She'll help you take pride in your pain

Mona Verma builds a Bridge to Nowhere, and makes sure it takes you deep within

Mona Verma's characters George, Rosanna, Vasudha and Manya are completely fictitious, "but they are real people," she insists. "And I believe only real people are interesting." Their predicaments are what every reader's life is all about. "Real people can't masquerade their weaknesses, they grieve, they accept rejection, and they are neither scared nor are they ashamed to admit their mistakes.

They are not hesitant to proclaim that it is not easy to forget pain and just move on. Yet the human spirit amazes us with its emotional width to conquer pain," she goes on. So, if a read wants to make you ask, "Why are your stories so painful?", her answer would be, "Why is pain so unacceptable?"

Pain brings with it reflection, she reminds with a beatific smile. "Why do we need to camouflage our real selves? How can any individual shut out a part of themselves forever? Pain is perfectly understandable. It just can't vaporise overnight," she sums up.

>> How elusive do you think a writer must be? Is good writing about igniting the reader's imagination or giving away details?
A writer has to alloy both suspense and details as per the plot. when it comes to time brackets and places, one needs to divulge the details as the reader travels with the author's mindset. but in case the story ends with an antithesis as in my book, then eluding the presuppositions makes the endings interesting.

>> How do you come to the dreaded denouement?
The dreaded denouement... as you have chosen to call it is the common thread in all my stories. I have always held to this belief that in life we go through myriad shades. theu00a0 mystic and the inconspicuous forces govern our lives. Take for instance, what could be happening in some remote part of the world could change my life forever. And that too when we have no clue to what destiny is brewing for us. We meet people we had never hoped to bump into again. Or live in a place we had not even remotely imagined.

>> Were you even vaguely inspired by Robert Frost?
Yes, my writing has a maughamesque feel to it, but that's my element and this genre intrigues me. I wouldn't say i was inspired, but I definitely like to peel the mystery bit by bit.

>> If there was one thing a reader could find in your book and nowhere else, what would it be?
u00a0That's a very interesting question. Well, the strength to face life's predicaments and the courage to allow one self to grieve is what makes my book different from others. what I have tried to say is that life is not smooth for anybody. Real people go through their rigmaroles and cant masquerade their weaknesses. It's absolutely acceptable to vulnerable at times. After all we are human.

>> But the characters are not even remotely related to any real life situation.
Writing undoubtedly is a cathartic process. As much as we may try being detached, our experiences leak onto paper.u00a0 For a writer, the first idea that sprouts is drawn from the preface of their own journey called life. As a kid, I have always been very observant. As an only child who grew up in the back of beyond of Haridwar, books were my best friends. I was raised by my grandparents since I was two months old. Life was rather quiet and unadulterated. All I did was read and write. Other avenues were severely compromised.

>> Who are the significant influences in your life?
Though I am fond of Dalai Lama's writings, Dr Brian Weiss, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitav Ghosh, Khaled Hosseini , Paulo Coelho and Mitch Albom, I can't really narrow down on any particular writer or a style of writing or narrative. I am a sensitive person. I just close my eyes and dream, whatever comes to my mind starts taking form. It's never been any deliberate attempt at a certain style. All I know is that I am in my best element when I am writing.

>> What next?
The next book is called 'God is a River'. Set in pre-independent India, it is set against the downfall of the zamindaars owing to the Ryotwari act of the British. The story is spun around the lives of the village patriarch, Kulbhushan, and the domestic help, Naazbibi. Belonging to different religions, survival under the same roof when the country is sensitive to the slightest provocation was rather ponderous. After the subsequent generations move into contemporary times, the mistakes from their malignant past race ahead of them to stare at them in the face again. There is a conspicuous Sufi influence, a mystic river and how all that finally leads to their redemption.

>> Any advice for budding writers?
All I can say is, follow your dream. Nothing is impossible. Be true to yourself and work really hard. There are no short cuts to success. Read a lot and observe. Keep resurrecting your work till no further improvement is possible. Understand the tiniest nuances and at any point if you are not ready to respect and enjoy reading your own work, believe me nobody else will.

>> What are the biggest challenges of keeping a short story short?
To keep short stories short, one has to bracket time and space in smaller quanta. it's really not easy. one has to keep the narration short but plausible. The writer can't afford to elude the reader with half-baked descriptions. The sentences are far more loaded than in novels where one has ample room for narration and description. Short stories have to be 'unputdownable', as I choose to call them, otherwise the magic is lost.

A Bridge to Nowhere, self-published, is available at leading bookstores @ Rs 225