Readerswrite — and Writer’s Replies!

There’s an interesting discussion currently taking place on the Readerswrite page. Head on over to browse through the comments and my replies, and feel free to add your own thoughts to the fray.

One interesting observation: Over the years, I’ve found most readers who write in with some initial hostility do so because they have some misconceptions either about me, or the books, or even about my intentions in writing the books. Once those misconceptions are cleared up, virtually every time, those same hostile readers have gone on to become some of my best supporters, corresponding regularly by email or online comments.

So much of our world’s problems come through misunderstandings. I appreciate this feature of the internet hugely–it provides us all with a quick and easy way to communicate with one another and clear up misconceptions. Of course, it also aggravates some misunderstandings. For instance, there are very occasionally some people who write in with their own agenda or who simply want to pick a fight for no good reason at all. Unfortunately, there’s nothing much one can do to placate such individuals. But by and large, I’ve found even my harshest critics always have the same sentiments at heart as I do, and once they open their minds and realize that fact, everything goes smoothly.

For example, one angry reader wrote in to me complaining that I had no right to write about various details of Rama’s and other character’s lives as they perpetuated wrong ideas of Indian life and character. It was a simple task for me to clarify that in fact, all those details he was upset by were taken from reliable sources like Valmiki and had never been disputed for eons. But what was most amazing to me was the discovery that the person in question was not an Indian at all, but a foreigner who had never read the Ramayana before and had certain fixed notions on how Indians were, should be, and must be portrayed in any book. It was no use trying to convince him that his ideas were in error and that in fact, we Indians were quite different from what he believed–his mind was made up and nothing I said could convince him otherwise!

And then there are some fellow Indians who mistakenly assume I am a foreigner or an NRI living abroad and writing my books to earn fat advances by selling ‘exoticized’ ‘fantasy’ to foreign readers. Nothing could be farther from the truth: I am an Indian living in India all my life, I don’t even possess a passport and have (obviously) never left my country, nor felt inclined to do so, and in fact, I write purely for Indian readers and even the few foreign editions of my works that were sold against my wishes by erstwhile literary agents (whom I have since dismissed for that very reason) are disowned by me and in fact, I myself have been campaigning hard to get publishers to cease distributing those editions and return the rights to me, even if it costs me money to do so. I may not be perfect, but I certainly am Indian, and proud to be. Ironically, most of those who make these mistaken assumptions, are usually people of partial or wholly Indian origin who are living and working abroad and therefore assume that I must be like them, or a firang!

Fortunately, most of my readers, apart from these rare exceptions of misunderstanding, read my books in the spirit with which they are intended, and come to love and know these great characters intimately. By far, the good responses outweigh the bad, to the extent of ten thousand rave reviews to perhaps one or two mixed or negative ones, usually because the latter stopped reading the book after a few pages and came to wrong assumptions or never actually read the book at all.

So if you’re interested in what others have to say about my Ramayana books, head on over to the Readerswrite page and join in the healthy discussion.

Nov 16, 2007 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »