Enriching her literary experiences

Anuradha, a renowned Indian author has travelled extensively in India and has lived in numerous states that enrich her literary experiences. She loves this gypsy life and her stories reflect the observations that she has made from different part of the country.

Poetry writing is Anuradha’s passion and she writes prolifically. The Musings of a Wandering Mind, is her poetry anthology, which also has her long poetry, Song of Life: A poetic retelling of Mahabharatha which is Mahabharata in condensed manner, touching upon important events of Mahabharata.

Apart from the poetry anthology she is an author of two other books. “The Mysterious Widows of Mehboobpura” which is a realistic thriller and her second book, “Ayasam: Epic tale of King Gavi,” is a historical fiction, based on Saraswati valley civilisation. Anuradha’s latest book is The Essence of Draupadi which is a short story anthology and delves into the lives of women from various walks of life and how life of Draupadi, the Queen of Indraprastha, the heroine of Mahabharata helped them gain insight, inspiration is the premise of each story.

So far four of your books have got published. Can you take us on your literary journey

I have been writing poetry as well as short stories from a very long time. Being an English language facilitator, teaching poetry and prose, teaching students, appreciation of poetry, preparing the students for debates and declamation, this has been a part of my life for now more than 23 years. So writing was always part of my life but I had never thought of publishing my writings. I published my first book, The Mysterious Widows of Mehboobpura in the year 2017. That first book made me realise that I want to be a writer. For a while I repented as well, thinking why I didn’t publish before. But like the age-old adage better late than never. My writing journey as a published author has begun since then. The Mysterious Widows…. which got published in the year 2017 was a thriller, my next novel which got published in August 2020 was a historical fiction- Ayasam: The Epic Tale of King Gavi. My third book, which got published in the year 2021 titled, The Musings of a Wandering Mind is a poetry anthology of 41 poems on varied topics . The 41st poem is a long poetry on Mahabharata, and as you know the 4th book is The Essence of Draupadi.

Can you tell us about your newly released book, The Essence of Draupadi

The Essence of Draupadi is my fourth book. It is a story anthology comprising of 12 women stories. Each woman is different from other, be it her age, profession or her geographical location. But one thing is common in them, that is Draupadi. All of them have some problem in their life and all of them watch a drama of Draupadi, Mahabharata from the point of view of Draupadi. They watch it and each of them get a life lesson, answer to the problem that they are facing in their lives. They get inspired by her and solve that problem.

What prompted you to write a book about Draupadi and that too not a retelling of her life, but stories of modern women taking inspiration from her? What was the thought behind it?

Actually, a few years back I had started doing my Phd about women from Mahabharata and their impact on today’s woman. But due to some personal, unavoidable reasons I couldn’t complete my Phd. Although I had research material about the topic and I had already started writing my thesis. So the topic was continuously playing in my mind and one day I came to the conclusion that if not a Phd then I should at least write a fictional book imparting my thought that the ancient Indian women still hold influence over the modern Indian women and we can still learn and get inspired by reading about

their lives.

For doing so, there was no point in writing about their life stories. There are numerous books written about Draupadi, Gandhari, Kunti and others. But I wanted to show how their thought and their lives are still mixed with us, how these women still hold relevance in the lives of today’s Indian woman.

Women of Mahabharata were very strong. If you ask me who is the male protagonist of Mahabharata? I can’t name one. But if you ask me who is the female protagonist? Pat will come the reply from me, Draupadi. Since her character is the strongest I chose Draupadi to show the influence.

Was research involved while writing this book?

Yes, Of course as I told you earlier, I was already doing research about the ancient Indian women and specifically, women from Mahabharata. Then in the year 2020 when I wrote My third book Ayasam which is a historical fiction and is based on Saraswati valley civilisation; at that time as well, I had done a lot of research. While writing for ‘The Essence of Draupadi’ I had to do more research about Draupadi and her lesser known stories, her various names and many more such things.

But let me tell you something, the research that I have made or any writer when he does research for a book, he might end up doing a lot of research but in his/her book not all of that information is used. But it helps in understanding the character, imbuing the character inside oneself completely and then your writing becomes more layered and detailed.

Now a days everybody is writing sequels. Are you planning any book with a sequel?

Writing sequels or a series is a good idea, which many authors are exploring now a days. Sequels/ series keeps reader base engaged for a longer tenure. Plots with depth and length can be better explored in sequels. So far I have not thought of a sequel but surely a series of ‘Mysterious Widows….’might come along in a few years.