Hello my dear beautiful people, I hope you guys are as awesome as always. Today I’m literally over the moon because I have not only brought my favorite author but my entire family’s favorite author, Kavita Kane, The Queen of Indian Mythology herself for this Author Interview Session. Yay!!!!!
Kavita Kane is someone for whom I have immense love and respect, she is one of the top most favorite mythology writers of mine. She is the person who is responsible for making me addicted to Indian Mythology and helped me think rationally. Kavita Kane is very special to me because, my father and I, we are used to the habit of reading her books together and now it has become a custom and we enjoy doing it the most.
Kavita Kané is a former journalist and the bestselling author of five books. She is considered a revolutionary force in Indian writing because she has brought in feminism where it is most needed—mythology. Her five novels are all based on women in Indian mythology: Karna’s Wife (2013); Sita’s Sister (2014), on Ramayana’s most neglected character, Urmila; Menaka’s Choice (2015), on the apsara, Menaka; Lanka’s Princess (2016), on the female antagonist in the Ramayana, Surpanakha; and The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty (2017) on Satyavati, the grand matriarch in the Mahabharata.
After a career of over two decades in Magna and DNA, Kavita quit her job as assistant editor of Times of India to devote herself to writing novels full-time. With a post-graduate degree in English literature as well as in journalism and mass communication, the only skill she has, she confesses, is writing. Passionate about theatre, cinema and art, she is also a columnist, a screenplay writer and a motivational speaker, having given several talks all across the country in educational and research institutes, corporate and management fora and literary festivals. Born in Mumbai, with a childhood spent largely in Patna and Delhi, she currently lives in Pune with her mariner husband, Prakash, their two daughters, Kimaya and Amiya, two dogs, Chic and Beau, and Cotton, the uncurious cat.
Hello Ma’am, Welcome to Nerdy Bookarazzi, I’m so happy to have you here, I could say this is the best of day my life. Thank you so very much for accepting to do this session with me right away, never in a million years I thought this would be happening, I’m extremely thrilled and excited to do this Author Interview session with you. Now let’s get into the Q&A session without any further ado.
My first question for you is, when did you first realized you wanted to become an author and what made you write mythological fiction ?
It wasn’t planned but like most journalists, I wished to write a book. But I preferred fiction and I chose to write a novel in the mythology genre as I liked it as a creative canvas for contemporary thoughts.
How did mythology came into your life ? Who introduced it to you ?
Hindu Mythology as a child was introduced through tales told by my grandmother and Amar Chitra Kathas. Later while studying literature, I got interested in mythology as a subject. That’s probably why this was the genre which I was most comfortable with.
There are many authors who are writing mythological fiction but they all seem to be focusing on the mainstream stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata and many other, but you are the only author who brings about the stories of the most ignored and neglected characters of the epics into life. How do you select these characters and why do you feel it’s important to talk about these characters and their stories ?
The spotlight of marginalised and minor characters can change the narrative. You can see them, hear them, give them a voice to tell their version of the same story.
When it comes to mythology, females characters are almost forgotten, after all everyone is interested only on the tales of male characters like Krishna, Ram and Arjun. We are always trained to wait for the hero to come and save the day. But in the case of female characters like Draupadi or Sita, it’s all about protecting them like they are some weak species. So what do you think about this mind set ? Do you think this mind set has changed over the years and has the status of women improved in today’s world?
Yes there are new paradigm for woman’s consciousness. Women are marginalized at every level of the society, trapped in repressive institutions by patriarchal domination and misogynistic assumptions. The male perspective is more dominating. But now the social attitude is revamped and archetypes changed definition too. There is a certain individualism with all the consequent political and social reorientations. There is more collective tone emphasizing the sovereignty of women.
Of all the characters you have written who is your most favorite character and who is your least favorite and tell us why ?
Urmila is my favourite because she was initially my first choice to write my debut book. There’s no least liked protagonist, I love them all because they are all so diverse, different, fascinating and complex women who fought their battles with courage, conviction and dignity.
As a woman, as a writer of woman centric novels and a mother of two daughters. What do you like to tell to the women and the girls out there ?
What I said before – live, learn and fight with courage, conviction and dignity.
There are few people who get really offended when they come across interpretations of epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. They aren’t very happy about the idea of bringing some improvisation or logically approaching an issues in the epic, so they tend to protest and condemn against it. But you as an author have always been honest and straight forward with your writing, you don’t butter up anything and that’s extremely brave of you and that’s something I really like about you. Has this condemning and protesting fashion affected your work in anyway ? And what do you think about it ?
I believe readers are mature and discerning to know the difference between fact, fiction, fantasy and falsity.
I know your friend Niloufer Wadia is designing all your cover pages. I have been following her on Instagram for quite sometime and I have to say this, her sketches are absolutely unique and beautiful. So my question is, do you give full liberty to her while designing the cover or you’re very specific about every tiny-winy things ?
We always discuss the concept and visualisation. After that it’s all upto her!
Oh my god, I really have to talk about your dialogue writing skills, they are the best I have ever read. If you take Uruvi or Ahalya for instance, they are bold, damn smart, sharp to the point and has so much clarity in their life, I love the way they talk outsmarting everybody. Especially Uruvi, she questioned everybody including Kunti, Krishna, Bhishma without hesitating. Actually she voiced out all the doubts I had in my mind about Mahabharata. How do you do that ? How do you write these dialogues so perfectly ?
Dialogues are conversations between characters and part of the plot and structure adding the needed flow. They can be dramatic, smooth, disjointed, actually reflecting the mood and manner of the characters.
Your books shed lights on the well known epics from a completely different angle. How do you make that possible ?
It’s not looking mainstream but at all those smaller chic and incidents that populate the epics. They may be minor characters but have huge impact.
Finally how do you feel about this interview session ?
Thoroughly enjoyed the interview. Thanks. And best wishes.
Thank you so much once again, I really enjoyed doing this session with you.
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Get in touch with the author :
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My Book Review of Karna’s wife – The Outcast Queen by Kavita Kane
I know you guys enjoyed this Author Interview session as we did. I hope it helped you know about your favorite author in detail.
Thank you all!
Stay Tuned for much more awesome stuffs.
Until next time,
~ Meenu
