waiting for lunch and she could not make ‘extra class’ excuses every day. Anyway, ma had the uncanny knack of knowing her innermost thoughts. While it was a commendable trait in a mother, it could become a major impediment in Piali’s love life. She would sense foul play immediately. Foul play! The term made the world’s loftiest emotion seem like a crime.
 ~ ~ ~ 
I like the juxtaposition of love and realism in this scene. The lovers are back to their home-town and subject to scrutiny; the mother is caught in the vortex of being a mother and a wife; the lover wants to meet the girl’s father; the girl is positive that such a meeting will have disastrous consequences; the father is not present but has already made his presence felt as a despot- the scene palpitates with life, there’s a medley of emotions in there.

6. What is the highest goal that you desire to meet as an author?
Two goals if you permit- the Utopian one of having the freedom to share philosophy with my readers without being told by the editor to keep my philosophies character-specific. “Love teaches you to lie” is universal.  For now, I’d to make it, “Love had taught Piali Roy to lie.” How limiting is that! C’mon, everybody lies in love. Who has not told at home they’re going over to a friend’s for home-work when they were out with the special someone? Or blurted out it’s a classmate’s call when, very evidently, it was the lover’s?  Why make it specific to a character?
And my Epicurean goal is I’m sitting in Starbucks, sipping my coffee and there’s this group of youngsters who go, ‘Wow, Andy Paula!’ This image always makes me smile. And I’ve been caught smiling sheepishly a lot, lately.

7. Who is the one author that you would love to meet someday and why? 
I’d love to meet Maya Angelou. She’s someone whose writings resonate with me- the honesty, the struggle, the triumph- all so palpable, so legendary! And although I’ve made my debut as a fiction writer and may remain so for a while, I see myself graduating to her kind of writing, and learn – if such things can be learnt – her fearlessness and  transparency in her words, her ability to lay bare her Soul.

 Love’s Labor

Love’s Labor is a story about Piali Roy, an English teacher, & Sathya Nair, an animator, who are brought together by circumstances, and despite behavioral and communal differences, end up falling in love. All very well. What is not is the reaction of the two families, and a third’s. That of the girl’s who Sathya was slated to marry, when Piali took his life by storm.
Set in various towns of India – a couple of hill-stations thrown in for good measure - Love’s Labor,  a tale spanning over two years, leads you through the maze of tradition, culture, love and rebellion. The various locales that the protagonists travel to and the people they meet make for interesting read. The introspection that the characters indulge in & the transformation that brings about gives Love’s Labor its cutting edge.
In the end, will the lovers make it? Or, as time rolls, will they succumb to the time-honored customs that are so much a part of their upbringing? In a country where society is held above the individual & collective laws more potent than human dreams, the cookie could crumble either way.

Connect with Andy Paula


Website – http://www.andypaula.in
Twitter – https://twitter.com/meetandypaula
Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andy-Paula/331796276937019
Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7153256.Andy_Paula
Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Andy-Paula/e/B00GLKKU76Buy LinksIndireads- http://www.indireads.com/books/loves-labor/
Goodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18137981-love-s-labor

Give Up (writing) While There's Still Time! - inKonversation with Andy Paula

  [inKonversation was published by The Tales Pensieve in Dec, 2013]

Andy Paula is quite a versatile personality. From a teacher to a corporate trainer to a writer, she has travelled a long road, which few of us dream of travelling or are apprehensive of. After the innumerable essays, poems, articles, editorials, congratulations & condolence letters she wrote for herself and others refused to satiate her writer’s self, she finally put herself seriously to the task and wrote Love’s Labor, a romance novella published by Indireads. Love’s Labor is a simple love story, about a Bengali girl and a Malayali boy. Piali, the protagonist, is a simple girl with simple dreams. She gives her heart to the chairman’s son. This starts her off on a journey on the path of love and duty. Let’s catch Andy Paula in a tete-a-tete, to find out how the love story between Piali and Sathya unfolds…and many more things:


 

Hi Andy,  Welcome to The Tales Pensieve.
How would Andy Paula relate to Piyali Roy?
Both Andy Paula and Piali Roy are academics and clear about their life choices. I drew on my experiences as a teacher to breathe life into Piali, a significant one being Dr.Kalam visiting my school when I was in my last academic stint. So potent was that impression that in Love’s Labor I made the Prez’ visit to Piali’s school the backdrop for the lovers to meet.But then, down the narrative, she emerged as her own person and separated from her creator.A colleague who read Love’s Labor had this to say about us : Initially I thought I knew & have met Piyali but few chapters down I realized it was not Piyali it was Anindita that I knew … U both are different. [Ref: http://www.indireads.com/books/loves-labor/#tab-reviews ]
You are a corporate trainer by profession. How did the writer in you emerge?
I am a writer by birth My essays were always read out in class, I was always writing poetry and torturing my brother with it (so much so that he spitefully turned on me and wrote ‘Vasco da Gama, Did a drama, In the city of Rama…’ wherever that is!) and getting commended for my creative pieces, be they letters to my friends and family or farewell notes in slam books.But it was when I quit my corporate job and followed my husband on an onsite to London that I took to blogging seriously, which gave me the discipline to write. As luck would have it, a friend got me in touch with Naheed Hassan, the publisher of Indireads, a digital publishing house that was looking at promoting South Asian voices. Love’s Labor happened when I was in a position to give undivided time to writing.
Do you think India is still battling with Inter caste marriages. Not the rural areas. But with so many youngsters in the IT field nowadays, do we still have this caste and class barriers between us?
Oh yes! Unfortunately, yes. Today’ s MNC generation is at war with the orthodoxy of their parents versus the open culture they encounter at the workplace. They want to break free from the conservative confines of caste and class and move towards a more free society but are constantly pulled back by the cloying humarey khandaan ki izzat sentimentality.They move in with their partners while their parents, oblivious to the fact, are looking for alliances in their hometowns. I see this happening to my trainees all the time. These are times of upheaval and there are major societal changes we need to equip ourselves to deal with.
You could have let Piyali elope with Sathya But Piyali chose to do it the hard way. Was there a message there?
Now that you mention it, and as a reader it may have occurred to you, yes Piali could have eloped As a romantic youngster, I found the idea fascinating and would have loved to do it myself! But with time and other people’s experiences, I realized that elopement is not the solution. It is, in fact, the start of fresh problems. Picture this: A couple elopes. Where do they go? Not hanuman tekri ke veerane mien (as QSQT would have us do, and we know what happened to those lovers then!) So where do they rent a house? How much do they pay? Who takes out the dustbin? How do they share household chores? In all this practicality, can you sense love anywhere? Gawd, imagine Piali Roy blasting her internet service provider for slow service because the dashing Sathya Nair cannot book their honeymoon tickets online!Now imagine the other scene. Struggle, conflict, differences with family and yet bringing them around with resilience, obedience, intensity of purpose. There is beauty and nobleness in the latter. It guarantees a healthier and longer shelf-life. No?
Let us do a rapid fire round. Just one word answer and the because…
Laptop or paper pen- Laptop. Saves duplication of work because the hand-written word eventually needs to be converted to print.
Enid Blyton or Jane Austin- Austen. For the adult characters and intense portrayal of relationships.
Planned writing or Spontaneous writing - I wouldn’t know. Whichever works for whoever.
Love marriage or Arrange marriage- Love Marriage. It is impossible to arrange a lifelong bond without love.
Ebooks or Paperbacks- Paperbacks. You can smell them and let the neem leaf dry between the pages.
You are writing under a pseudonym Andy Paula.How did you choose this name?
Back at school, a classmate found Anindita a difficult name to pronounce, and made it Andy. The whole school followed suit. Andy it has been ever since. Paula just completed the cosmo touch. (Laughter)
Is there anything the writer in you must have while writing? –Besides your laptop.Some peace of mind and the urge to write. No TV, music and friends for me please, when I am writing. Concentration is elusive for a lazy writer.  What is your next venture? Can Pensievers have a sneak peek?And Then It Was Dawn is the working title of my next novel. It is a story of relationships set in urban India, with more characters and twists than my debut work, Love’s Labor. And I still don’t know whether it’ll be a paperback or digital.
The NaNoWriMo just concluded for 2013.Your words of wisdom for newbie writers?
Six words – Give up while there’s still time! (laughs out loud)And if you find that impossible, then be prepared to sit and bleed at the laptop; get your ego squashed by editors, publishers, reviewers; learn that writing is only 25% of your job, the rest is marketing; disbelieve people who want you to believe that and go out and give it your best. Because in today’s over-crowded literary world, nothing short of the very best will do.
By Rubina RameshRUBINA RAMESH is an avid book reader and book critic currently based in Houston, Texas. Born in Bihar, India to a Bengali family, she has been a constant traveler - Bangalore London, The Netherlands, Malaysia and finally Houston. In all these her constant companion has been books which turned her into a regular blogger on various sites and also led to her own blog of book reviews. Currently she is working on her book's manuscript while she looks towards bridging the gap between Indian and western authors and promote Indian authors in the western blog hops. Her book reviews can be read at http://rubinaramesh.blogspot.com/

In Conversation with Andy Paula

[This was published by eFiction, India, in Oct 2013] The strikingly beautiful and poised Anindita Sarkar, who writes under the pseudonym of Andy Paula, is a voracious reader, an ardent thinker and an avid blogger. A corporate trainer by profession, her power and passion for gambling with words drove her to write Love’s Labor . With her enamouring looks and exemplary intelligence, she is a perfect combination of beauty with brains.

Ananya Dhawan: From being a literature professor to a corporate trainer and now also a writer-how has the journey been?

Andy Paula: Very eventful! From an exceptionally early age I knew I would teach. When others played dolls, I prepared separate ‘class-work’, and ‘home-work’ assignments for the neighborhood kids. At all those crucial stages in life- Class 12, Grads final year etc- when my friends puzzled over what subjects to choose, which entrance exams to take, which jobs to apply for, I was unruffled and wondered why did the others not know what they wanted, why should their parents/grandparents/bade bhaiya decide things for them. I still fail to understand such dependence! For me it had to be English Literature, it had to be teaching.
I taught for over nine years and when I was undergoing training in St. George’s College, Mussoorie, my last academic profile, I thought this is what I want to now do. I’ve taught 18years and under, I now want to train 20 years and above. The facilitator, Alu Tata, may have no idea that she had planted a dream in one of her participants’ mind (or heart, depending on where one plants dreams)!

Corporate training happened like a miracle as if my then-boss was waiting for me. She wanted someone with a sound language background who could teach grammar. That’s what I’d done all my life so I took to my new role as a duck takes to water. It only helped that there were no notebook corrections here and I did not have to shout at forty-odd boisterous teenagers constantly! My years of teaching may have given me an empathetic edge, despite the shouting, that the competitive corporate found refreshing. Many of my colleagues told me this or I would have attributed my acceptance by the corporate as sheer good luck.
I quit my corporate job when an onsite opportunity took us to London. The initial euphoria soon gave way to the frustrating feeling that I was a ‘dependent’, my only identity being my husband’s wife. Like all independent women, I detested the tag.  But initially, did nothing about it. After months of UK tour, I took to blogging with persistent online-nagging by my mother in India. Yes, only mothers can wield such power over you! Love’s Labor happened when I had gotten used to the discipline of writing.

AD: In your debut novella ‘Love’s Labor’ to what extent do you relate yourself to the character of ‘Piali Roy’?
AP: To the extent that both of us are certain about what we want to do in life, both are Literature lovers and have a mind not easily swayed by public opinion. In many ways, the professional part of Piali reflects the professional side of me but somewhere down the narrative, she becomes her own person and I have no control over her.

AD: What were your high and low points while writing the book?
AP: The high points were when the characters knew how they wanted to behave and the plot moved effortlessly. The lows were when they didn’t. They waited for my instructions and refused to listen when I gave them. Also, writing is a lonely job. Suddenly you realize you are alone in this big room, the only noise is the fan whirring above and the keys beneath your finger-tips and you feel this immense necessity to be surrounded by people. Only to loathe it when they make demands on your time.

AD: How did you come up with the title of the book?
AP: The title was the first thing I typed when I sat down to write Love’s Labor . This story had been brewing in my head for over a decade when it was discovered at home that a cousin had had the audacity to fall for a male from another community. The man in question was well-placed and even offered to take the cousin away to his place of work; she vehemently refused citing filial duty and social disgrace as reasons, and in an unexpected twist of events, one day, she disappeared from home. While initially it was suspected that she had eloped, the lover himself was at a loss because he was very much at home! The labor that my protagonists undertake for love made this my only choice. So while I was open to suggestions on form and style, I was sanguine this had to be the title of my story.

AD: Do you draw upon your own experiences with family and friends as you create characters and plots?
AP: All writers do that, I think. Isn’t art a reflection of reality? Well, now that is like the who-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg debate, but yes, I do. I am hoping that for my first few books I don’t have to chalk out too many characters and situations. Life and its people are inspiration enough!

AD: What is your writing regimen like?
AP: I wish I could say, ‘I write every day, through the power-cuts and bad network, I write write write’, but unfortunately, for me, that’s not true just now. There are other commitments I juggle with my writing. My content-development and voice-overs demand attention, and the occasional training. Not to miss the householder’s job that is full-time. I try to write at least one hour every day, and assure myself that when I plunge into full-time writing, when I am holding no other job, I will be more dedicated.



AD: Tell us a little about the cover art and who has designed it? What does the image on the cover depict?
AP: Isn’t it a beautiful cover? Naila Ahmed has designed it and done a wonderful job of it. That’s Piali Roy waiting for her love and you can see Sathya with his back-pack trudging up the hill to meet the beloved he had lost. (I wish they’d given him a beard though!)The grayish bluish mountains create an evocative backdrop.

AD: What made you choose an e-publishing platform?
AP: The platform chose me. A friend told me about Indireads and connected me to Naheed Hassan, its founder. One discussion led to another and before I knew it, I was writing an ebook. The e-platform perfectly suits my current nomadic life, when I don’t know where our next posting will be. With the digital medium, I know I can do it from anywhere in the world. Except Arctic, of course!

AD:How did you reach out to an eminent personality like Dr. Shashi Tharoor for the unveiling of ‘Love’s Labor’? What was his immediate reaction?
AP: Dr. Tharoor is an author whose writings I enjoy and admire. He has authored an impressive number of books- both fiction and non-fiction. The fact that he was recognized as the Digital Person of the Year in the first Indian Digital Media Awards(IDMA), 2010, made him the most suited person for unveiling an ebook. He understands the digital medium like few other politicians do. When I sent him a mail with my request, he almost immediately responded that he would be glad to oblige.  His immediate reaction was, ‘What a fancy name, Andy Paula, why did you…’and he trailed off not wanting to spell out that he liked Anindita better! And then the discussion veered towards other topics.

AD: What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
AP: When an idea screams to get out of my head, I wake up at 2am to type it out, much to the family’s annoyance!

AD: What’s next in store for us?
AP: A tale of relationships. I am waiting for the dust to settle after Love’s Labor so I can resume my next manuscript. Just now the promotions are taking up a lot of my time.

Rapid 5UK or India – India Chinese or Continental - Continental You in 3 words – witty, sharp, observant (One of )The best day of your life -  When Love’s Labor was launched If you were to have a dinner date with one person dead or alive, who would it be? Rituporno Ghosh , to be able to figure out what gave him such nuanced understanding of complex human issues.  
 
 
 
  

:D

       Get that Wet Towel off the Bed! NOW!
The compellinginsistence on systematic living is preached and practised so fanatically by the defenders of society that no one, not even the Irresponsibility Personified, can escape its clutches. The drilling of this mantra starts right from the womb with yucky milk, slimy greens and nauseous fruit shoved down the pregnant woman’s gullet. She quietly complies because she wants a healthy child; the relatives have a field day, no, months, as they feed, clothe, lecture and do all-things-permissible to the would-be mother. Motherhood is serious business, men trade their bangla, gaadi, bank-balance for the Maa; women give up their Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for the janani. Such life-sapping sacrifices without following a systematic regimen is tantamount to social hara-kiri. We don’t mess around with organized conspiracies in this country; we tie our seatbelts and sit back to enjoy the drive, which, unquestionably, is an endless one with manholes, drains and broken roads dotting the landscape that, in simpler terms, is called Indian Roads.   
The journey that began in the womb takes an interesting turn with the child’s appearance on the world-stage. With the premonition of The Wise, the helpless bundle rears its head from a smelly track yelling for life. Save me the noise, don’t suck me into your chaotic system It screams; the doctors carelessly hold It upside down slapping Its bum triumphantly declaring to the hawks that it is a Healthy Baby. As shrieks of celebrations course through the corridors, the newcomer howls some more sensing that the tragi-comedy has just started. With the wonder of a freshman, It sees a sea of humanity snaking in and out of Its room with colourful, musical objects in hand. The cosy room has metamorphosed into a museum in no time; the dentures that smile at It and the hairy-hands that pound Its cheeks are monsters come-to-life. Amidst crowds, cakes, curses and comforts, the growing up happens without the gargantuans so much as noticing it. 
The drug that was administered to the foetus has successfully entered Its blood-stream. It knows the undeniable power of SYSTEM. Everything has to be systematic hollers the Goliath. For Godssake take that wet towel off the bed! NOW! Where the hell are you supposed to keep your socks? It is the Periboea at her gigantic worst. It does not need any telling, the potency of the surreptitious chemical works on Its brain cells involuntarily. But the Titans are oblivious of Its genetic coding, unbelievably unsure of their own blood. The outpourings gush out like froth from venomous reptiles. The shoes go in the shoe rack; the TV remote doesn’t live on the fridge top; the nail-cutter goes right back into the drawer, what are the nails doing on the carpet; books have a house to live in, we call it the cupboard, they’re not to be strewn on the floor; put all your toys in one basket after you’ve finished playing; can your clothes be neatly stacked if you have any feelings for your mother. 
It has grown up, flown the nest, aligned Itself with the system and enjoying Its ride regardless of it. One jarring sound drags It back to the blind gullies that It had crawled out of. You are still the same, will you never grow up rattles the uncomfortably familiar Voice. Now what have I done, It meekly tries to salvage the vestiges of the tattered esteem that threatens to blow away at the next hint of violence. What have you done?  You are all over the place; just put together everything in one slot, I’m saying this for your own good. It will be easier for you to remember, and for others to follow. It picks up the prickly pieces of prestige that had scattered as smithereens and The Voice replays in Its head till it will crack Its’ skull. Before the bedroom becomes a bloody battlefield, It sits at Its desk and keys away furiously, resolutely. 

Two days later, everything is in one place. All for Its own good. www.andypaula.in  

Poetry in Motion

It was to be a regular post prandial walk but the empty swings in the children's play area beckoned. P and I sat on a swing each, both gloating over the fact that we'd managed to fit into wooden blocks meant for a child's butt. After a week of pressing family commitments and work engagements, this was our time together. We love this part of our life, this stillness and contentment. It's quiet all around, the roads are rain-washed, I am auto-piloted into no-arguments-now, P has emerged out of his pre-occupied mode and life is generally peaceful. 

We are gently swinging and talking about the week that was, the one that will be and how it'll feel to shift from this beautiful place into our own home elsewhere. We reflect and contemplate and the child in me swings sideways to topple P off his seat. He indulges me and does not return the favor. He is kind and I love him for what I am not. He remembers a call he had promised a relative in the morning and dials him. I keep swinging and following the conversation. A silver Toyota Corolla has noiselessly driven up behind us and a forty-something lady emerges.

P is busy explaining housing finance to mausa. I am Milkha Singh now, looking back as the lady approaches me making a 'one minute' sign. I think she's asking me for directions. I smile and get off the swing. She has come closer saying 'ek minute'. I still think she's looking for an address when suddenly my inner child comprehends hers- she's asking for the swing, she wants to to jhulo the jhula! What a beautiful moment ! I move away, fascinated, and look the other way to not embarrass her. The affectionate husband and an amused child are waiting in the car. What a loving family, what deep understanding! This is a rare moment for me. I have recently seen a sixty plus man reprimand his wife in a food court for wanting to eat a veg-cutlet that cost Rs.23.I had taken offence then, I take pride now.

Swinging done, the Happy Being leaves the swing and thanks me. I ask her if she wants me to click a picture. She laughs with a child-like artlessness, touches my arm and says she needed to be better dressed for that. She walks towards her car and keeps talking. That stage is gone, she laughs. That stage never goes, say I. We laugh, two strangers united by a metallic swing, and wave as she sits in the car and is driven away. The mundane has been elevated to the surreal. 

P is still on call. I have just witnessed a poetry in motion. 

Love's Labor: The Background Story

Love’s Labor has its inception in the last decade when it was discovered at home that a cousin had had the audacity to fall for a gent from another community. All hell broke loose and the poor girl was subjected to the worse possible form of blackmail starting from her mother threatening to swallow sleeping pills to the matriarch leaving home were the offender to not change her decision. The man in question was well-placed and even offered to take the cousin away to his place of work; she vehemently refused citing filial duty and social disgrace as reasons. And in an unexpected twist of events, one day, she disappeared from home. While initially it was suspected that she had eloped, the lover himself was at a loss because he was very much at home!                                                                                                                                                                          This incident, a legend during my young adulthood, left a disturbing influence on me. As a thinking individual, I replayed it in various forms in my imagination, giving it a happily-ever-after ending. As a literature student, love was sacrosanct to me, and I hadn’t yet learnt about the various shades of gray. It was simple, I thought. If two people were in love, they had to marry. The reality around me in the small town I grew up in was very different though. There was a fanatic emphasis on same-caste-same-class alliances; love marriages were almost unheard of; and if there was a stray one, the adults almost waited for it to go wrong so they could be proven right. While the metros in India were opening their doors to MNCs, the small towns were still grappling under the narrow confines of caste and community in the name of tradition. Films like Mohabbatein only made it worse with their depiction of the ‘humein parivartan pasand nahi’ theme while the blockbuster DDLJ exemplified how love was only ‘allowed’ with parental consent. 
Love’s Labor, a story of Piali Roy & Sathya Nair, is about two young people falling in love, fully aware of their different backgrounds. Piali is the quintessential small-town Indian girl, torn between her love for the lover on one hand and her love for her family on the other. As with many youngsters, she is plagued by an all-consuming guilt of hurting her parents and being a disgrace to them. Jamshedpur, the Steel City of India, where the plot is set, is urban in many ways and children are encouraged to follow liberal arts along with their curriculum, play a sport and participate in competitions. When it comes to marriage though, the traditional household is ruled by the parents’ choice. Love, the very basis of human existence, is considered taboo and anybody daring to tread that path is made to feel like a sinner. Gender discrimination dictates that while Sathya can speak his mind, and his family even bows to it, Piali does not have the same luxury. This, of course, is a specific case and cannot be generalised. 
As an author, my story ends on the note I would like to see most love stories end. With time, I’ve (sadly) come to realize that it does not always happen that way. Such is the illogical deference to parental dream that a youngster is not let to have a say in matters of the heart. Surprisingly, even in this decade, I come across youth who say they’d like to marry by their parents’ choice. While there is a certain ‘nobleness’ about the sentiment that, on the surface, reflects respect for authority, at a subtle sub-level it is actually indicative of Indian society’s inability to embrace changes and open up to the broadening world scenario. 
Does Love’s Labor offer a solution?  Does it appeal to the rigid traditionalist? Or is it a mere reflection of the society we live in? Read it to find out. 
http://www.indireads.com/books/loves-labor/ 

Dear Dr. Kalam

I'll let the mails do the talking for this one. 
                                            

Respected Dr. Kalam                                                                                                                                                                        14th June
                                                                                                                                   Hoping this finds you in good health.

I, Anindita Sarkar, a teacher for nine years and a corporate trainer for the last six, am delighted to be writing to you. An M.A.(English), from Banaras Hindu University, I started my teaching career in 1997. From then to 2006, I taught English to high school students in various parts of the country, my last academic stint being St.George's College, Mussoorie.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          That was the year when you graced the Sesqui Centenary celebration of our school with your presence. I was the editor-in-chief of the school year book then, and with the editorial board, we tried to capture what you truly embody. The excitement that your visit created; your address to the students; your answers to their questions; your photographs with the faculty and all my memories associated with it have frozen in time. 

So potent was my meeting with you Dr. Kalam, that when I made a foray into writing, this visit of yours to the school became a backdrop of my book! My book, Love's Labor, an e-book published by Indireads, a Toronto-based publishing house, deals with the caste and communal differences that so plague our society. How the protagonists sometimes bow down, and, at others, rebel against the limiting influences of family and society; how the role of parents defines our choices as Indians; our deference to the collective consciousness rather than upholding individual wishes form the fabric of Love's Labor.

Please permit me to present to you a hard-copy of my e-book , Dr Kalam.

I am publishing under the pseudonym of Andy Paula, as Anindita had been made Andy by well-meaning friends since my school days! While I wait to hear from you, I wish to share a personal detail. As I transitioned from a school teacher to a corporate trainer, I carried your leadership lessons in my soul. Prof. Satish Dhawan's move of shouldering the blame on himself during the failed launch of SLV-3 and conferring credit on the team on its success, is an example I always share in my leadership trainings. And for some reason, recounting this incident, invariably fills up my eyes.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience, Dr.Kalam. My husband, Prakash Chandra, a software engineer, and I, will be the two people present for the presentation. And we shall not take too much of your time.

RegardsAnindita Sarkar
PS: The teacher right behind you, peering intently at the action below, is yours truly. From 2003 to 2013, time has taken its toll :)


There are some mails we send and forget; the others keep us awake. This one, definitely, belonged to the second category. There was no reply from the former Prez' office for ten days. TEN HARROWING DAYS! The Missile Man was travelling, he would be back only by the 3rd of the next month. 3rd of the NEXT MONTH, OMG! (Did I actually think he would invite me for high tea the same evening he got the mail?! Aah, the vanities of an author!) 

A couple of phone calls later, the PS to the former Prez asked for the mail to be forwarded to his personal id. Duly done. Wait begun. 

Good things come to those who wait, they say. They after all do, it seems!

Dear Ms Anindita Sarkar,                                                                                                                                   28th June

Ref your request to meet Dr Kalam to present a copy of your e-book to him.  Dr Kalam will be happy to meet you on Wed, 03 July 2013 at 1950 hrs at his office No.10, Rajaji Marg, New Delhi.
Please confirm if you are coming for the meeting.
regards

Please confirm? Please confirm?! I have been waiting for a fortnight for only this, Mr Secy. But then you wouldn't know the thrill, the apprehension, the excitement, the palpitations, the zoning out that happen on receiving a mail from someone like HIM, or from his office. Same difference :) 

Let the pics do the rest of the talking.
Dr Kalam autographing Loves' Labor; his autograph; reading the novella on the iPad
The first thing I noticed about the former Prez was how frail he had become in ten years. He was as inspirational though, taking interest in the digital format, appreciating how we are saving trees by not paper-printing, fascinated about how global Indireads is with the authors, editors, publisher, marketing- all working out of different countries, complimenting entrepreneurs that they are the employment-generators and not employment-seekers and saying all the things a budding writer would take home with her.

Was I inspired to write more, write better? Of course! The moment I come down to Mother Earth, I will...and that's a promise :)