Lavanya Sankaran is the author of the novel The Hope Factory and the short story collection The Red Carpet. She lives in Bangalore, India.
Q: How did you come up with your two main characters, Anand
and Kamala?
A: Indian cities are full of exciting opportunity for those
who have dreams – but the path to realising those dreams is not easy; there are
obstacles and complications and risks.
Kamala’s life is inspired by countless women like her, who
battle extreme odds and adversity and keep their dream of educating their
children to a better future.
The crux of Anand’s story – a good, capable man, fighting to
keep his head above water – clarified for me late one night after, of all
things, a television program. I was watching a National Geographic special on
American pioneers and what it took for them to survive and succeed in such a
hostile environment – and that’s when it clicked.
I realized I was seeing something similar all about me: for
years, I had been watching people struggling to build world-class businesses in
an environment that didn’t support them in any of the crucial ways.
When a government is corrupt and inefficient and does not
deliver on its basic promises, it leaves its citizens in a fearsome, dangerous
and lonely world – and those who succeed, like those rugged pioneers, are the
exceptional individuals, hardy, uncompromising, uncomplaining.
Q: What role would you say the city of Bangalore plays in
The Hope Factory?
A: Bangalore has been the perfect muse for this particular
story. It is the classic small-city-grown-big – in huge part driven by the
dreams of all the immigrants who have flocked to it. It is the perfect
microcosm of life in urban India and works almost as a character in the story.
Q: You blend humor with some serious issues. How do you
balance the two?
A: Humour is vital to how I process my understanding of the
world. In my personal life, I have to say, my sense of humour is akin to that
of a drunken undergraduate – but employing wit and humour in storytelling,
especially in a story that carries more serious dramatic themes, is a delicate
operation and one that needs to be carefully managed.
Q: You've also written a short story collection. Do you
prefer one type of writing to the other?
A: They were both interesting and fulfilling and challenging
– and amazingly different from each other in terms of process and method.
Going forward, I find myself writing a couple of short stories, and
working on the fabric of a new novel.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I love writing; I love the process. Sure, it’s not easy –
but when it goes well, nothing feels better.
And when I’m done writing and rewriting something, when the
editing has been (finally) laid to bed – I’m amazed at how quickly the story
drifts away from my mind and I’m turning my attention to something new.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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