Ask the Author: Leena Varghese
Answered Questions (11)
Leena Varghese
You have answered your own question, Ravi;-) I will just add to it by saying that, no, there are no perfect people or situations. We just look at them through the eyes of affection. As is the case with doting parents or indulgent lovers. However, the veneer of perfection slips away over a period of time as we get to know the object of our affection better. If the love is deep enough we compromise and live on and find joy in each other's uniqueness. It stands true for all our relationships. For me, perfection does not exist. I like the little imperfections that make people, unique, human and relatable.
Leena Varghese
Dear Megha,
It's a question I have asked myself many times. It's a common trope and quite popular in the genre of romance. Traditionally, a virgin is a symbol of purity and goodness. You will find it in both literature and popular fiction. A player is a symbol of experience (could be good or bad). In most traditional stories, including romances, wherever there is a happy ending it has to be good overcoming evil. Hence the virgin finally gets to tame the player. It is perhaps, in my humble opinion, the collective unconscious desire to have a happy ending where good wins the battle. It is more of a metaphor than anything else.
Perhaps, I am old-fashioned, so many people may disagree with me. I cannot speak for others but I can only write what I am convinced about. I don't think it is OK for anyone to sleep around. Neither men nor women. For me it is more of a spiritual connection than a basic need. I think it takes a lot to be a man of courage and conviction and commitment. In the long run it is a good, honest man who wins my approval, not a player.
So my heroes are usually strong, sensitive men who respect a woman and are fiercely loyal. And my heroines are usually independent, strong characters who stand by their values and not easily broken. Of course, there would be passion and weaknesses and flaws too. Those layers and multi-dimensional characterization adds to the story. For me, as a writer, it cannot be as simple as the virgin and the player. My stories have to be more than that.
It's a question I have asked myself many times. It's a common trope and quite popular in the genre of romance. Traditionally, a virgin is a symbol of purity and goodness. You will find it in both literature and popular fiction. A player is a symbol of experience (could be good or bad). In most traditional stories, including romances, wherever there is a happy ending it has to be good overcoming evil. Hence the virgin finally gets to tame the player. It is perhaps, in my humble opinion, the collective unconscious desire to have a happy ending where good wins the battle. It is more of a metaphor than anything else.
Perhaps, I am old-fashioned, so many people may disagree with me. I cannot speak for others but I can only write what I am convinced about. I don't think it is OK for anyone to sleep around. Neither men nor women. For me it is more of a spiritual connection than a basic need. I think it takes a lot to be a man of courage and conviction and commitment. In the long run it is a good, honest man who wins my approval, not a player.
So my heroes are usually strong, sensitive men who respect a woman and are fiercely loyal. And my heroines are usually independent, strong characters who stand by their values and not easily broken. Of course, there would be passion and weaknesses and flaws too. Those layers and multi-dimensional characterization adds to the story. For me, as a writer, it cannot be as simple as the virgin and the player. My stories have to be more than that.
Leena Varghese
A Perfect Mismatch is about two strong protagonists with both the hero and heroine avoiding each other in spite of the attraction they feel. Yes, it has the virgin heroine trope. The hero is more a cynic than a player. There are layers to both the characters, so I can't really put them in a trope box ;-)
Leena Varghese
Ah, Ravi, you are asking me to choose between my children ;-) However, since you are fond of the thriller genre, you should read A Silver Dawn first. It's a romantic suspense and has many elements that you might like.
Leena Varghese
I understand that, Ravi! For me, it was never about having an audience. It's a fickle world. Sometimes with you, sometimes against you. It was always about the blessings called opportunities, or rather, being allowed to do what I love to do, being allowed to be me.
It's an uphill task...always.
I believe that this journey itself is about self-discovery, to find out who I am, and what I am capable of being. My umbrella has been pretty tatty of late ;-) So I am thinking of enjoying the pouring rain until I get my custom made raincoat ready ;-) No guarantees there...
Hope this does not sound too weird! Do watch the song Singing in the Rain by the one and only Gene Kelly, if you are fond of music. It's the ultimate in happy rain songs;-)
It's an uphill task...always.
I believe that this journey itself is about self-discovery, to find out who I am, and what I am capable of being. My umbrella has been pretty tatty of late ;-) So I am thinking of enjoying the pouring rain until I get my custom made raincoat ready ;-) No guarantees there...
Hope this does not sound too weird! Do watch the song Singing in the Rain by the one and only Gene Kelly, if you are fond of music. It's the ultimate in happy rain songs;-)
Leena Varghese
As she eagerly awaited her bridegroom in the bridal chamber adorned with blue silk the shade of lapis lazuli, the ebony wardrobe in the dark corner beckoned her. The doors fell ajar beneath her trembling fingers to reveal a line of wedding dresses in all sizes...shredded and blood stained.
Leena Varghese
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
This viscerally disturbing, but astoundingly profound book came out after the world had witnessed Nazi pogroms and atomic bomb destruction.
However I only have to look out of my window and see a bunch of shrieking kids, playing football to know that the themes of group dynamics, absolute power, blind prejudice, hatred and violence are intertwined together. The book is as relevant today, if not more, as it was then. Nothing has changed. The Beast is thriving. And his games are not a child’s play. I see it displayed in newspapers and TV channels every day. Awful things that are revealed in lurid details and even things that no one can afford to reveal, if you read between the lines.
I read this book in college as part of my curriculum. I could not love it. But I could not avoid thinking obsessively about it either. We can’t love things which compel us to question ourselves too deeply. And Golding wrings out questions from us and the story has been doing that ever since. I don’t think I can read this book again. It is too dark. Especially now that I have children of my own.
The Lord of the Flies questions power equations between the ever-clashing, opposing forces of good and evil. How quickly the bunch of children stranded on an island metamorphose from civilized little humans, raised by an organized, law-abiding civilization, into violent clans who hunt down the younger kids as coolly as hunting the pigs on the island. For many of them it is just a silly game until rescue arrives. How easily aggression becomes a tool to control the physically and intellectually weak. How the flimsy veneer of civilized behaviour is peeled away and discarded when it comes to greed for absolute power. By the end of the book, three children are already hunted down and murdered in cold blood by their own peers.
Children are called innocent. (Even now I still love them more than I love the adults in my life) But are they truly innocent or are they the real face of our society, stripped of controlled behaviour. What is true innocence? Ralph mourns the destruction of innocence at the end of the book. But I see jealousy and sibling rivalry even among babes. Does it stem from a desire for the best resources that the parents provide, namely, food and shelter and affection? Or is it merely survival instinct?
On a larger scale, the desire for ultimate power and complete control over material and human resources, still leads man to commit the most heinous crimes against entire communities and even nations.
Nothing has changed since the primordial times. I see the Beast gaining power, in the eyes of a rampaging mob that lynches helpless victims during a religious or ethnic cleansing that leaves behind millions dead and the women and children raped and butchered or sold for a price. The Beast grins obscenely at me when I hear of terrible college ragging and bullying of vulnerable targets in school corridors and even behind closed bedroom doors.
The book clearly gives a message that until we cast aside violence and prejudice we can never hope to evolve into a more compassionate and empathetic species who live in harmony with the others.
The Beast is here. Inside us. Inside me.
So I would want to step into The Lord of the Flies, and ask a few vital questions to Simon, the epileptic boy, the only voice of reason and wisdom in the story. I wept when I helplessly watched him die. I wanted to scream and shout for help. Simon is so young and vulnerable and yet he holds the most powerful, life-affirming knowledge about us. He sees things clearly. It makes him different from others. I empathize with that. He is too different to be acceptable. I empathize with that too as many of us would. He tries hard to tell everyone the truth about the Beast but is brutally killed in mindless hatred.
The questions I want to ask him would be-Does wisdom make a man weak or strong? Does it bind our instinctive responses, making us vulnerable to the marauding mob? How do we deal with the Beast who becomes more and more powerful every day?
This viscerally disturbing, but astoundingly profound book came out after the world had witnessed Nazi pogroms and atomic bomb destruction.
However I only have to look out of my window and see a bunch of shrieking kids, playing football to know that the themes of group dynamics, absolute power, blind prejudice, hatred and violence are intertwined together. The book is as relevant today, if not more, as it was then. Nothing has changed. The Beast is thriving. And his games are not a child’s play. I see it displayed in newspapers and TV channels every day. Awful things that are revealed in lurid details and even things that no one can afford to reveal, if you read between the lines.
I read this book in college as part of my curriculum. I could not love it. But I could not avoid thinking obsessively about it either. We can’t love things which compel us to question ourselves too deeply. And Golding wrings out questions from us and the story has been doing that ever since. I don’t think I can read this book again. It is too dark. Especially now that I have children of my own.
The Lord of the Flies questions power equations between the ever-clashing, opposing forces of good and evil. How quickly the bunch of children stranded on an island metamorphose from civilized little humans, raised by an organized, law-abiding civilization, into violent clans who hunt down the younger kids as coolly as hunting the pigs on the island. For many of them it is just a silly game until rescue arrives. How easily aggression becomes a tool to control the physically and intellectually weak. How the flimsy veneer of civilized behaviour is peeled away and discarded when it comes to greed for absolute power. By the end of the book, three children are already hunted down and murdered in cold blood by their own peers.
Children are called innocent. (Even now I still love them more than I love the adults in my life) But are they truly innocent or are they the real face of our society, stripped of controlled behaviour. What is true innocence? Ralph mourns the destruction of innocence at the end of the book. But I see jealousy and sibling rivalry even among babes. Does it stem from a desire for the best resources that the parents provide, namely, food and shelter and affection? Or is it merely survival instinct?
On a larger scale, the desire for ultimate power and complete control over material and human resources, still leads man to commit the most heinous crimes against entire communities and even nations.
Nothing has changed since the primordial times. I see the Beast gaining power, in the eyes of a rampaging mob that lynches helpless victims during a religious or ethnic cleansing that leaves behind millions dead and the women and children raped and butchered or sold for a price. The Beast grins obscenely at me when I hear of terrible college ragging and bullying of vulnerable targets in school corridors and even behind closed bedroom doors.
The book clearly gives a message that until we cast aside violence and prejudice we can never hope to evolve into a more compassionate and empathetic species who live in harmony with the others.
The Beast is here. Inside us. Inside me.
So I would want to step into The Lord of the Flies, and ask a few vital questions to Simon, the epileptic boy, the only voice of reason and wisdom in the story. I wept when I helplessly watched him die. I wanted to scream and shout for help. Simon is so young and vulnerable and yet he holds the most powerful, life-affirming knowledge about us. He sees things clearly. It makes him different from others. I empathize with that. He is too different to be acceptable. I empathize with that too as many of us would. He tries hard to tell everyone the truth about the Beast but is brutally killed in mindless hatred.
The questions I want to ask him would be-Does wisdom make a man weak or strong? Does it bind our instinctive responses, making us vulnerable to the marauding mob? How do we deal with the Beast who becomes more and more powerful every day?
Leena Varghese
Jane and Mr. Rochester from the classic Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
These two make an astonishingly beautiful pair!
Even though Rochester is brutally cynical of everything, he holds Jane in high esteem and his love is intensely passionate. He is a terribly flawed, spiritually bankrupt man and yet utterly captivating with his black humour and strength of convictions.
Jane loves him deeply and yet challenges every notion of how a woman must behave in society. Her spirit is unblemished and indomitable and she meets him on level ground as an equal even though she is his subordinate professionally.
It is her unrestrained opinions on equality and justice and the bold choices she makes that define her as a remarkable heroine.
Their conversations are sparkling and immensely entertaining! I could read this book a million times and never tire of it.
These two make an astonishingly beautiful pair!
Even though Rochester is brutally cynical of everything, he holds Jane in high esteem and his love is intensely passionate. He is a terribly flawed, spiritually bankrupt man and yet utterly captivating with his black humour and strength of convictions.
Jane loves him deeply and yet challenges every notion of how a woman must behave in society. Her spirit is unblemished and indomitable and she meets him on level ground as an equal even though she is his subordinate professionally.
It is her unrestrained opinions on equality and justice and the bold choices she makes that define her as a remarkable heroine.
Their conversations are sparkling and immensely entertaining! I could read this book a million times and never tire of it.
Leena Varghese
The best thing about being a writer is the sheer exhilaration of being inside a story! The joy of being able to tweak the variables and watch the story unfurl! Watching the characters grow from stick figures to flesh and blood human beings as the plot progresses is an amazing feeling! And the happy ending...especially when I know that I have complete control over the outcome.
Leena Varghese
My new book is called A Silver Dawn. I usually don't remember the exact moment an idea sprouts in my imagination. The seeds of ideas have probably always been there...waiting for the right time to germinate.
This is the story of Clarissa who puts up a spirited fight against the odds stacked up against her and Leon who watches her back like a guardian angel.
For me whoever has courage and conviction to face the bad times is an inspiration.
This is the story of Clarissa who puts up a spirited fight against the odds stacked up against her and Leon who watches her back like a guardian angel.
For me whoever has courage and conviction to face the bad times is an inspiration.
Leena Varghese
Being afflicted by writer's block is like swallowing a bitter pill. It's annoying, but it teaches me patience and cures the malady. I shut down and relax. When I am suitably refreshed by the break I come back with a better perspective and an alternate solution to the problem!
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