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At this time, it's my pleasure to welcome Chitra back to Google again in 2010.
I first met her -- let's see, I think I walked into a class in Foothill
College where she was teaching poetry. And I studied with her for at least two quarters,
I think. The fact that she was an excellent poet, and
probably still is, has been eclipsed a little bit because she's now
much more famous as a novelist and has at least 16 books to her
credit. Not only has she completed the books, but
her books have won several awards including the American Book Award,
several PEN awards, the O. Henry and Pushcart Prizes, and two
of her novels have been filmed.
She's also a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston.
Last year when she was here, she read from her book, The Palace of
Illusions. Today, she's back with a brand new novel,
One Amazing Thing. One Amazing Thing is set in an unnamed American
city, but I noted that it was a city that has cable cars and earthquakes.
So, maybe unnamed is not exactly a complete surprise.
So this novel winds together the personal stories of individuals who have been
thrown together in unexpected circumstances. And we're going to welcome Chitra here to
describe it and read from it.
[applause]
Chitra Divakaruni: Thank you, Ross. It's a real pleasure to be back here at Google.
I enjoyed my last visit very much and I'm already enjoying this visit a
great deal. And I'm hoping that after I talk, we'll have
a conversation as well. So I'm going to be talking to you about this
new novel which has just come out, just a few days back, so you are
one of the first people that I'll be talking to about this novel.
And as you heard from Ross, it's a novel about people who are in a
life-threatening situation. A group of people, all of them strangers to
each other, go to an Indian consulate to get visas to go to India.
They all want to go to India for different reasons.
And in the beginning of the novel, we don't know why they want to go to
India, but as the novel goes on that will be revealed.
But while they are there waiting for their visas, seven of them, and
two visa office workers, a major earthquake strikes.
And now they're trapped in the basement of this building, which has
partially collapsed on them, around them. And they try very hard to get out but they
can't. And this book -- which is very different from
all of my other books, which often deal with the immigrant situation
and people from India living here or stories that are set in India
or the movement back and forth between East and West -- this one is
very different. It's a tale of surviving under really difficult
circumstances. And the way I came to write this book is quite
interesting. But before that, I wanted to say that my entire
tour for One Amazing Thing, including this event, is dedicated
to the memory of my mother who passed away recently.
My mother's name is Mrs. [INAUDIBLE] Banerjee and she always wanted to
be a writer herself but because of the time and place where she grew
up, she wasn't able to do that. In her 60s, she did write a few memoir pieces
that were published in magazines.
But she always read everything I wrote, and she was very supportive.
Now, like people, many people of her generation, my mother was not very
effusive about expressing how she felt about things.
So I would ask her, "Well, Mom, you read this book.
What did you think?" And she would generally say, "Hmmm," which
meant it was okay. But when she read "One Amazing Thing", which
she read sometime -- I was able to get her an advanced copy before she
passed away, she said, in my language Bengali, she said, "PAULOWE"(sic),
which means "not bad." So I felt that was like high praise coming
from my mother. So I'm very excited about this book.
I feel it must be my best book if my mother said that.
Anyway, but how did I come to write this book? Sometimes books begin writing themselves before
you're ready for them, and that is what happened with One Amazing
Thing. Now, although I used to live in the Bay Area
for many years and certainly experienced my share of earthquakes
while I was here, this book actually comes out of a very different
experience. I live now in Houston, and some years back,
you know when Katrina hit New Orleans, well, a lot of Katrina refugees
came to Houston. And I was volunteering in one of the centers
where we helped the refugees.
And I began to notice something interesting, which is I would be
dealing with many people who had all undergone the same experience
pretty much, and pretty much they'd lost everything. They'd lost their homes.
They'd lost, sometimes, their pets. You know, everything was gone.
But their responses were very different. Some people were very angry, some people were
very bitter, and some people were, kind of accepting of it.
And they would even you know, they were appreciative that they were
being helped. They would even joke about things.
And I began to think, well, what is it that allows people to -- when
they're all in that same life-threatening situation, when they've all
faced catastrophes, how is it that some of them can be so much more
graceful about accepting what has happened, and why can't everyone do
that? Why is that that there's this difference?
Well, just a few weeks later, another hurricane approached.
And this time it was Hurricane Rita. It was coming right at Houston.
So everyone was very nervous and the authorities evacuated us.
But as you can imagine when, you know, all that many people are all
evacuated at the same time, we all got on the freeways, but then we
weren't going anywhere. The freeways were completely jammed.
And so I was sitting on Interstate 10, with like hundreds of cars
around me, all of us not going anywhere and Rita was coming.
And fortunately, at the last minute Rita decided to take a little
detour otherwise I wouldn't be here and this book wouldn't be here
either today. But as I was experiencing all of that panic
and fear, I began to notice the same kind of responses around me.
Some people were really upset. They were angry.
They were getting into fights with each other. It was -- you know, they were like, I'm going
to survive no matter what.
And what I have to do to do it. And other people were very compassionate.
They were sharing whatever food and water they had with other people.
They were helping people who were feeling sick.
And I noticed that whole spectrum one more time.
And I started thinking, you know, I really want to explore this.
I want to write about this. Because in everyone's life, we're going to
face situations of catastrophe.
They might not be natural disasters, but we're all going to be in places
where we have no control over what happens, and we're frightened, and
you know, we're worried and we're anxious and we're scared.
And we need to know how to deal with these situations.
So here we have these nine people and they're in that situation, and at
first they begin to panic. But then they're going to find a way to deal
with where they're at because they can't get out of there.
And that becomes the story of One Amazing Thing.
So I thought I would read to you a little bit from maybe two different
sections, and then throw it open for questions. So this novel is different from my other novels,
also, in that in most of my other novels, all of the main characters
are Indian. But here, I wanted a community of many different
people of many different backgrounds.
And that's what we have here. So there are people -- so in that visa office,
all getting ready to go to India for different reasons.
There's an African-American ex-solider; there's an older white couple;
there's an old Chinese woman with her young -- with her granddaughter
who was a teenager and who is kind of punk, Goth.
And there's a Muslim-American man. There are just all kinds of people and one
of -- and what's different is they're all the main characters.
Unlike my other novels, there isn't like one protagonist or two.
Everyone is important. And what they begin doing as the novel goes
on is going to be equally important.
So I'm going to read to you a little bit from the beginning.
And in the beginning of -- here's we're in the point of view of Uma,
who is a graduate student, and she studies literature at the university,
and she's brought her book which she's been studying The Canterbury
Tales, which as you probably know, is a story set in a very different
time, but tales within tales. And she's reading that.
Okay. "And as -- and she's waiting to be called.
She came here thinking that she would be given a 9 o'clock appointment,
but 9 o'clock came, and 10 o'clock came, and 11 o'clock came -- and if
you've had any experience with bureaucratic offices, this often happens
and now it's afternoon. And there are all these other -- six other
people waiting with her. And she wants to call her boyfriend, Ramon,
to tell him where she's at because she has not -- she has not told him
where she's coming, for reasons that will be clarified later on.
So she's walking around the room trying to get reception, but she's not
getting cell phone reception. Phone to her ear, Uma took a few steps forward.
It felt good to stretch her legs. The phone gave a small burp against her ear,
but before she could check if it was working, the rumble rose through
the floor. This time there was no mistaking it's intention.
It was as though a giant had placed his mouth against the building's
foundation and roared. The floor buckled, throwing Uma to the ground.
The giant took the building in both his hands and shook it.
A chair flew across the room toward Uma. She raised her left hand to shield herself.
The chair crashed into her wrist and a pain worse than anything she had
known surged through her arm. People were screaming.
Feet ran by her, then ran back again. She tried to wedge herself beneath one of
the chairs, as she had been taught long ago in grade school, but only
her head and shoulders would fit.
The cell phone was still in her other hand, pressed against her ear.
Was that Ramon's voice asking her to leave a message or was it just her
need to hear him? Above her, the ceiling collapsed in an explosion
of plaster. Beams broke apart with the sound of gigantic
bones snapping. A light fixture shattered.
For a moment, before the electricity failed, she saw the glowing
filaments of the naked bulb. Rubble fell through the blackness, burying
her legs. Her arm was on fire.
She cradled it against her chest, a useless gesture, when she would
probably die in the next minute. Was that the sound of running water?
Was the basement they were in flooding? She thought she heard a beep.
The machine ready to record her voice. 'Ramon', she cried, her mouth full of dust.
She thought of his long meticulous fingers, how they could fix anything
she broke. She thought of the small red moles on his
chest just above the left ***.
She wanted to say something important and consoling, something for him
to remember her by. But she could think of nothing and then her
phone went dead." So the earthquake has struck and now this
whole group will be shut up in this place, things are going to get really
bad. Bits of the ceiling keep falling on them and
they think there's going to be an aftershock that will cause more of
the building to collapse. And then water starts rising in the basement,
and they're panicking and they're behaving badly towards each other
and they're fighting. And after a really bad fight, Uma says to
the others, well, we can kind of destroy ourselves this way or we can do
something more positive with our time.
And she says, why don't we tell each other -- while we're hopefully
waiting for rescue -- why don't we tell each other a story out of our
lives, something we've never told anyone. Something really important.
And everyone is kind of against this idea. You know, there're not in any mood to tell
stories. But Uma says, it's, it's really important.
It will take our minds off of what's happening and it will help us get
to know each other. Well, one of them says well, I don't have
a story to tell and then Uma says in everyone's life there's at least One
Amazing Thing. Think about what is yours.
And then slowly, people begin to tell stories. And one of the ideas that I had when I was
writing this novel is that I really believe that in all of our lives, there's
something special, something unusual, something that is amazing.
But because we're so busy with our everyday life, doing our daily
things, taking care of everyday responsibilities, we forget that we
have these things that have happened to us, that have really made us
who we are today. So it's my hope that as people read this book,
they will start thinking about what is One Amazing Thing that they
had in their lives. If they had only one story they could tell,
what would they talk about? And now I'll read to you about -- from one
of these stories, where there's a woman who works in the visa office
who is trapped here, and she's telling a story about when she was in
India. And the story will kind of tell us how she
ended up in the visa office, but I'll just read to you a little bit.
One of my challenges in writing this book was to get -- there are nine
characters, there are going to be nine different stories, and I wanted
to make sure that each story had its own voice, that you really got a
sense of the character through the story. And this character, her name is Malathi, and
her name is Malathi, and she's going to tell her story.
"When I failed tenth grade for the second time, my parents figured it
was no use wasting more money on my school fees and decided to marry me
off. I had no objections.
It was not as though I had anything else to do.
Having navigated their way through the weddings of two daughters
already, my parents knew that the local matchmaker would ask for a
photograph. If they could provide her with one in which
I looked better than normal, my chances of finding a husband, and
theirs of negotiating a smaller dowry, would be highly improved.
Though in general, thrifty and suspicious, they knew the importance of
a well-chosen investment. That is how I ended up in Miss Lola's Lovely
Ladies salon, the premier beauty shop in Coimbatore.
My mother had been to Lovely Ladies only twice, but Miss Lola knew her
right away. 'The bridal photo special, again?' She asked.
When my mother nodded, Ms. Lola looked me looked me up and down and
pronounced that I would require more work than my sisters.
My mother gave a sigh but did not disagree, and the two of them fell to
bargaining about the price of my beautification. When they had reached an agreement, Miss Lola
gave a volley of staccato instructions to the pink-uniformed girls who
worked for her, ending with, bridal special, silver level, with hair
oil. Two girls whisked me to an inner sanctum filled
with elegant women undergoing the complex and painful process of improving upon nature.
I was settled into a reclining chair and shrouded in cotton sheets.
And it was here in this moist, air conditioned room, fragrant with
astonishing and exotic substances which my naive nose was incapable of
identifying that I saw, as though illuminated by lightening, the path
of my future. Until this day, I had thought of marriage
as an inevitable destination, the only choice a girl from a middle class
Brahmin family, handicapped by respectability, had in our sleepy town
was to teach at the Street Botnaverti Girls Higher Secondary School.
But teachers were meagerly paid and resembled chewed up sticks of sugar
cane, and I had no desire to become one. I confess, sometimes from our veranda, I spied
on other kinds of women, receptionists and typists who worked for Indian
Oil or Guardbridge and waited across from our house for the company
vans to pick them up. Torn between disapproval and envy, I noted
the dresses that exposed their knees, the shoes with platform heels,
their permed hair. They wore lipstick, even in daytime, erupted
in laughter at frequent intervals, whispered prodigiously when men
in expensive cars drove by and ignored the remarks aimed their way by
lesser males. But they were Kerala Christians, members of
a forbidden, scandalous species that I could never join.
Lola's girls, though, with their perfectly arched eyebrows, glowing
skin, and pretty faces hanging over me like radiant moons, were
different. As they plucked and exfoliated and massaged
oil and pinched blackheads and slathered my cheeks with Fair and Lovely
cream, clucking soothingly when I yelped, and assuring me that the end
result would be worth it, I felt a strange kinship with them.
They camouflaged me with sufficient foundation, face powder, kohl,
lipstick, blush, and Vatika pure coconut hair oil to pass as one of
Lola's Lovely Ladies. They attached a glistening bindi to my forehead
and clipped fake diamond earrings to my ears.
They pinned a sequinned sari, kept in the salon for this very purpose,
to my upper body, since that was all the photo would show to
manufacture curves where none had existed before.
One of them ran to fetch Lola's nephew, who ran the photography
business next door, while the others demonstrated facial expressions
guaranteed to delight mothers-in-law, causing me to burst into
laughter, something I never did in the presence of strangers.
But they were no longer strangers. They had charmed me with their daring jokes,
their code words for particular beauty procedures, their gallant
laughter in the face of the drudgery that I guessed awaited them once
they stepped out of the magical perimeter of Lola's salon.
The next morning, when my mother armed me with a parasol to protect my
newly lightened skin and dispatched me to the bazaar to buy bitter
gourd, I used the money to rent an auto rickshaw. Half an hour later, I was at Lola's, begging
her to let me work for her.
Lola must have seen something, perhaps a glint of determination in my
eyes reminded her of her own younger self. Although she had a room full of clients, she
took the time to listen to my pleas.
When I finished, she asked, what's the matter? You don't want to be a bride?
To which I answered, I'd rather be a bride-maker. Lola, who had been divorced twice and thus
knew what was what, said, 'smart thinking'.
And just like that, although she hadn't really needed another employee,
I became one of Lola's girls." So Malathi's life takes a complete turn.
Her family is very against her working in a beauty salon which they
don't think is respectable, but she persists and she starts working for
Lola, and she learns all of these beauty secrets and she also meets some
very interesting people. And I'll read just a little more about one
of these characters. "Among the creme of creamatorium ladies who
frequented Lola's, the richest and most powerful was Mrs. Bonnie
Ballen, wife of an industrialist who had made his money in cement,
she visited Lola every two weeks and underwent our most expensive
regimes. In spite of the substantial tips she left,
the girls avoided her. They didn't like the way she flicked the Rupee
notes at them. Besides, she was finicky and hot-tempered,
and had been known to throw things if her treatment did not turn out the
way she had envisioned it. Only Lola was capable of handling her at such
times, and even she would pour herself a full glass of rum and Coke
after Mrs. Ballen exited the premises.
Now, contrary to all expectation, Mrs. Ballen takes a great liking to
Malathi. And she begins to ask for her.
She wants all her beauty treatments to be done by Malathi.
Mrs. Ballen talked incessantly on her cell phone.
She had perfected the art of speaking without moving her facial muscles."-- sorry, I can't
demonstrate that "-- and could thus continue to destroy reputations from under a substantive
swath of seaweed or a coating of alphahydroxy peel, thick enough
to render most women immobile.
Thanks to her, I became privy to all manner of skeletons lurking in the
closets of our fanciest mansions. Were I so inclined, I could have blackmailed
large numbers of addicted husbands, unfaithful wives, and grown offspring
with questionable *** preferences.
But we at Lola's had our code of honor." Like at this point, Mrs. Ballen has a son
that she's very fond of, her only son, and he's been studying abroad.
But at this point, he's going to come back to Coimbatore and things will
get very complicated. And Malathi's life and his life and Mrs. Ballen's
life will all get tangled .
But I'm going to stop right here and ask you if you have questions.
[PAUSE]
Questions? The last time I was here, I was here for "Palace
of Illusions", my previous novel, which is based on the Mahabharata.
And that book had just come out, it hadn't yet come out in the India at
that time, and I remember people were asking me what they thought the
Indian response to the "Palace of Illusions" would be because it takes a
sacred text, the Mahabharata. And it tells the story from a completely different
point of view, the point of view of Draupadi so it was something
different I was trying. And I was actually quite nervous at that point.
I didn't know how people in India would respond to it even though I had
stayed pretty, you know, pretty faithful to the original Mahabharata,
still, when you change the point of view, you really change the whole
meaning of the story. It's how the narrator sees the story.
So I'm very happy to report back to you that the book went on to do
very well. It was very well-received in India, and right now it's the
number one bestseller in India. And who would have thought?
I would never have guessed that.
[APPLAUSE]
Chitra Divakaruni: Thank you. Thank you.
So Ross, maybe you should start off with a question.
Ross: Since we're discussing this topic of how books[inaudible], move over from blended
cultures, you ever feel kind of pressured as been a representative of Indian culture
and [inaudible]?
Chitra Divakaruni: The question is do I ever feel pressured as a
representative of Indian culture and how do I feel about that.
I think often writers are taken to be representatives of the cultures
that they write from, especially if they're living in a place where
theirs is not the mainstream culture. But I always, always tell people that that
is an inaccurate perception. I'm just one person giving my understanding
of India, of the Indian culture.
And, you know, I have a particular set of experiences that I draw on
and maybe a particular set of things that I've read and heard about
that I draw on. But something like the culture of India is
so vast, and it's so broad and so complex, I'm sure everyone in this
audience that's of Indian origin would have their own take on India.
So mine is just one take and therefore it's -- I think it's accurate as
far as accurate and truthful as I can make it, but it's certainly not
comprehensive. And I always tell people that they should
read as many Indian voices as they can to get very different viewpoints.
So right after you read all of my books, I would recommend that you
read people like Amitav Ghosh, and Arundhati Roy, and Aravind Adiga, that you mentioned.
And Rohinton Mistry, Jhumpa Lahiri. There are just so many great voices writing
out of India right now, Suketu Mehta, wonderful fiction and non-fiction
writers, Vikram Seth, and Vikram Chandra , and they will all, I
think, provide a slightly different vision of India.
>> Who's an author you admire?
Chitra Divakaruni: Who is a writer, author,that I admire a great
deal? Well, actually one of the big influences on
my life is Maxine Hong Kingston, who is writing out of a slightly
different tradition, the Asian-American tradition.
But her book that really influenced me, "The Woman Warrior", is about her growing up as
an immigrant in this country as a child of immigrants in this country.
And I think that really influenced me when I was writing my own
immigrant stories, such as "An Arranged Marriage", and then "Unknown
Errors of Our Lives", because she was interested in the same kind of
issues, and that gave me a lot of insight as well as a kind of
permission to write about my own community. So she's been a great influence.
But really, there are such wonderful, multicultural voices in American
literature now, people like Toni Morrison writing out of the African
American culture, Cristina Garcia out of the Cuban American culture,
Louise Erdrich out of the Native American culture.
And I've learned a great deal from all of them.
I read and reread their books a lot.
>> [INAUDIBLE]
Chitra Divakaruni: The question is do I see the new technology
impacting writers and in what way. Well, first, I have to thank Google, because
really Google has made my life as a writer so much easier, so much better.
Research that used to take me days, where I would have to go to the
library, look for books, talk to the librarian, maybe order things
that would then come in. Now I can just do Google search and I have
it, so thank you to all of you at Google, please.
You have just made life a lot easier for writers and I really, really
mean it. I'm so appreciative, I'm so appreciative.
You've really changed the entire world of research, at least for me.
And I think the other things like the e-books, Kindle and Google books,
all of them, I mean I use all of those things. I think a part of me still loves the book
in book form that I can curl up with in bed on a rainy day.
There's just a kind of pleasure. And especially children's books that we read
to children, because I remember reading to children, and they'd lie
down, and they'd put their heads on my shoulder and we'd hold the book
together and we'd read it. So that has a special kind of -- that's a
special kind of experience. But in terms of quickness, convenience, making
things available to people, I think the new technologies are wonderful.
And I have used and profited from all of them. And I know, like, many of my friends, they
love their Kindles. They take them everywhere, and whereas, I'm
still, I often carry books and in fact, right now because I'm on book
tour, my suitcase is full of books.
Because every evening before I sleep I have to read something.
But they just carry their little Kindle and I have to lug all these
books around so it is a changing world and I'm always interested to
see. I'm very positive to the changes, overall.
Yes?
>> [INAUDIBLE]
Chitra Divakaruni: Oh, wow, that's a complex question.
I'll take it part by part and if I forget you'll have to remind me.
All right so "Mistress of Spices" was made into a film, and actually,
"Sister of My Heart" was also made into a film in Tamil, in India.
So, those two -- and it was a fun experience. I was only tangentially connected to them.
I was just a consultant, so they'd call me when they wanted extra
input. But it was great, you know, seeing the movies
and seeing what the -- what the directors did, which was often --
I think in the case of "Mistress of Spices", the movie ended up being
very different from the book. Sister of My Heart was much closer it became
a TV serial, so they could keep all of the detail.
Right now, three of my works have been optioned, so you all have to,
like, send positive energy to these three works.
One is the "Vine of Desire", which is, you know, the sequel to "Sister of My Heart",
has the same characters, so I'm due now in this country and it's about their immigrant
life and their complications in their relationships.
That one has been optioned, and Tabu has been chosen, the actress Tabu has been chosen to
play the main character Sudha. And so we'll have to see and a wonderful director,
who's also a great actress, Nandita Das, who many of you know,
she's been asked to be director, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I think they're moving very quickly towards production, and it will be
fun to see what happens. Then the other book that has been optioned
is my children's fantasy, magical adventure the "Conch Bearer", and
that's been optioned by an independent filmmaker here in the West, so
we'll have to see what happens.
And then the "Maid's Servant Story" which is a story out of my collection "Arranged
Marriage" about a very traditional, old family and what happens in there.
That's been optioned by Jag Mundra, so if you have seen Jag Mundra'S
films. But I'm not sure who's going to act in it.
I don't think they've decided on the actresses. So I'm excited, let's see what happens.
Sometimes people ask me, well, you know, the movie does end up very
different from the book, how do I feel about it?
But I feel just fine about it. I have a very clear understanding that the
book is my work and the movie is the director's.
You know, the movie is based on the book but it's not mine.
So you know, I don't -- I don't interfere too much in what they do.
Yes?
>> [INAUDIBLE]
Chitra Divakaruni: Right. Right.
>> [INAUDIBLE]
Chitra Divakaruni: Yes. That's a very good question.
That -- is there a cultural component to how we behave when there are
disasters? So is there, for example, in the Eastern or
Indian philosophy, a belief that so much of our life is based on destiny,
and therefore we should be more accepting?
Well, I think we do see that and I do touch on that a little bit.
Although, the Indian characters -- well, the younger ones, have grown
up in this country, so you know, they're much more Western in their
thinking. But there is a certain, the older characters
have a certain feeling that yes, this is destiny and it will work
out the way it's meant to work out.
And they're much more -- you know, they're much calmer.
And I've left it to the reader to think is that better or is that
worse. I mean, should we try really hard to change
what's around us? Or when we think it can't be changed, should
we be peaceful and accepting?
But that comes up as a theme, so it's very interesting that you should
mention it. Actually, when I was writing this book, I
did a lot of research on disasters and how people respond to disasters.
And I noticed that, for example, when the tsunami hit India, the
responses were much more accepting and fate-oriented than in Western
catastrophes. So there is that component.
Ultimately, my belief, though, is that it's personality-based.
Some people believe in that more, and some people might come from that
culture, but they're much more individualistic.
>> [INAUDIBLE]
Chitra Divakaruni: Yeah. The question, that again is an interesting
question, looking at cultural difference.
When in Mumbai, you're talking about the rain and the floods and people
were very worried they were extremely helpful towards each other.
In fact, more so than in usual times. And when I was researching, I read in a number
of places that often disasters will bring out the best in a community,
and I think this happens, especially in communities that are
more community-oriented or family-oriented, so I think that was the case
in Mumbai, where people saw the people who were suffering as part
of this larger family that they had to take care of.
And in fact, there are many really heartwarming stories of that point.
And there was very little in terms of violence or looting or anything
of that kind. In Houston, I saw both kinds.
You know, I saw people who were very kind to each other.
I remember we were all stuck on the freeway, and then we were moved off
the freeway onto the side roads in little towns, and we'd go through
towns and they'd have a sign up on their porch saying, do you need
water? Do you need to use the restroom?
Come into our house. And this is to strangers.
And on the other hand, there were people like don't come near me.
Don't even, you know, look at me. So there was this whole spectrum.
And I really think perhaps it came out of what people thought of
community. People who were very individualistic, perhaps
they were like, I'm going to survive no matter what happens to you.
And then others were like, yes, I want to survive but at what cost?
I don't want to lose my humanity in order to survive.
And that's kind of, one of the themes in "One Amazing Thing".
In the beginning, everyone here, too, is very concerned about their
personal survival, but at a certain point they begin to think, no,
we're a community. We rise or we fall together.
And they become more much concerned with everyone's welfare, which, of
course is, I think, is what we kind of need to learn as human beings, that yes, we want
to survive but not at the cost of losing our humanity.
[PAUSE]
Final questions?
>> [INAUDIBLE]
Chitra Divakaruni: The question is that if you're a writer, but you're
just starting out, you haven't been published yet, how do you get to
that point? And there is a question that comes a little
ahead, and that may be your question, too, or maybe you've passed that
stage, which is that when you have a full time demanding job but you really
want to write and you feel this desire and need to create something,
how do you do that? I mean, how do you make time to do that?
Because, you know, you have to give writing or any art if you're
serious about it, you have to give it time, you have to give it energy,
and that's -- that's a real trick. I mean, it's difficult to find time, to carve
out that time to give to your writing, so that you can research, you
can write, you can revise. You can really make the piece the best it
can be. And I think, what I tell my students often
is that we have to start prioritizing.
We have to cut some things out of our lives. And we have to save that time and put it into
our writing. And we have to create a schedule and then
stick to it, the way we stick to our work schedules we have to stick to
our writing schedules as well.
And everyone will have to decide for themselves how many hours a week,
for example, can I give to my writing? But you have to -- once you make that decision
-- you have to stick to it.
And one of the things that I discovered because it was the same with me
I was teaching full-time. I had two children, I was doing community
work. There was just a lot on my plate as well.
But I decided that well, I can cut out this and this and this and then
I have these many hours, and I'm not going to do anything else with
them. I'm going to write.
So each one, I think, we have to decide what we can give up.
All right, so now we've done that, we've given up the time and we have
a manuscript. We've shared it with some people who know
about writing, so they've given us good feedback, we've revised.
Now what do we do? Well the way it is in America, is if you are
a fiction writer particularly, have you to find an agent.
So that would be my advice to you would be to research agents.
And one good way to research is to look at the people who's writing you
like, and who you think are writing things similar to what you're
writing, and see who their agents are. And their agents will often be mentioned.
You can probably Google it and find out who their agents are or in
their books they sometimes acknowledge their agents, like I always
thank my agents in my books. And then you would go and the agents would
have websites, they'll have, you know, they'll give you pointers as to
how to submit to them and you should send stuff.
But without agents, it's very hard now in America to get your work to
be looked at seriously by good publishers. So that's what I would say.
[PAUSE]
Yes? Is that a question coming up?
>> [INAUDIBLE]
Chitra Divakaruni: What do my kids think about my writing?
Well, you know, that is an opinion in progress. Let me give you a little background on this.
All right. So I told you that I write books for children.
I have four books for children. I have one called "Victory Song", which is
a historical novel set during the Indian Independence Movement.
Then I have the "Conch Bearer Trilogy", which has the Conch Bearer,
that's book one, "The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming"; and then recently,
"Shadowland, their magical adventures". Well, when I started writing the "Conch Bearer",
it was partly in response to my boys saying, "Mom, you've got
to write a book that we can read and enjoy."
So they were very excited when I was writing "Conch Bearer".
Oh, I could not write it fast enough for them. They read it right off of my computer, and
they were tough critics, that would be like, "Mom, this is not exciting.
Change this." Or "Mom, kids don't think like this.
You're making this kid think like you. You got to change this."
So they were very helpful as critics at that point.
And also I gave the two main characters in the "Conch Bearer" their
names, Anand and Abhay and they thought that was so cool.
They were like in middle school and elementary school at that time and
they were like this is so cool. And I immediately became the favorite parent
in the household. But yes, the sequel is when they got to high
school, it was not as cool and they were like "Mom, can you not tell
people that those characters are named after us?"
But now that one of them has gone to college, well, it's kind of
getting back to being cool again to be in a book.
So who knows? This is a story in progress.
But I think overall, they're kind of excited by the fact that I do
write. Now the one who's in college is kind of excited
because some of my books are taught in college and his literature
professor knows who I am, so he's like "yeah, that's not too bad.
That's not too shabby."
[PAUSE]
>> [INAUDIBLE]
[APPLAUSE]
Chitra Divakaruni: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure talking to you and having
a conversation.