Shabdon Ki Holi: Interview with Children's Book Author 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.
Shobhan’s latest book is the
children’s book, Shabdon Ki Holi.
For More Information
- Visit Subhash Kommuru’s website.
- Connect with Subhash on Facebook and Twitter.
- Find out more about Subhash at Goodreads.
About the Book:
Title:
Shabdon Ki Holi
Author: Subhash Kommuru
Publisher: Kommura Books
Pages: 34
Genre: Children’s
Author: Subhash Kommuru
Publisher: Kommura Books
Pages: 34
Genre: Children’s
Shabdon Ki Holi
is a funny story with bright illustrations and lively cartoon written in Hindi.
Ramesh and Suresh are two
siblings who love to blabber and find it very funny. But this holi they
experience a adventure like never before and meet entertaining creatures/jeevs
who are lot of fun but their vocabulary is very limited. See how both siblings
go from blabbering to teaching Bandhu, Pratham and his fellow creatures the
usage of words - featuring bright and fun illustrations in the backdrop of holi
festival.
For More Information
- Shabdon Ki Holi is available at Amazon.
- Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
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?
Thank you for the opportunity to present myself on your distinctive blog
and exceptional readers. Every book starts with inspiration which leads
to an idea that leads to concept and then rest follows. These first few steps
are so critical in laying solid foundation. The tough part is execution and
staying true to the concept.
I migrated to US from India
and brought with me memories of land rich in culture and beliefs. For as long
as me and my 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 or
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.
So that got me into making up
stories and morals that we have learned as kids and narrate those stories to
him. But I had to pick up a pen when he started to demand that I tell the same
stories over and over again and use same immersive words every single time. So
I decided to pick up a pen and start writing something with cultural
significance, something that he cannot learn anywhere else and put it on paper
so every time I read it will be exactly the same.
As part of my most recent
release “Shabdon Ki Holi” we bring a
festival “Holi” aka Festival of colors and mix it with a very important lesson
of using your words. It’s that interesting combination of festival and words
that colors this story fun. This is a pain that every mother out there feels
and every child growing up practices, bar none.
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?
Writing a book is not as tough as
you think as long as you have motivation matches your priorities. When you
wander from your key goal that’s when hit a rocky spot. Deep inside everyone
has a story to tell but not everyone spends time in nurturing it, understanding
their audience and most important realizing what is their goal. Sure goal can
be blockbuster, income and other such commercial priorities but that’s where
things could get complicated. Success cannot be end goal; it can be a Karma
meaning a fruit of your effort.
I feel compelled to pass on
writing tips to wannabe, not just because I want to see fellow authors succeed
but also because of my singular objective of getting more quality material for
kids out there. When you pick children’s book most of them are very good, but
you will see a common theme, they are built for commercial perspective to
please the audience and generalize them into one category. There is no
diversity in books. There is no culture, no tradition and biggest concern is
that not many of them challenge children’s intellect.
I would strongly encourage aspiring authors to plan out your
simple story. Remember life is complicated but you learn about life one simple
story at a time so don’t rush into doing too many things at once. Say if your
topic is festivals try to focus on one festival at a time and don’t get
immersed in every single detail unless you are writing a text book on them.
For instance our book Bargad,
talks about Vat Savitri rather than getting into details of festival, its
origin and other details we surround our story around this important festival
and bring home the fact the reason behind observance of such festival.
Secondly I would advise you to write something about you
care, your story has to bring some value to the table and sky is the limit
there don’t have to stick to the populous theme don’t have to restrict yourself
to what “cool kids” are thinking today. Who knows your story would be what
“cool kids” will be thinking tomorrow.
A prime example of this effort is our title “Chatur(Hindi)”. This story is very
straight forward and flow is very simple complimented by colorful illustrations
which brings home simple message speaking against greed.
Third piece of advice comes from a writer who rewrites
stories numerous times, read your own story over and over again see what needs
refinement and polishing.
For instance our book “The
Magic of Friendship (Anokhi Dosti-Hindi edition)” talks about a story where
two diverse personalities meet and their friendship brings about a change to
their environment that completely turns the events from scary to happiness.
This story when I first wrote it was simply just that with two diverse
personalities sharing their talents. When I was done with the story it turned
out to be very good, funny and entertaining, my son would laugh from beginning
to the end but I felt that there was something missing in the story, so rewrote
the flow where I start the story with a flock of geese migrating and observing
the whole story unfold, so the story is being told from a third person
perspective and I also take help from geese’s seasonal migration to bring in
generations where this story is passed from grandfather-father-son. It tied up
so nicely that the book has earned rave reviews from distinguished outlets and
very well received by every single reader.
Q: Who is your publisher and how
did you find them or did you self-publish?
Both I and my wife have
full-time jobs and our biggest inspiration for writing kids is to bring quality
material into kids market. Secondly our goal is to introduce Indian culture to
every kid out there and provide more diversity. Diversity in culture,
tradition, thought and values. Profitability is nowhere in list of our
priority. Although our tax guy keeps insisting on seeing black if not blue J
Finding a publisher feels like a
goal in and by itself. And once you do that you will lose their interest in my
first objective itself.
Self-publishing has opened up so
many doors for us. Creativity flows freely, ideas have no boundaries. It’s a
perfect definition of freedom, and direct communication with readers.
Q: Is there anything that
surprised you about getting your first book published?
First book is full of surprises.
One can imagine all they want before publishing some would get scared, some
nervous and others too proud for their own good. But once you release you come
face to face with realities. My first surprise was seeing the final product as
to how well it came out. I could never imagine that a book I published could
look this good. I am a sucker for quality all the way through and when I first
took my final book in hand there was this feeling of satisfaction and content.
And my pride kicked in when I started to read some of the reviews that is
absolutely an ego booster.
Q: What other books (if any) are
you working on and when will they be published?
I have about 10 other books in
pipeline right now. Its matter of taking out time to decide which one goes
first and when. One thing that I am struggling a lot with is getting my timing
right. For instance my first title Bargad
talks about a festival called Vat Savitri which is observed in May-June but the
book was released in December.
Similarly The Magic of
Friendship/Anokhi Dosti talks about Kojagiri which is observed in
September-October but the book was released in January. The book being about
friendship could have been better served to be released around July month also
since August 7th is observed as International Friendship Day
Shabdon Ki Holi was the first
title every that came very close to hitting the mark but it only came out a
week before the festival of Holi which is not enough time. Ideally I would
think a month before festival is the best time to grab your audience’s
attention.
So my next few titles I will try
to collaborate release a little better. My next book promises to be lot of fun
and takes me into superhero characters which given my son’s age is perfect.
Q: What’s one fact about your
book that would surprise people?
That’s a very deep question. All
of my new readers when they pick up my book they have fun in their mind, they
have engagement in their mind, they have quality in their mind, they have
culture in their mind, they have diversity in their mind. But one thing that
surprises all my readers is that diversity in our story is not a typical
diversity of culture, it covers multiple angles of diversity, it’s about
celebrating diversity of thoughts, diversity of values and prime example of
this is The Magic of friendship/Anokhi
Dosti because that book brings two of the most diverse character in front
of each other, a donkey and a fierce tiger and what happens next is pure magic
that takes readers through a fun adventure.
Similary Shabdon Ki Holi is not just about the festival Holi but it’s also
an scary but joyous adventure of two brothers which changes their personality
and outlook completely.
Q: Finally, what message (if any)
are you trying to get across with your book?
Every person hits a stage in their life, where they like to
blabber and believe that blabbering is fun. As a parent when you see your young
one engage in this it gets very frustrating not just because it is annoying but
that habit closes some channel for communication. In a tender age when their
young minds are capable of learning multiple languages seeing them wasting it
on blabbering is truly frustrating. Shabdon
Ki Holi is an attempt to express that concern for the parents. It’s a story
that every family every parent has to deal with and Shabdon Ki Holi will provide you required tool to deal with the
situation.
In Shabdon ki Holi, Nayan
Soni has done wonders for illustration. He is cartoonist and his style is fun
and casual and speaks to kid directly. This book in particular is very home for
him as far as style goes. He is characterization of Jeevs Bandhu and Pratham is
absolutely stunning and true to the nature in the story. It almost feels like
he brought his inner self to life in those characters. When you look at
expressions of each of the characters they are mind blowing.
Piyush Ranjan has edited 3 other titles for me and Shabdon
Ki Holi will be his fourth.
He does a fabulous job in bringing right content to the
story. Piyush has a command on Hindi language. I have read some of his poems
and this is in fact my 4th book with him. While my stories are
simple, keeping language simple is equally important and Piyush does a great
job of playing with simple words while conveying important message.
The end result “Shabdon
ki Holi” is sure to tickle your funny bone and at the same time bring home
a very important message.
Q: Thank you again for this
interview! Do you have any final words?
I am a parent first and then come everything else. But
before I became a parent, I was a loved son then a loving husband. So that path
reflects in my writing. I promise to write sensible stories that I can tell my
son and not worry about filtering anything while narrating story or be afraid
that he could learn some unintended lessons. For a kid, life is simple and good
is good and evil is evil. The content that I present is simple in those terms.
And all those contents come from my upbringing of a happy childhood provided by
loving and caring parents, and encouraged by a loving and caring spouse. You
can grab any of my books from Amazon or any online retailer and I guarantee you
a sensible story that you will enjoy reading to your kids and your kids will
enjoy listening to them. Find out for yourself by going to my author page on
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Subhash-Kommuru/e/B00CPT09U0/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
You will find similar experience by engaging with me on my
facebook page as well where I share contents pertaining to kids. And topics
range from nature, diversity, culture to new research on kids development. www.Facebook.com/KommuruBooks
My website is also always up to date with promotions, offers
and new releases www.KommuruBooks.com
Thank you for the opportunity to present Shabdon Ki Holi in front of your distinguished readers.
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