Interview with Subhash Kommuru – Writing is About Focus
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| Subhash & Sujata Kommuru |
About
Sujata & Subhash Kommuru
Subhash and
Sujata hail from India. They migrated to the United States along with their
memories of childhood and youth. Now that they are parents, just like every
immigrant they crave to introduce their child to the culture and values of
their upbringing. Yet it is challenging to teach something while you are in the
midst of adjusting to a different culture yourself. Subhash and Sujata both
work in different disciplines and have different styles and backgrounds, but it
is the upbringing of their son that brings them on the same page. That exact
place where they meet is captured and reflected in their stories, where Subhash
can express in words, and Sujata can illustrate them beautifully. Where he puts
it in black and white, she adds color to it. You get the idea! These stories
are their attempt to share a glimpse of their childhood days with their son. He
is their inspiration to write short stories that have meaning to them and
provide teaching in some shape or form.
About
Chatur
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| Chatur Book Tour |
CHATUR is a
hilarious and entertaining picture book written in Hindi (also with Hindi
phonetics) for kids.
CHATUR is a wise laundry man. MAND is a loyal,
reliable, albeit sluggish, partner in Chatur’s trade. He is a lazy donkey whose
mantra is “Na Na Na hum to aaram karenge!”
Chatur’s ambition and Mand’s attitude doesn’t blend
well. So Chatur comes up with a wise plan to reverse his fortune. He brings
ATAL the elephant to do Mand’s job.The plan starts out well and it did reverse his
fortune substantially, but How?
Read
Chatur(Hindi) a comical and fun read for kids. It is sure to tickle your funny
bones. Bright illustrations are sure to engage readers. Chatur has a
humorous theme with a subtle message and young readers not only have a laugh,
but towards the end connect with each character and sympathize with them.
The book is written in Hindi script and also in
Hindi phonetics to make it easy for everyone to read
Book Excerpt
Hindi:
Yeh
kahani hai Chatur dhobhi aur mand gadha ki. Aalsi Mand ka naara hai "NaNa
hum to aaram karenge" aur Chatur ki nazar sirf taraki par hai. Jab Mand ka
tevar chatur ko khatakne laga, to usne dikhai apni chaturai. Kya chatur ko apni
chaturai mehnga padega?
English:
This
is a story about Chatur, the Dhobhi and Mand the donkey. Chatur is smart and
progressive by nature and his Lazy donkey Mand's answer to any request was
"No No No, I gotta take it easy". Chatur realized that his success is
limited by Mand's attitude, So Chatur thought of a smart idea, will it work or
will it hit him back?
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Q:
Welcome to The Writer's Life! Now that your book has been published, we’d
love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take
us at the beginning? Where did you come up with the idea to write your
book?
A:
Thank for your giving me the opportunity to share my opinion on your
distinctive blog and exceptional readers and besides all the other great
authors visiting here. I migrated to US from India and brought with me memories
of land rich in culture and beliefs. For as long as me and wife were by
ourselves we never took a moment to think about our cultural heritage and our
values. But once we had Arya, our son, our perspective changed. He was growing
up fast and seeing American culture all around him. That’s when we realized
that there is a treasure called “India” which he is not exposed to and will
never get to know unless we do something about this. Sure we can take him to
local gatherings, temples, celebrate one of two festivals but that simply is
not enough. Kids learn a lot from many different channels, One of those most
effective channel is books. For Arya any time is story time, no matter how sad
or how mad he is a book can always come to rescue.
Q:
How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you
could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?
A:
I adapted to writing for my son. He is
my inspiration so I got a head start when it comes to picking a subject. I knew
what the focus should be and the quality of content was known to me upfront. I
guess that would be my advice to channel your focus in one direction and find
out why you want to write about something. If you know the reason for why, then
how becomes much easier.
Q:
What other books (if any) are you working on and when will they be published?
A: My stories are always related to Indian
culture in some shape or form with an end objective or take away for kids. One
thing I am not quite getting it right is the timing of my story. My most recent
book “Mother’s love can conquer any fear!” should have released closer to
mother’s day. The core message celebrates a mother’s love that knows no
boundaries. This story is set in a happy chicken farm with Shastriji an old
sage chicken being at the center stage. All the other chickens looked up to him
for advice and help. He was helpless when it came to Kaalia the vile crow and
the problems he brought with him. Shastriji tried everything his wisdom and
knowledge taught him but couldn’t rid happy farm from evil. That’s when a
mother’s love achieves a feat to defeat tyranny. Despite a vile crow and failing
effort of chickens the story is very funny to its core.
Q:
Finally, what message (if any) are you trying to get across with your book?
A: Diversity is the core of all my books. Coming
from a diverse land myself, I value diversity a lot. I feel like diversity is
more than culture; its characteristics, its behavior and how humans interact.
It’s an interesting concept. Take ‘The Magic of friendship’ for example, two
very diverse character Babbar, the fierce and mean tiger and Hasmukh, the funny
and entertaining donkey. What can such diverse character bring in a story? If
you read the book you will understand they will not only bring entertainment
but it will change their and also your lives forever.
Q:
Thank you again for this interview! Do you have any final words?
A: For a children’s book author it’s very
important to be clear and concise, you cannot assume, everything needs to be
explained so it’s best to stick to basics and use that as a launching pad. One
thing to remember is the kids pick up on smallest of the details so don’t cut
any shortcuts and keep it clean.
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