I don’t write a novel, I live with the novel. While writing a novel or short- story, my characters are all around me. I
move with them. They follow me to the bathroom, the kitchen, my classroom and when I drive making me unmindful of my surrounding. Sometimes it becomes very dangerous for me.
One day, I put my hand in boiling oil while cooking. That was when I was writing “Draupadi”. I was preparing cheese pakoras, and I poured the boiling ghee in a pot. As it simmered I got lost in Karna and Draupadi’s dialogue and I put my hand in the boiling pot. The pain was severe but that’s what writer’s do when they are in the thinking process.
Being a writer and incidentally a woman, I enjoy pain and pleasure of writing.