{"id":3062,"date":"2019-01-14T21:49:13","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T16:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2019-01-15T21:24:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T15:54:05","slug":"an-exclusive-interview-with-the-author-of-crime-triller-suchitra-rao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/an-exclusive-interview-with-the-author-of-crime-triller-suchitra-rao\/","title":{"rendered":"An Exclusive Interview With The Author Of Crime Thriller, Suchitra Rao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suchitra S Rao was born in Chennai, but spent her early childhood and
\neducation in Madurai. She holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Planning and
\nEntrepreneurship from the Indian Institute of Planning Management \u2013
\nChennai. Right after her education she moved on to create a successful
\ncareer in Sales & Marketing. She has immense experience of over nine years from various industries such as Insurance, Banking and Freight Forwarding. She currently works in a Logistics firm at a Middle Managerial
\nCadre. Belonging to a family of Doctors & Medical professionals who had dedicated themselves to the community for generations, Suchitra is also
\nzealous about community service.<\/p>\n

Chit Chat Session<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Briefly describe your journey until now. Have you accomplished<\/span><\/strong>
\nwhat you wanted or still have a mile to go?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I have debuted in 2017 with my first book \u2018The Highway Mafia\u2019<\/a> – acrime
\nfiction. When I became a writer I had a short-term and a long term goal.
\nThe primary short term goal of my book is to expose the macro-economic
\nand political crime \u2018Cattle Trafficking\u2019 and bring about awareness to public. I have to an extent accomplished my goals. But, I would like to take it to the next level by making the book into a movie. I am in discussion with some production houses and directors who are interested in taking this project up. I hope that the movie would reach out to masses in large. The long term goal on the other hand is to identify other such macro-economical and political crime, research and write about the same.<\/p>\n

You have rich experience in writing. Give us some tips on the \u201cart<\/strong><\/span>
\nof writing in English\u201d.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, I was fortunate to have an expensive education from Kindergarten
\nto Post graduation. So, I had the right kind of foundation and support to hone my English skills all the way through. Even as a child, I was very
\ngood in creative writing and poetry. But that is not a pre-requisite to have command over the language. My three important tips for good writing would be to read, read and read. The more you read the more new words, grammar, idioms and phrases you learn.<\/p>\n

Also, I would like to share one unique method, which I used to learn new
\nwords as a teen. I read unabridged versions of English literature, especially of the 18 th & 19th century. As English language evolved it became more colloquial in the 20 th and 21 st century. Therefore, words were simplified and lost in the process. But 18 th and 19 th century literature classics had so many new words, that I simply couldn\u2019t read it without a dictionary. This tip might help writers who are aspiring to write a book that is sound in English. This actually helped me in learning a lot of inimitable words that I have never heard before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tell us something unique about \u2018The Highway Mafia\u2019 that you would like to share\u00a0with the Audience.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I would like to share one unique fact about the characters of my book the Highway Mafia. The characters in the book have a skin tone description. This is my attempt or a silent way of protesting against \u2018skin tone
\nstereotypes\u2019. This does not mean I am advising other writers to do the same. Every author is independent to adopt their own style. However, I have personally been a victim of racism when I have been abroad or traveled abroad and at such times I always thought to myself that someday I would do some sort of contribution to the \u2018Anti Racism Campaign\u2019 in my own way, So when I started writing the book I thought I would not describe the character\u2019s skin tone. This seemed to be a challenging task, as this could fail in creating impactful characters. But I took the risk anyway in faith that if I had success then I am proving to the world beyond a doubt that we have reached or as a collective reaching a stage where \u2018skin colors don\u2019t matter anymore\u2019. My first small success in this, is that most of the readers did not notice this fact while reading the book. They loved the characters but did not notice the fact that the characters did not have a skin tone description. They were even surprised when I brought this up to them and as a matter of fact they have unanimously welcomed this idea. It is a first step to a very long journey. But, I am happy I made this decision.<\/p>\n

Why is it that Indian writers don\u2019t frequently win big awards such<\/span><\/strong>
\nas Booker\/\u00a0Nobel Prize\/ Pulitzer in Literature?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

These International awards are generally given by countries from the west. One should understand that both the cultures are poles apart. For decades, there has been a disparity in the understanding the cultures between the east and west. Historically, speaking the East has always shown a little bit more interest in learning western culture than vice versa. However, in past few decades there has been an equal zeal from people from the west to learn about eastern culture. Yoga, Kung Fu, Mandarin Chinese and many other cultural elements are getting popularized in the west. Also, with technological advancement people from the west are well- exposed to the eastern culture and are gaining a lot of knowledge in terms of eastern culture. Coming back to the question, one cannot appreciate the literature or any art forms for this matter without some basic knowledge on the Indian culture which is so vast and unique. I personally feel this is the same reason for India not bagging a lot of Oscars and Grammy award as well. May be in the years to come as west understands us better we would be seeing more of these prizes. But, that does not essentially mean that we do not produce, good books , music or movies. We have Sahitya Academy Awards for our eminent Indian writers; this award appreciates Indian writing in all Indian languages and English Language to recognize good writing. We have to be patient and continue doing what we do; it is a matter of time that we are also equally recognized in such international platforms.<\/p>\n

What is the philosophy of your life? How do you handle success<\/strong><\/span>
\nand failure?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, I have faced some very challenging situations right from a very young age that are usually way beyond my age, this has made me only stronger. While I watched most of my peers enjoying their simple and stable lives, I was constantly dealing with changes, complex situations & unsteadiness. Everything will be going on fine and suddenly I will be hit by something or the other and face an inevitable change. One point of time where I reached a all-time low moment in my life , I used to question my life path and my very own existence on this planet. But the best thing about such situations is you come out the other side highly philosophical and wise. For this reason I have been told I am more matured for my age right from my Teenage. I feel both Success and failures are not constant and for this reason I do not take success to my head and failure to my heart. When success comes I look outside and do not forget to acknowledge the people who were behind the success and when failure strikes I look inside of me to identify what in me has to be improved.<\/p>\n

Who are your real life role models?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I have quite a few, but I would like to mention that one person who has a
\nmajor influence in my life that is Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi commonly known as Bharathiyar who is a Tamil writer, Poet and feminist.
\nI have always admired him as he was one of the pioneers who advocated
\nfeminism and laid a solid foundation of a lot of women rights and privileges. As a child I loved reading his literature, which was inspiring to me. His work was imbibed in me so much that I always wanted to be his \u2018Puduma Pen\u2019 (The new age woman) in whatever field I chose to be in. I think t this date I am sticking to being one. I chose education, jobs and career that were chosen less by woman and stuck to it even at times of as a way of making it a little easier to future generations of women. Even when i came to writing a book , I wanted chose crime fiction , a genre explored
\nless by Indian women writers.<\/p>\n

How would you like to inspire the creative people wishing to\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>make their career in\u00a0the field of literature?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not a full time author, I have loved my job and learnt to multi-task.
\nBut, if I have to give an advice to Creative people who want to make it in field of literature, I feel they should stick to it amidst all challenges that
\nare going to be posed at them. A regular 9 to 5 job is not something they
\nshould settle down for as it would never give them the job satisfaction
\nthey desire. They might have some initial days of struggle, but anyone
\nwho follows a career in which they are passionate about seldom fail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suchitra S Rao was born in Chennai, but spent her early childhood and education in Madurai. She holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Planning and Entrepreneurship from the Indian Institute of Planning Management \u2013 Chennai. Right after her education she moved on to create a successful career in Sales &amp; Marketing. She has immense experience of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253],"tags":[304],"class_list":{"0":"post-3062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-authors","8":"tag-featured"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/an-exclusive-interview-with-the-author-of-crime-thriller-suchitra-rao.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Writing Geeks","author_link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/author\/writinggeeks\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/an-exclusive-interview-with-the-author-of-crime-thriller-suchitra-rao.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uhmH-No","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3062"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3083,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions\/3083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}