Short Story– It’s Not Me, It’s You

Last March (2011), Everyday Fiction published my short – It’s Not You, It’s Me. It’s a story about a failing marriage and, ironically, was written when I felt the sunniest. Weird how the stories come. Maybe they really do have a life of their own and they come out when they are ready, irrespective of how I feel. I wonder if that’s true for other writers/artists as well.

WARNING: The story contains some sexual description and mature themes.

Here is a link to the story and below is an excerpt:

“In Thirunelveli this summer we did nothing but visit your relatives and eat. Every meal was the same: white rice, brown kozambu. Your mother’s sarees were all soft, old and cottony but she insisted that I wear stiff Kanjeevaram silks all summer-day long. She thrust them at me, mute, her lips set in a straight line and then turned around to throw mouthfuls of strange words at you.”

Short Story, ‘Eating Dirt’

Short Story, ‘Eating Dirt’

Once upon a time… no seriously, once upon a time, I had time to do things like write short stories and send them to a thousand magazines. So last year, I wrote this little story about a young Indian child in America who is bullied during lunch hour because her food looks and smells so different…. Click on the link to go read the story at ‘Reading Hour’ Magazine’s website. It originally appeared in their print edition in March 2011. 

The Kuru Chronicles gets more press!

It’s been a ridiculous month and a half. I moved to NY, started school, started work and I still have ALL my writing projects. I’ve been stressing like a champion so it was freaking awesome to wake up this morning to see that KURU GOT PRESS!!

Here‘s an interview with Ari by Platform Magazine.

And here’s a blog post at deepad. Scroll down a ways to see the bit about Kuru Chronicles. The funniest part is when the author refers to me as (lady author!). Ha ha.

Thanks to both Platform and Deepad for the props. This is the kind of stuff that keeps us going when we’re stuck in a dark room filled with ink.

Review: The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar

New Review! This time, it’s not a graphic novel. It’s a regular book with no pictures even! O_0

This time, I reviewed Thrity Umrigar‘s The World We Found. Umrigar teaches Creative Writing at Case Western University and has written six books so far. The World We Found was just released. I’ve never read any of her other books, so if any of you have- let me know which ones you liked best.

 

Below is an excerpt and click here for the full review.

“In late 1970, Armaiti, Nishta, Laleh and Kavita were best friends in college. They were rebellious, free spirited young women with a taste for political activism. Fast forward thirty years and they have all drifted apart. Laleh and Nishta marry their college sweethearts, Armaiti moves to America and marries an American, while Kavita, a successful architect, is a closeted lesbian. Once inseparable, they now live lives dominated not by political activism, but by the more urgent and delicate responsibilities of marriage, family and work. Yet Armaiti notes in her internal dialogue, “The four years of college now seemed to have gone by too quickly. There was no real explanation for why she had not stayed in closer touch after leaving for the US. Unless it was this: coming to America itself was a kind of defeat — the inaudible admission that their days as young radicals had drawn to a close.” “

Review – Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary

New review! This time I had a chance to read Keshni Kashyap‘s witty comic ‘Tina’s Mouth- an Existential Comic Diary‘. It’s about an Indian-American high school student whose English project is to keep a diary on existentialism.

I went to some pretty straight forward schools in India where all we did was sit and listen to our teachers read aloud from textbooks. It was only until I moved to Madras and went to Sishya that I was in a school where teachers worked really hard to engage us. Point being, I really like how in this book the teacher tries to engage his students by creating innovative projects.

I mean existentialism is a pretty heavy topic.

My first encounter with it was when I was read Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, which is basically a book about a young girl who starts receiving mysterious postcards from an anonymous source. The first one simply asks, ‘Who are you?’ The book then sees Sophie pretty much take a whirlwind tour of the history of philosophy. Her anonymous source is a philosopher called Albert Knox (whom she doesn’t meet or know anything about yet) and he acts as her philosophy tutor teaching her about all the great philosophers from Plato to Descartes and Kierkegaard. It was very engaging and to me, at the time 17, pretty mind-blowing. The climax- about the nature of reality, gave me goosebumps.

I’m not sure how much I would like the book as an adult though and that’s the same way I felt about Tina’s Mouth. I think, though, that teenagers would like it. The book greatest strength is Kashyap’s writing.

Here’s an excerpt of my review.

“Fifteen-year-old Tina Malhotra’s life is thrown for a loop when her best friend since kindergarten, Alex, deserts her and starts hanging out with the popular kids. Alone but defiant, Tina chooses to spend her time on her existentialist diary — a project created by her teacher for his English class. Spouting wisdom straight from Jean Paul Sartre’s books, Tina attempts to navigate high school and life using Sartre as inspiration, mentor, and friend. Although Tina is certain that she is not like any of the other teenagers in her school, the existentialist project does spur her on a journey of self discovery. Interestingly, this self-discovery revolves around the one obsession that she does share with all the other teenage girls in her school: the hallowed, mysterious and magical first kiss. Or, in Tina’s case, the lack of one.”

Click here to read the full review at Hyphen Magazine.

Bangalore Mirror covers The Kuru Chronicles

If you’ve looked at the art for The Kuru Chronicles, you already know it’s not the kind of art you’d expect to see in a graphic novel. Adding a little more to the unexpectedness of our graphic novel, may I present- the music.

Yep. We have music. We have a band. They’re called the Kuru Circus and they create these completely eerie soundscapes based on our storyline. The one embedded is a song called Nasadiya – inspired from the Rig Veda‘s Creation Hymn called Nasadiya.

Want more? Check out Ari’s YouTube page.

Okay, so getting back to the title of this post: Prashant Vidyasagar of Bangalore Mirror managed to hold Ari down long enough to talk about The Kuru Chronicles,  Kuru Circus (the band!) and his artwork.

Below is an excerpt. Click here to read the full article.

“The Kuru Chronicles is a novellascape set in a dystopian Calcutta (of the future).  The novel was inspired by the city of Calcutta where Ari has spent the last couple of years, the spiritual concepts of the Vedas, the left-hand path of the Aghoris and various other cinematic, musical and visual influences that he has had over the years.”

I’m pretty excited about all the buzz being generated while I sit in my little Berkshire cave typing away.

Kuru Chronicles Update!

The Kuru Chronicles i.e. the graphic novel that I’ve been working on for a while now, launches at Indian Comic Con 2012 at Dilli Haat, New Delhi on Feb 17, 2012!!! The book is to be self published under The Kuru Press banner.

The official website thekuruchronicles.com comes out Christmas time and prints/pre release book orders can be done through the site. Home delivery availability will be from flipkart.com and Amazon.com for international buyers.

Exclusive first look at panels from the novel will be uploaded soon….Starting Dec 15th bookings for a special signed hardcover edition can be made by contacting me. This’ll be a limited collectors edition for 300 copies. The price for the limited harcover edition is Rs.800 and the book runs into 250 pages. Delivery for all the hardcover editions is the first week of February 2012.

AND PS: The Kuru Chronicles is suggested for mature readers as it involves graphic violence, strong sexual content and other material which may not be suitable for readers under the age of 18.

The Kuru team would like to thank you all for all your support and encouragement throughout this long and fulfilling year.

Support Kuru!!

Support underground independent art!!!

‘Misrepresentation’- a documentary on the portrayal of women as ‘bitches and ditzes’

I’ve been on a TED|Talks Trip!

December 1 was the TEDxWomen event and I happened to attend a live webcast at TEDxBerkshires hosted at the gorgeous Winthrop Estate in Lenox.

There were several inspiring, amazing and heart-breaking stories but the one I’m posting about today is a documentary called Misrepresentation by  Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

While I’m a champion of women using their bodies in any damn way we please, Misrepresentation really got me thinking. About all the things we, as girls/women, think we can/cannot do. I’m not against the sexualisation of women per se but I agree with the film-maker that there is definitely a need for a more balanced portrayal of women in the media.

As Ariella, a young high school student interviewed in the film says, “There is no appreciation for women intellectuals. It’s all about the body. Not about the brain.”

Watch the trailer below.

Gokul Gopalakrishnan dissects Indian graphic novels

My friend and comics author, illustrator and researcher Gokul Gopalakrishnan dissects the Indian graphic novels and comics scene  in an article for Fountain Ink Magazine. Gokul also draws and illustrates Small Talk and As the City Is for New Indian Express and DNA.

Written for Fountain Ink, Gokul’s article forces us to take off our rose-tinted glasses and look at the industry as it truly is and where it’s headed. It’s refreshingly honest and at a time when everyone else is gushing about the quantity of publications, Gokul’s focus remains on quality.

When he first began writing this article, we had a couple of conversations about it; about the direction the industry is headed and what we, as creatives, are doing to help shape it. Click here to read his article and below is an excerpt:

“To put it bluntly, Bhimayana and Tara Books’ I See the Promised Land, a biography of Martin Luther King illustrated by Patua artists of Bengal, are perfect examples of how marrying traditional Indian art style to a post-industrial art form like comics doesn’t necessarily deliver quality graphic narratives.

If at one end of the graphic novel spectrum in India are the mainstream publishers who are more or less content with a set of established names, and superficial thematic and stylistic “innovations” the other end is populated by a group of independent smaller comics publishers who have gleefully dropped anchor at the superhero-mythology genre bay.”

I’m quoted in it, by the way. It’s just one tiny little line but Gokul and I talked about the article for a few days and I’m glad that that one line is the one he chose to use.

Call for submissions from Manta Ray

Manta Ray, creators of the comic Hush (for which I interviewed them here), have put out a submissions call!

If you have a stellar idea for a single-page comic on contemporary issues, scribble it up and send it off to the Ray. If you’re like me and can’t draw, you can send them a written pitch and they’ll pair you with an illustrator. If you can draw- well, then go draw it!

Click here for submission guidelines and all that fun stuff.