Interview: Siddharth Katragadda

Siddharth Katragadda was born in India. He came to America to pursue his masters degree in August 1995. He currently works as a Software Engineer for Qualcomm Inc. in San Diego, California. His first book, Dark Rooms: A Novel in Verse, was recently published (PublishAmerica, September 2002). His work has appeared in A Generation Defining Itself, Golden Thoughts, America at the Millennium and Sulekha. He is the winner of two Editor's Choice Awards awarded by the International Library of Poetry. His first novel On Bended Knee is awaiting publication, an has been published in writersmonthly.com He is currently finishing the second part of the Dark Rooms trilogy, expected to be out in 2003. He lives with his wife in San Diego, California. Visit Siddharthe's website: http://www.darkrooms.latest-info.com Interview by Terrie Leigh Relf

Terrie Relf: What is the significance of the title of Dark Rooms?

Siddharth Katragadda: The name, Dark Rooms, is the literal translation of "Cheekati Gadilu", a novel written in my mother-tongue, a South-Indian language called Telugu, by my grandfather (the famous writer mentioned in my book). He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award, one of India’s highest literary awards, and was renowned as one of the pillars of Telugu literature, famous for writing the first psychological book ever in the language. Even my great-grandfather was a famous revolutionary poet whose postal stamp was released by the Indian government. So, the writing heritage has always been there in my family. Somehow, during the lost generation mentioned in the book, there were no writers and then, today, it’s me. I’ve named the book after my grandfather’s great novel because I perceive my writing as a continuation of his spark.

TR: You have decided to donate the proceeds of the book sales to AID and CRY?

SK: Yes. The proceeds from Dark Rooms would go to the Association for India’s Development (AID) and Child Relief and You (CRY). In the past, I had not taken an active part in such good causes; so I thought there wouldn’t be a better chance than this to make up for it. What more would be more satisfying to a writer but to know that your work is aiding someone in need?

TR: What is it that you like to write about? Do you ever want to write mysteries, thrillers, romances etc?

SK: I write about the common man. I’m not easily interested with men trapped in international imbroglios nor murder mysteries nor extra-terrestrial abductions. My only interest is in telling the story of the common man. Reality is all that excites me. Once in a while, I get inspired by good psychological stories like Hannibal Lecter’s, but it is not in my voice to write books like that.

TR: How do you perceive the relationship between you and the main character, Gopal?

SK: Dark Rooms is a book that is seen through two viewpoints. First, it is Gopal’s reminiscence of bygone glory from the times when his famous father was alive and before Kaveri left him and remarried. Second, it is my own examination of Gopal’s life and the lives of his siblings, who were all doomed to fail in life after their father died.

In the book, my character is one that is both sympathetic towards Gopal as well as one that blames him for his giving life up and not becoming anyone worthy. While Gopal is blameful of Kaveri for leaving him, I take the viewpoint that it was not Kaveri’s fault. When two lives diverge without a meeting point, is there any point in staying together in a marriage? So there is that dichotomy between us. Yet, we support each other through life’s ups and downs.

TR: When you were undecided as to whether to go to America, did Gopal inspire you? I'd really like to hear about this and your views regarding the "authorial process". I believe that our characters--our writing--can assist us in working through issues, letting go of pain, and so forth. We can also solve problems through writing.

SK: Let me talk a bit about the immigrant experience. I think most Americans assume that it is the dream of every non-American to come to America. What is not known is that it is a nightmare for some. People who come from close-knit societies like India, where everyone knows everyone else, find it difficult to leave and go to a completely alien land where you are all alone, without family or friends. I came to Arlington, Texas, in the Fall of 1995, to pursue my masters degree, finding it very difficult to leave my family behind and a life that was, at that point, a very enjoyable one. I realized what I had dragged myself into only after I came to America. All the people who, till just the previous day, had a very special place in my life had vanished. My parents, my twin brother who was born with me and without whom I could never imagine life, my love (who would later become my wife) and all my friends.

And all I had was a quiet little city in Texas that had no public transportation, tall gloomy university buildings and students who looked subdued, lifeless and bent over, as though the whole world had been punished for some unknown crime. This may not be evident to the people here, but I was able to see it. Or maybe it was just because I was in such a mood where I perceived things that way. All in all, to be very honest, the two years I spent in Texas were the worst ones in my life.

Then, in 1997, I got a job in San Diego, came to this city and life sprung back in me. When I came for my interview at Qualcomm, I looked out of the plane and saw the Naval Base, with the Coronado Bridge dipping into the Pacific Ocean like a fishing rod. It was one of the most awesome sights I had ever seen and I will never forget that moment. I decided right then I was getting the job and settling down in San Diego, at least till I went back to India. I still remember the ride from the airport to the Ramada Inn in La Jolla. Everything was so colorful. That was what changed the way I thought about America.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like everything about Texas was bad. And there was no mistreatment from the people around me of any sort, no racial prejudice or undermining of any kind. Americans are one of the best people I have met. It just wasn’t the right place for me and not a good time.

I have tried to describe my first years in this country because it is something every Indian goes through, initially, and it is something most Americans don’t know about.

It is this immigrant homesickness I have tried to capture in the later stages of my book, seen through various letters that cross the oceans between Gopal, the one who inspires me to go to America, and me.

TR: I’ve never been to India, but I have known a few people from there, and of course, I’ve studied the culture—especially its philosophies—a bit. Would you please talk about some of the cultural differences between the United States and India?

SK: There are many cultural differences between America and India. There are bound to be when you take a country that is as old as civilization and a country that is modern-ness exemplified. But without going too deep into that, I think the biggest difference between the two cultures is that one has lost its innocence and the other is in the process of losing it. When I was growing up in India, the country still had a lot of innocent joys. Life was very simple. Happiness was plain. People were happy in whatever realm or profession they existed in. But things are changing fast.

TR: In your novel, Surya makes a comment about all artists being waste products of society. Do you think this character’s impressions are valid? I'd like to hear your views on the role of the arts in a society. This includes things poetic.

SK: The house in which the book is set had always drawn artists, from the times when Gopal’s father, a famous writer, was alive.

Gopal and his two friends, Surya and Yadagiri, were all artists. Gopal was a poet. Surya was an artist who drew cartoons for local periodicals. And Yadagiri, was a Bharatnatyam dancer. Surya’s off-handed remark that all artists were waste products of society stems from the fact that in India, artists are not appreciated. Art is commonplace, but the appreciation of art is narrow. Art is considered a pastime, a hobby, not a real profession. In a country where you are considered a failure in life if you are not a doctor, an engineer or a businessman by profession, an artist is someone who is scoffed upon, even looked down upon. How many artists can make it big? A handful in millions? Surya watches Yadagiri’s dance and scoffs at him out of frustration: "who will come to watch you dance?" They would rather go watch Helen, a sexy vamp of the Hindi films, shake her booty to Mehbooba.

The role of art in America and in India has to be examined through two different viewpoints. In America, an artist is a celebrity, someone superior and respected for a rare talent. In India, an artist is a waste product of society, someone who has missed the boat. So there is that dichotomy.

TR: I find this brings me to the next question. I see Dark Rooms as poetic prose. What do you see as the differences and the similarities between poetry and prose?

SK: Back in the old days, the closed form of poetry defined a particular rhyme and meter of poetry. Today, with all the free forms, the line between prose and poetry has become blurred. In my book, Dark Rooms, this disparity is blurred further, it being a novel in verse. You could call it poetic-prose or prose-poetry, but it tries to bridge the gap between prose and poetry.

Fundamentally, however, there are many differences. Poetry is more emotions-oriented whereas prose is more action-oriented. In poetry, you dissect the emotions of a character, generally your own emotions. In prose, you dissect a story or a plot. characterization, conflict, setting and dialogue play a bigger part in prose as opposed to poetry. Though I have plenty of all of these in my book, the focus is not entirely on these elements.

TR: When did you start writing? Why did you start writing?

SK: When I was in college, I had an incurable pride that I had the best English vocabulary amongst all my classmates. I thought I wrote well – especially when it came to English composition exercises. In a high school English final exam, I got 59 marks when I thought I wrote a great composition. I was heartbroken. It was much later that I learnt that good writing was not about filling a page with big words.

I always wrote since I was a teenager. But as I said previously, art in India is never encouraged as the main profession to undertake. And like all other parents, mine adamantly pushed me into an engineering profession and I went into it, half-heartedly, because I had no choice. Childhood in India is very different: a ten year old in school or a fifteen year old coming out of college has to make major life decisions that could alter the rest of his life irreparably.

Even though I went on to become an engineer, predictably, I continued writing as a hobby. Writing has been like a loyal soul mate. During various stages of life, I have also been a serious painter, an athlete and have played various sports for school and university. But writing is the one interest that survived the rest and resurfaced from time to time until I decided it was the path to take. So now, I share my time between my coerced profession and my profession of choice.

The first few years, I wrote poetry mostly, which is the one art I feel can never be leaned and has to come very early in life. Much later, I started writing short stories, none of which have seen the sight of light. Then, in 1999, I started writing my first Novel. I completed the first draft exactly a year later. The book is now in its fifth draft, I think, and I have been in the process of finding an agent for it for a while, a task that is more difficult than I ever imagined. Hopefully, it should be out in the next year or two.

TR: Did you—or do you—have any mentors?

SK: I have been influenced by a number of writers, both Indian and Non-Indian, though I think I relate more to Indian writing. I try to write with an Indian sensibility. I think the first Indian writer that comes to mind is R.K Narayan. His short story, "The Astrologer's Day", was a major influence.

It was much later in life that I read the work of another Indian Author, Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things. There were all these rumors about how her book was not worth the hype, about how many errors it had. I read the first few pages of the book and I said, "wow, this woman sure could write." When she got the Bookers, I was not surprised at all. I think what I gained from her is the use of rich metaphorical language, which is the outcome of the inherent richness of the Indian language base.

Then I read Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri and was impressed by the way the author deals with Indian characters and brings out the rawness of India. I like Chitra Bannerji, too, more for her poetry (Leaving Yuba City) and short stories (Unknown Errors of our Lives) than her Novels. Then I read a bit of Rohington Mistry (Shortlisted for the Bookers) and Jhumpa Lahiri (Pullitzer Winner) and I was amazed by these talented Indian Writers. Of course, by the time I read these authors, Dark Rooms and my first novel, Our Land, were finished books. But I did learn a lot from these authors as a writer.

As to non-Indian writers, having studied in an Anglo-Indian school, we did read a lot of works by famous Authors like O Henry and Graham Greene. These will remain with me for a lifetime.

TR: You strike me as being a philosopher.

SK: Do I? That’s another question I have to think very hard about because this has never occurred to me before. Well, I think there is a philosopher in every poet, in every writer. I have probably tried to get closer to my philosopher self through my poetry. I think the one poet who has influenced me the most in philosophical poetry is Khalil Gibran. I read his The Prophet. There is this prophet whose sermons on these various aspects influenced my writing style. Some of the poems in my book follow a similar style. Though I am the philosopher, it is through Gopal’s character that that my philosophy comes out, which fits in very nicely because Gopal’s wife had just left him and he has turned into this absolute recluse in life, sermonizing about life.

In general, the elements of philosophy that most appeal to me are religion, god, superstition, materialism, nostalgia …and these are the elements that I have tried to capture in this book. The biggest poem in the book "God and Intelligence", runs for five pages, and is my attempt at probing why it all started and where, life and religion.

TR: How did Dark Rooms come into being? I’m sure our readers would like to know its process from inception to conclusion.

SK: How did Dark Rooms come about. After I finished writing the first draft of my novel, I sent it out to a few agents and received a flurry of rejections, as fast as I was sending them out. Agents just didn’t seem interested in looking at a fresh new author with very little publishing history.

At that point, the only writing experience I had was my novel and a whole lot of poetry. I started contemplating getting my poetry published, which had been lying around collecting dust, just to get a credential in the publishing world, thinking it would help me in selling my novel to agents.

I looked at my poems and thought--all these are really scattered, they need a theme, a setting and characters to bring them all together. At the same time, I had developed a brief outline of my second novel of the trilogy and thought – why not fit these poems into that story? And that was how Dark Rooms came about – being more a story than a pure poetic form.

TR: I’d really love to hear about your writing process and practice.

SK: I generally get my poem ideas when I am in bed, getting ready to sleep, or driving to and from work. Since poetry comes out of tiny, trivial emotions, which are hard to remember, and since I tend to forget things easily, I keep a small notebook where I jot down ideas, which I then transform into writing when I get the chance. Sometimes, I wish I had a voice recorder that could convert voice to text on my computer. Call me a high-tech writer: I am one. If anyone knows of any such device, please give me a holler.

I generally write during the evenings after I come back from work, which can be difficult at times. Working as a software engineer, which is such a logic-based profession, and then switching your mind to creative writing all of a sudden, can be challenging. But I play some soothing music to get me into the mood and go from there.

TR: I understand that the idea for the novel came to you while half-asleep.

SK: Yes. Half-asleep. One day, I was planning my first novel and thinking that I should write about the things that interested me the most, which at that point was history, was romance and the immigrant experience. The story and the characters popped up all by themselves over the next five minutes or so. Suddenly, I was wide-awake, my heart racing. This book’s got to be written, I told myself and that was how my first novel came about.

TR: You mentioned other work earlier. Would you discuss it at greater length?

SK: Other than Dark Rooms, I have written the novel that I just mentioned, the title of which I am not going to mention here because it has gone through so many title changes already, I am never going to know for sure what is would ultimately be called. It is a large 500-page mainstream-genre novel that deals with the immigrant issues that I have spoken about before, but has historical perspectives related to the past of India. It is a highly philosophical novel and I am hoping it would start off a new area as far as Indian writing is concerned.

TR: I noticed your contest on the Writers Coop list. Great idea! What fun! What sort of response did you receive?

SK: Yes. I thought of the contest quite by chance. I wanted to market my book, but wanted to have fun doing it. At the same time, the publishers announced a 10-book giveaway. So I decided to giveaway one free book to the person who best completed one of my poems:

"I write poetry not to confuse or give you something of use, But to..." I did get some awesome entries and I was amazed by the amount of talent out there. The good thing was the contestants had fun taking part and I had fun being an organizer and a judge. And the book got its share of recognition.

There are many other ways to market your book. Start off by making postcards (you can make them with pre-cut stationary you get at Staples) and sending them to all your relatives, friends and contacts. Make flyers and bookmarks to give away at bookstores and other places. I even had a bunch displayed at a local Indian grocery store where they hand them to customers. Email your contacts letting them know about the release of your book. Join mailing lists that deal with your subject and mail them a short intro of your book. Have magazines and newspapers review your book (beware – newspapers are not very easy to impress). Hold events where you can sell or talk about your book. And last but not least, create a website where you can promote your book. You can visit my site to get an idea: http://www.darkrooms.latest-info.com

It’s hard work, but it is something you have to do for your book, especially when the publishing house is a small one and they haven’t set aside a plump amount for the marketing budget.

TR: Where can people find your book? Are you planning a publication party? A book signing?

SK: The book is available through all leading bookstores – Amazon, B&N, BAMM, Wal-Mart etc., though I would recommend buyers to shop at Buy.com. Regarding events, I had one recently during the Labour Day weekend. NetIP (Network of Indian Professionals) invited me to a "Meet the Author" Happy Hour event. I am also meeting with their Reading Group on Sept 21st at the Borders in Downtown. I am sure I will be holding similar events in the future at the local B&N and Borders stores and at the public libraries.

TR: What are you working on now?

SK: I am currently working on two separate trilogies simultaneously – a trilogy of verse collections and a trilogy of novels. Should keep me busy till 2010, I think.

At the moment, I am in the process of finishing the second book of the Dark Rooms Trilogy, expected to be out in 2003. There is a progression in each part of the trilogy as it follows the lives of three siblings. The first part is about Gopal. The second is about Leela, the oldest sister. And the last is about Ram, the oldest brother. This kind of progression is a vital part of writing. As Manil Suri, a mathematician and the famous author of Death of Vishnu said, "each line in a book should be like a math equation. If you use the wrong word, the entire sentence and hence the entire book would fail in reaching a correct answer. Similarly, it is important for not only lines and characters to be like math equations, but a writing career should be planned ahead of time just like an equation."

Even my first novel, yet unpublished, is also a part of a trilogy. This first attempt at fiction is about my own life. The next books in the series will each step back a generation and explore the ironies of Indian life in that generation. In other words, it is the drama of three generations played backward. So there is a progression even there.

TR: Would you like to discuss the metaphors and other symbolism?

SK: As I mentioned, Arundhati Roy whose book God of Small Things won a Bookers Award influenced me into the use of metaphors and you will see them throughout the book.

Here, I quote a few examples from Dark Rooms: "the descent of his landlord’s voice, words heaped in abuse, intermittent between sprinkles like mango-showers in mid-April"( page 19 ).

One of the most fascinating things about the book to me is the use of Kaveri, the river, as a sort of metaphor. The book is divided into three parts - the birth, the monsoon and death of Kaveri. The book follows the life of Gopal from the time when he meets Kaveri, falls in-love with her and gets married to her, through their divorce, to the time when the news of Kaveri's death, in America, comes to him while he awaits her. These three sections have been divided metaphorically into the birth, the monsoon and the death of a river. South Indian rivers dry up in summer and are replenished after the seasonal monsoons.

Here, I quote again from the book:

"Kaveri is the name of a river in south India that dries up in summer but runs free and full after the monsoon rains have come and left the air smelling of earth"( page 68 ).

Then when Kaveri decides to leave Gopal, she tells him:
"I am a river. I need to flow. If you try to stop a river, it kills the people around it"(page 69).

Most Indian languages are replete with such metaphors and Indian film songs are full of them, so we kind of grew up on them. Most Indians are well versed in three to four languages, which helps in growing the language pool. But when these foreign metaphors are translated to English, they become weak, invariably, and loose their meaning. A few people in writing groups have asked me whether I write first in a foreign language and then translate it to English. I don’t think I do this consciously, but somehow there is an Indianess in my writing.

TR: Is there an interrelationship between this style of writing and Indian philosophy and religion?

SK: Of course, my religion has a large part to play in this style. I was born a Hindu, I was a staunch believer in God till I was around fifteen and then I grew out of it. Now, I would like to think of myself as a detached atheist.

But religion is not just about God. Religion is a combination of godly beliefs and traditions. What Hinduism has given me is a truly unique culture and tradition, it has created a microcosm of values, traditions and festivals that have not only given me the discipline to remain focused on my writing but has also made my writing very colorful. Hinduism is a very colorful religion. The gods themselves are very colorful and imaginative. What else can you say of a religion that has a god with an elephant head or a lion-head and a human body? Here’s an example from Dark Rooms:

"Each room needed to be turned inside out, Like Lord Narasimha, the half-lion, half-man did by splitting his foe in half with his bare hands. I am a shrink, neither a man nor animal. I tried to invert this house, will all its dark rooms" (page 21).

Hindu festivals are full of color and light. During Diwali, the festival of light, firecrackers are burst all over the country by people in front of their own homes. During Holi, the festival of color, people go out on the streets spraying color water on each other and drinking local liquor. There is a color and festivity in every aspect of the religion, and this has led to the strong sense of color and imagery in my writing.

TR: Would you like to discuss your views on family, love, romance, and personal growth? What about dealing with demons--both literal and figurative? I'm not asking you to divulge things that may be "too personal", just in general, unless you feel the urge...We writers are open books to people sometimes, aren't we? I'm always telling people--no, that's not me. So I lie... Well, maybe just a bit. We are complicated people, no?

SK: Oh yes. I think a writer has few friends. Dark Rooms is based on my mother’s family of six siblings and a look into why their once-famous family failed. Even though it is based on my own maternal uncles and aunts, a lot of it was just my imagination. Nevertheless, it is bound to create some amount of fire and anger amongst my relatives, and we as writers have to put up with these things.

That is the biggest demon of the profession – writing out of experience that is bound to offend the person you are writing about. I like to write about life as it is – the ugly, dark sides of people included. No person is either good or bad. Everyone has a mixture of both, and if you don’t write about this, you might as well write a soap opera. Take Kaveri’s character, for example. Initially, in their marriage, she is dedicated to Gopal in the true sense of being a Hindu wife. But the idea of owning a foreign car, which is put in her mind when she sees a picture of Gopal’s father’s Moris Minor, brings out the ugly side in her. She leaves Gopal and remarries and moves to America to fulfil her dreams. It is these moments when the good side and the bad side collide that I wish to capture. I wish to clarify one thing here. Though Dark Rooms is about the failure of a family and a generation, in my opinion they did not fail. They are my biggest heroes because they have taken the brunt of a changing society to provide us, the next generation, a better life--and that is the biggest success ever!

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