You have contributed to the Indica anthology Shared Roots. Could you talk about your journey as a writer?
I have always liked to write, even as a child, but it was what the school wanted us to write. I used to participate in school competitions and poetry competitions. When I was in the 9th standard, I came 3rd in school in a poetry competition. During my intermediate, I had time only to study. My university course almost ended my writing before it started. I had an accident after my exams. I was at home and I wrote 40 pages on paper then. In 2017, I started looking for online magazines and places where I could publish on an amateur basis. I came across the Writer’s Workout, and I started sending them stories and flash fiction. Their yearly competition was a judged one, 4 to 5 writers gave feedback on the work sent. I realised the good elements in my writing and short stories became by go to front. I had the desire to try different genres and different types of stories — suspense, comedy etc. That’s when Forests and Fairies came up. I believe in continuing to write. As we write we will improve, we are supposed to.
Your experience in participating in the Indica India-Cambodia Anthology Shared Roots?
Writer’s Workout is a global platform so that’s where I started writing and wrote stories suited for the western readers. After that, I wanted to try Indic writing as I began my Indic journey. In 2020–21 I joined Indica’s 1000 reviewers club. I joined the group and saw the call for submissions for Shared Roots. This was a good opportunity to take a step into Indic writing. Writing the story was a good experience. I had to do a lot of reading and rewriting. Ratul Ji gave lot of feedback for the first draft. I reworked the story also after feedback from Otis. After speaking to him, I was able to see my story in slightly different light. My experience in participating in the anthology gave me confidence in writing a long piece, close to a novella. The whole experience was something I will always treasure.
Could you talk about cultural heritage as a shared experience between nations?
Hinduism has been the common connection between India and Cambodia. They had mutually benefitting friendships, commerce through trade routes. We have an early connection from the past. Our ancestors knew each other. Both nations were under colonial rule. We under the British and they under the French. We have the shared experience of trauma. The people from both cultures wanted to share and hold on to some part of themselves before the trauma. Cambodians believed in the Indian culture and faith. They believed in our devas. They connected with our gods despite the odds. When you talk about temples and temple architecture — you are talking about keeping your knowledge alive despite colonisation and passing it on to the next generation. Both India and Cambodia retained a lot of the cultural knowledge despite the colonial rule.
Which aspects of shared Indo-Cambodian culture did you explore in your short story?
Temple architecture is my favourite theme. In the Cambodia temple ruins you can see that nature took over. Rock and root blended together. It was very earthy. It was close to what Hinduism and what Pagenism was all about. Everything comes together in a seamless manner. It becomes easier to become a part of nature. Nature has merged to make its mark on places. Nature is cleansing. This happened more in Cambodia, faster than it happened in India. Our temple complexes have shops, markets, colonies and human noise. We lost that essence that nature gave to temples in Cambodia. Cambodian temples have pull to them that makes you want to understand — who we are and who we think we are.
Another thing is the idea of a community — it’s a global thing, when things get difficult, people get together. Elements of bhakti is integral to these temples. There is something in these temples which endures. The owned the Bhakthi tradition and made it their own.
What are the themes in your short story?
The story compares the India under British and Cambodia under French connection. In contrast, the India Cambodia relationship was a healthy symbiotic relationship. The story has two historic timelines set in the construction of Banteay Srei and the second of when Cambodia was under French rule. The theme in the story is how a country can help another country in its culture without damaging this country’s soul.
The second theme in the story is women. Both streams of the story have influential women. The first cut has a woman sculptor from India who helps the Cambodian sculptor achieve his finest art by suggesting he give himself to the devas. In the second part we enter a farm world where people oppressed by the colonial rule learn what the individual can do against the oppression. It is about getting a certain confidence. There is something in temples which we want to protect, revive and retrieve and live with. Love is what keeps the world going.
The importance of creating shared cultural narratives liked Shared Roots?
The impact of globalisation is such that we all have been uprooted in someway or the other. Books like shared roots slowly reduce the western influence to build connections between people that are based on an Indic understanding. This forges a new way of looking at things. Books like this will encourage Indians to travel to Cambodia instead of anywhere else. It will cement our cultural ties.
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