Hi, Let me introduce myself. I’m Terry, and I’m basically going to ask you five questions about your debut novel, THE WEDDING TAMASHA. I picked the Top 5, so I’m sure you’ll be pleased.
Me: Hey, Terry! Glad to be here. By the way, I love that name 
T: Thank you! So let’s get started.
T: How did the idea for THE WEDDING TAMASHA come about?
Me: My brother was going to be married in Chennai in Dec 2015 when heavy floods hit the city. The airport was shut down, the situation was so bad that we were all very worried about the wedding. Luckily, conditions improved miraculously just a week before the wedding. And things went ahead smoothly. And I thought, What if? something had gone wrong, and everything hadn’t turned out as it had.
Once the thought of writing about a wedding in a city under floods came into my head, I also needed a protagonist who was in worse trouble than the entire wedding itself, and that’s how Shweta was born.
T: Ooh, I like how you love drama. Tell me more about Shweta? What is she like? What sort of a girl did you want her to be?
Me: Do you know how weddings are searching grounds for brides and grooms? I enjoyed playing that angle into this story. I remember an embarrassing moment when my parents were searching for a groom for me at a wedding. But that’s another story! 
Coming back to Shweta, she’s a regular Indian girl who’s torn between her own dreams and desires, and her responsibility towards her family. She’s scared as hell when her husband turns out to be abusive. She’s also hardworking, loving, feisty, and stubborn. I like my heroines to have a mind of their own. Shweta gets into many sticky situations over the course of the book, and she has to overcome her fears and weaknesses and finally come out stronger and wiser.
T: Liked your embarrassing moment there and your choice of female lead. I’m curious, do you also have a villain in this story?
Me: Of course, there’s a villain in this story. Which story works without one? Shweta’s father is the villain here because he’s against her running away, and he’s a stubborn man too and wants to send her back to her husband. And I let my villain redeem himself, as I do with all my villains, because I think every human being has that goodness inside him/her and should be given a chance to learn and apologize for their mistakes. Do read and let me know what you think of this villain 
T: I will let you know what I think! Do tell me a little about the hero, Niru.
Me: *Blush* Niru is the quintessential good-looking hero with a heart of gold and he cares for Shweta, and respects her married status even though he’s really drawn to her at the wedding. After all, she was his childhood crush. The hero also has a weakness, and you’ll have to read the book to find out what it is, if and how he overcomes it after he meets Shweta
T: I’m already interested! Max is also a really interesting character, not only because he’s Shweta’s guy friend, but also the fact that he’s gay. What’s his role in the story?
Me: Oh my gosh, I just loved Max from the time I imagined Shweta with a male roommate. As an aside, I thought it was very coincidental and serendipitous that Shweta should run away from an abusive man, and end up meeting a man, who was a victim, just like her.
Max is that cozy, close friend that Shweta can confide in, and for the amount of confusion he creates later in the story, it was just perfect that he turned out to be gay! You’ll know what I mean when you read the book.
T: Okay, I know I said five questions, but I’ll throw in two more just because I’m enjoying this little tête-à-tête so much. Why do you write?
Me: Hey, you can ask me as many questions as you like. I’m having a great time too!
There were days in the past, when I would wake up to an empty, boring and useless day. Once the kids were gone to school, I had nothing to do. It was a technical newspaper editor’s job that brought out my writing skills. I’ve enjoyed writing since a very young age, and I always loved making up stories in my head (always daydreaming), but it was only at this job, when all I had to do every day was write boring articles about technology, that I realized I really enjoyed writing—as long as it was creative. It opened a fantastic new door for me. And I’ve been writing stories ever since.
T: Aw! I’m happy that you found your calling. You’ve written short stories before and this is your first novel? How different and easy/difficult was it?
Me: To put it simply, when I worked on short stories, I always worked towards a monthly deadline, and to come up with a good story idea every month was a lot of pressure on me. On the other hand, staying with a novel, for longer, and to have all that time to understand the characters, and work on that story was a delightful experience.
Having said that, one is a sprint, the other is a marathon. So only patience and perseverance help in the long run. And that certainly goes for both forms.
T: Sure, I think you nailed that! This was a fabulous interview and I hope I get to do this with you again! Thanks for being here.
Me: Likewise, Terry! Thanks for having me.
T: Dear readers, if you have any more questions for Sudha Nair’s THE WEDDING TAMASHA, please do ask away in the comments. I’m sure my wonderful guest would be delighted to respond to them.
Me: Absolutely! Anytime!
