InkyBlots

Sharing the Beauty and Culture of India Through My Writing

I more or less stumbled into my writing career. I had never written anything more creative than a class essay or thesis for my master’s degree until I hit the age of 50. I call it my “menopausal epiphany.” Along with hot flashes, weight gain, hair loss, and insomnia, I discovered a deep need to write fiction.

For years I had been complaining about the dearth of romantic Indian fiction. Most every South Asian author seems to write literary novels, serious slice-of-life stories that are beautiful works of prose, but are lacking in plot and drama. So when I took up creative writing, I decided to try my hand at romantic stories with a distinctly Indian twist.

I was treading unknown waters with my unusual brand of ethnic women’s fiction with romantic elements, and I knew it was a serious risk. There was no guarantee that a literary agent or publisher would like this type of literature.  And yet I wanted to write about my culture in all its multi-hued beauty as well as its dark side. I wanted to tell stories that were realistic and yet dramatic enough to make fun, page-turning fiction. What I longed to create was “Bollywood in a Book.”

My Indian culture, with its arranged marriages, spicy cuisine, quaint customs like dowry, and a religion that has many gods and goddesses, offers great opportunities for unusual stories. I had so much fodder to populate my books with that I often had to curb my tendency to put in an overdose of cultural detail. India is a land of controversy, where women are allowed certain freedoms but not others, where women are often considered liabilities and men are cherished as assets, where marriage can occur between two people who have never known each other and yet they can live in a happy, lifelong commitment. India’s culture is beautiful and colorful, yet there are harsh, even shocking facets to it.

I set out to put all these elements alongside the colorful silk saris and lehengas, the pungent spices, and the vivid hues of India in my tales. The result is three books to date, THE DOWRY BRIDE, THE FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER, and THE SARI SHOP WIDOW.  A fourth book is slated for release in 2010.

The video trailer of THE SARI SHOP WIDOW can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9uRlbkxxes.  My writing, photos, and recipes are available on my website: www.shobhanbantwal.com

Thank you so much for hosting me on your wonderful blog.