Spirit W | Gazing through historical lense: Author Indu Sundaresan

An Indian American writer with a passion for historical fiction, Indu Sundaresan has dedicated her works to Indian history which holds much fascination for her rather than other contemporary forms of writing. She is the author of The Twentieth Wife and The Feast of Roses as well as the recently published novel The Splendor of Silence. The Twentieth Wife tells the love story of Mehrunnisa who becomes Empress Nur Jahan and the twentieth wife of Emperor Jahangir. This won Sundaresan the Washington State Book Award in 2003. The same year, The Feast of Roses, sequel to The Twentieth Wife, was published and continued the story of Mehrunnisa and her life as an empress and the most powerful woman in the Mughal dynasty of India. Prior to The Twentieth Wife, Sundaresan has written a few short stories as well.

Indu Sundaresan who was born and brought up in India, on Air Force bases around the country has apparently inherited writing skills from her father, a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force, who too was an avid storyteller and also from her grandfather. She grew up on their stories on various themes such as Hindu mythology and fictional tales which left a deep impact on her.

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Indu Sundaresan spoke about her books ,channel EPIC’s forthcoming show ‘Malikaa’ which is inspired by her novel The Twentieth Wife and her persistent efforts and never say die attitude which led to her success.

A graduate from the University of Delaware, US, Sundaresan has two degrees; an M.S. in operations research and an M.A. in economics. But her passion for writing started much before this. “After completing my graduation and getting a degree I decided that I wanted to write novels. I wrote two novels which were shelved because they were not good enough and then I began writing ‘The Twentieth Wife’ which was my first published novel.”

Sundaresan began writing in December 1993, the time when the internet was not as functional as it is today. So when asked what kind of changes she has noticed in this span of time, she said, “Today writers have much information available  on the internet and they know how long the process is, but at that time I didn’t realize this fact and just decided to write a few novels which were not that good. But that failure was a stepping stone which taught me how to write, gave me an understanding of discipline to sit in front of the computer every day, write certain number of pages, get into the flow of the moving story and finally think about the beginning and the end of the storyline. It took me five years to find an agent and publish a novel.”

Though Sundaresan is based in US she never thought of writing contemporary fiction or something based on western lifestyle. In this regard she says, “In spite of staying in the US neither the contemporary stories nor the lifestyle interests me even today. But what does interest me is historical fiction and specifically Indian history. Indian history makes me think how these people lived their life and how it can be recreated in today’s world. This wouldn’t have worked for me if I had worked on contemporary fiction. I have written novels on the historical genre in the past.”

Though most of her novels are based on the historical frame she has to her credit only one collection of short stories viz. ‘In the Convent of Little Flowers’ set in contemporary India.

Speaking about the challenges she faced while publishing her first novel, she said, “In US you have to find an agent before a publisher to publish your novel. It is the first level where agents decide whether the novel is good enough for publishing. It took me five years to find an agent since I faced around 150 rejections from agents at that time but that did not deter me. I did not lose faith because I was focused and wanted to get my novel published.”

India’s first genre specific Hindi entertainment channel EPIC will soon be launching a tale of Mughal Empire on the television screens. It will depict its first fiction show ‘Malikaa’, a tale about the most powerful empress Mehrunissa of the Mughal Dynasty. Since the concept of this show is based upon Sundaresan’s first published novel ‘The Twentieth Wife’ we asked her how it feels when she sees her characters come alive on the television screen. To this she replied, “It’s a surreal feeling. Landing in Mumbai, talking to and meeting the cast of ‘Malikaa’ made me speechless. It was amazing to see the characters from my book alive in front of me. I am happy with the process and the casting that has been done. My experience with EPIC channel has been just marvelous and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

It is common for Bollywood to have concepts and plots that are based on various novels. If a director would want to make a film based on her novel what would her reaction be? She firmly said, “I wouldn’t mind if it’s going into good hands.  Finding the right people who understand your work and interpret your work with certain level of integrity is what matters. I just can’t give it to anyone easily as for us writers it’s our baby.”

Today Sundaresan is a confident writer and believes in living with the characters she crafts in her works. For her writing 200 pages is not a tough task but the right research, right start and right conclusion of the book holds much importance.

Sharing further about her other works she said, “I wanted to tell stories of different eras in India in my novels. My next book, titled ‘The Mountain of Light’ (Harper Collins, October 2013), will be published in US and India. This too is a historical fiction about the Kohinoor diamond and how Maharajahs Ranjit and Dalip Singh fought to secure it.  But ultimately had to surrender it after they lost the battle and how subsequently the Kohinoor was taken stealthily away to England to adorn the arm of Queen Victoria.”

Her first novel The Twentieth Wife was followed by The Feast of Roses, The Splendor of Silence, In the Convent of Little Flowers and Shadow Princess. All of her works have been published, in hardcover and paperback, in the U.S. by Pocket Books/Atria Books/Washington Square Press—imprints of Simon & Schuster. Her work has been translated into 20 languages till date.

Sundaresan is content being a writer.  She says, “I feel grateful that I am allowed to live my passion, allowed to write, allowed to publish and allowed to retell the story, in an authentic fashion. For a long time now we have lived on narratives that other people have given us and now it’s time for us to do it for ourselves in our own way, with honesty.”

“Once you write your novel, it belongs to your readers it doesn’t belong to you anymore. People interpret the book the way they want to,” concludes Indu Sundaresan.