I started writing when I was in school. I wrote essays and in my teen years I used to write sorrowful sad stories and poems as you do at the age.
It was March 1974, I was in my MTech final year when I came across a notice which stated - Telco requires bright, young engineers at a salary of Rs 1,500. This was big money at that time. But that notice followed with a line that said lady students need not apply. I was agitated!
I hail from a middle class educated family and now that God is kind to me by giving me enough money, I want to share it with others.
People often ask me how I get so many unique experiences while they get none. I tell them the difference is in the sensitivity. I can observe those small emotions, which may look trivial to others.
My ad-hoc empirical formula is that wherever you grow a lot of rice, there is a lot of art developing as well. My theory goes on to say that after having a nice meal of rice, one feels lethargic and don't think of work. When you don't think of work, you think of art.
When a mother feels cold, she asks the child to wear a sweater. Our concept of poverty is that way. When we do a project and people receive our help, we may think that they are getting benefited, but is this what they really wanted?
What I have to write, the story, it is always going on in my mind. What incidences I can add in the story - it is a continuous process.
Writing is an art, just like any other creative exercise - painting a picture, singing a song or dancing. It is an expression of your feelings.
I wanted to become an engineer and I believed in myself. I was the lone girl to enrol for engineering studies, then. But the college provided me an opportunity to excel in my life.
I came from a middle-class family. My father was a professor in a medical college, and my mother was a schoolteacher. We led a good life but we did not have much money.