Author Archives: Story Practices

Can you talk about the need for awareness about women’s health?

We hardly ever focus on women’s health in our society — except perhaps during pregnancy. There needs to be more awareness especially for young girls.  There is no conversation around health for middle aged women.  We need to talk about how women live their lives—always cooking and working for others.  We need to talk about how women taking care of themselves is considered selfishness. I would advise women to keep an hour to themselves – to do yoga, walk or read a book.

There is a beautiful photo article by Meera Ganapati on exercising in public spaces and how difficult this is.  How many times do you see mothers playing badminton? Walking is sometimes difficult because we have to worry about safety—traffic, stray dogs all posing a problem. How many women have access to public parks? Marathon runners talk about how men laugh at them. There are so many angles to  women’s health.

If you exercise, questions are raised like, “She wants to look good? For whom does she want to look good for?”

If you want to go for a  Zumba class it will raise an eyebrow. Health is not a priority in women’s lives. Hormones and moods can take a toll. Women need support from their family to access doctors and to be able to afford therapy sessions. A lot of women have depression, bipolar disorder or are processing traumas from childhood. 

Plus there is this pressing need to be a supermom. No signs of weakness are allowed. This makes it very daunting. There are changes that are happening in the media today about the role and image of women. These are small changes but we have a long way to go.

Can you talk about storytelling and stereotypes?

I was reading this Kannada folktale about a crow and a sparrow – Kagakka and Gubakka – The crow is a freeloader and the sparrow is hardworking  reinforcing stereotypes about fair and dark skin. As a storyteller you have a responsibility when you pick stories. These stereotypes can affect perspectives and mental health.

Can you talk about storytelling and healing?

As a storyteller there is a part of your self that you put in the story.  Storytelling is an outlet. It can be cathartic. You may not know who you will connect with. I do personal stories—because I believe they have the power to heal – the self and others. Your story can be someone else’s survival guide.  I see storytelling as being about connection, evolution and closure.

Once upon a time, there lived a beast that roamed through Tamil lands. He was a tall beast, taller that the tallest trees that grew in the Tamil lands. He was a tall beast, taller than the tallest mountains that rose in the Tamil lands. He thus could touch the cool blue sky that covered the earth. The clouds were eaten by him frequently as he could reach for them. Though he was otherwise a peaceful beast – he had this one habit that caused chaos and destruction in Tamil lands. And that habit was this – he would eat the clouds for food – however due to this, the Tamil people suffered terribly. There were no clouds, so there were not, and this meant there was no rain, so there was not, this meant there were no crops that grew on Tamil soils so there were not. This meant over time the Tamil lands turned into a desert, so they did. This story of the Tamil beast, was as you could imagine from a long long time ago. This story of the Tamil beast, was as you could imagine from the time when the Tamil lands had been a desert. When the Tamil lands had been a desert the Tamil people of then lived like the desert people. They wore colorful cloths and spent their time gazing at the Sun and drawing from its infinite light and wisdom. The colorful cloths were almost like a uniform because they had the same colours and patterns always.

Could you talk about your community-based practices?

I started Lampshade Writers in 2020 November. It has been an ongoing project. When I was in the United States, I saw how people in informal settings, bookshops, libraries, you feel close to people. I looked for such outlets in India. I felt at home there in these writing groups in United States. I wanted to make other authors feel at home. We did many events, even online ones. We did sessions with the poetry of Gulzar and Khalil Gibran.

Could you talk about your social work?

I was always intrigued by community libraries. We have funded a community library in Uttar Pradesh. We would like to support them. We should not divide India into North India and South India.

They were a part of a library in Delhi. The library had a lot of people who were labourers and farmers. It is called the Bansa Community Library. We supported with donating books. Since 2023, we began funding the Librarian’s salary.

People are trying to be in touch with themselves. Every year we do a Summer Event with Bansa Community Library. This year we are doing it for the women there.

Could you talk about your initiative Pages?

I started Pages – Journaling with intent. It is based on the book Artists Way by Julia Camron. I read the book a few times and started seeing things in a different light. I wanted to share this with people. I started Pages – self journaling as a group. We have a community and we work on our different pages.

Could you talk about some of the books you published?

We did an anthology called Celebrating India when people emerged ready to write stories about India. We did another anthology called Celebrating India, where we celebrated LGBT love. We did another anthology called Celebrating India – where we did stories of visually impaired people. There were a few noted writers. I expanded the whole thought and we did events around the books. We did feature so many people who are doing so much good to society. There was a guy who believed in Andari Illu – Everyone’s home – he would invite everyone to his home. There are many people like this. We did over a few days events with Story Arts Foundation and Deepa Kiran. We published and launched her book – The Royal Mistake. Along with this we brought out a children’s anthology – The better world. As a publisher, we did events and published anthologies.

Could you talk about your experiences as a publisher?

It is amazing how people come out and create books. Gita Iyengar wrote poetry and kept it in a drawer at home. After she died, they found a drawer full of poetry written by her. Cheryl Rao Ma’am , children’s writer reached out. After a year or so, we brought a book out. I was very heartened by such a gesture. It was a tale of friendship. In poetry, you get that emotional aspect. The emotional health in poetry. There is so much more.

Your career journey?

I have done my engineering, like a lot of people from the South, in 2008. During engineering I started writing poetry. Education is good for structured growth. What we are thinking about inside gets reflected through poetry. I was volunteering with an NGO. It opened a lot of areas not thought of in regular life. It had opened up a different domain. I wouldn’t have written poetry as such. I would not write so much. This experience of working with an NGO teaches us should do things we love. I changed my postgraduation subject with a diploma in Mass Communication from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. I was a part of an Orkut group called Ah poetry. There was a lot of mentoring. I thought, ‘Why not bring a book of all the people I met in this poetry group.’ I set up a small press called Nivasini Publishers, where we will publish poetry. And we did a lot of events around these books. I was working with an NGO in those days. Whatever we would earn from the small press books I would invest into the same. Then, I moved to the US. In the US, I could see how groups of poets supported each other. I joined groups of amateur writers. I helped create a lot of communities of poets – lot of people helped in doing this. It is not easy to promote poetry books. I also started volunteering for YK Antiques Museum. We did a lot of events. Now, I am a core member – curate community lead events for them.

Why did you think of the name Nivasini for your publishing house?

My father’s name is Srinivas. My mother’s name is Subhashini. My name is Nivedita. I was looking for a name where we could all dwell together.

How long did you run Nivasini Publishers?

2010 – 2017. I wrote poetry and could not find a publisher. I am solutions oriented if things are not working. I have published books, typeset books, and edited books. I first published physical books with an offset printer – 500 books. We launched the books in Saptaparni in Hyderabad, a cultural center. The first book was called Ah poetry. It was poems from the Ah poetry group and there were 55 poets in total. I had freelanced for The Hindu. I learnt typesetting at Thomson Reuters. I realised we can’t stand out unless we do something different. My co-editors and I started putting together close to 10 anthologies. Family Matters also had short stories.

by Nivy

I am the tree. The tree is me. The

lines are blur now. They were always!

We kept saying you and me. But

there’s none. Me and you are the same. We go just go by a

different name.

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.

You have contributed to the Indica anthology Shared Roots. Could you talk about your journey as a writer?

This is first time that I am writing as a part of an anthology. This topic interested me. I am passionate about history and writing about history. The story is fiction and partly nonfiction. It has been a great experience. I learnt a lot about writing fiction. Indian Knowledge Systems and Indian heritage does interest me. History has been a favourite subject.

History has been dominated by varied schools of thought. Shared roots has been an interesting way to explore this — how different schools of history deal with this subject differently. The implications of the other point of view as well as your own point of view.

Your experience in participating in the Indica India-Cambodia Anthology Shared Roots?

Around the time I saw the anthology, I had read a book on maritime sea roots and maritime heritage. In a matter of few weeks, I saw the announcement for Shared Roots. The process of writing for Shared Roots involved huge learning from Otis and Ratul Ji.

Could you talk about cultural heritage as a shared experience between nations?

The fundamental aspect of this shared cultural experience between India and Cambodia is that you don’t have to colonise or have a superior or negative culture. In this cultural transaction there was always sharing and giving and taking as equals. We had a lot take and lot to give to them. It was very harmonious, the relationship was not based on a strife or a struggle.

Which aspects of shared Indo-Cambodian culture did you explore in your short story?

I explored the maritime silk route. Along with being a trade route, it was a route for culture and traditions. The story was based on historical fact — the Cambodia king sent an envoy Chola Emperor in the 11th century.

What are the themes in your short story?

The short story is historical fiction and historical narration. The narrative is based on the political, social and cultural exchanges.

The importance of creating shared cultural narratives liked Shared Roots?

There is a close connection between India and Cambodia. And it is even more strong now.

The way forward…

I am pursuing a project to use technology to make epigraphy more effective. We have lakhs of inscriptions and I would like to explore the Cambodian inscriptions — any interesting aspects that we can explore.