On the 'write' path

Debutante author Sarita Mandanna talks to us about her book, what went into its making and the journey through her motherland 

In a tailored blue dress, writer Sarita Mandanna looks statuesque. The dress she is wearing has been designed by the same person who designed Michelle Obama’s inaugural gown. Only, hers was bought on discount, she quickly clarifies. Sarita has numbers on her mind as much as her beloved letters. She is a financial consultant, after all. Ask her how she manages being an author and knows her numbers and she laughs, “Blame it on my hardy Indian gene - the multi-tasking Indian gene.” Yet on the advance she received for her book, the highest ever paid to a debutante Indian author, and she says plainly, “Well, all that really went over my head.”

It’s quite clear that the Toronto-based author chooses wisely what enters her head, it’s much reflected in her calm and in the way she went about writing Tiger Hills, her first book. “When I started, the only thing I knew was that it would be set in Coorg, where generations of my family lived,” begins the soft-spoken author, “The germination was a burst of inspiration - Devi, the lead protagonist, was born amidst a flock of herons. Then came method - excel sheets, spread sheets, decision trees. I couldn’t let the book get to me; I couldn’t allow myself to fall in love with my book or take it too seriously. I wanted to maintain enough sense of self so as to be able to thrash my work.”

Full report here Times of India