'Chennai is a great place for new authors,' says debut author Shribala

Chennai: Shribala, a city-based author makes her debut with Y?Me that narrates the tale of a young woman, Sindhuja who was a victim of 26/11 and her life thereafter. Shribala is a chartered accountant by day and a novelist by night. She started to plot the novel discreetly, because she was skeptical about the reaction of her friends and family. But a narration of the story to a close friend, A Sivakumar led to the completion of the novel in 2010 and she approached the publishers in 2012.

Every concept oriented novel needs a lot of research, Shribala agrees, saying, “Research was mainly on the aftermath of 26/11 as authors have written about pre-26/11 and 26/11. My focus was only on the aftermath on a commoner, and how this incident changed her life. I read a lot about common people searching the hospitals for their dear ones. I was able to visualise the anguish they would have undergone, hopping from one hospital to the other. I read medical journals on ricochet bullet wounds, entry and exit wounds, intensive care, trauma related hallucinations and nightmares. This was needed for first part of the novel,” she explains.

Shribala adds that there was no particular inspiration for her to write this novel. However, she says, “It’s the apathy of the society/government towards the common man rather than inspiration which made me write this novel. This story is about the common man’s angst. Every man at least once in his lifetime will ask Why Me? In the same way, the protagonist in the novel asks this question after being hit by a bullet for no fault of hers.”

Shribala also feels that rejections are not always the end of a story, “I was rejected many times by publishers and was in fact even humiliated by a rejection mail that wasn't addressed to me. However, I believe that at the end of every dark tunnel there is light. I was accepted by three publishers and chose to work with M/s Leadstart. My story was accepted on a peak Mumbai monsoon day, which I will always remember. However, I missed my father a lot, as he had just passed away.”

Commenting about the writing space in Chennai, she says, “Chennai is a great place for debut authors and an inspiration with its mix of traditional and at the same time modern society. However, I would say there is a disconnect between the publishers and debut authors.”

She is now working on her next novel, titled Crystal Maze which is about a tycoon’s hostile takeovers of companies. It moves back and forth between two-generations, time spans and has several characters with their intertwined secrets.