Kamakshi Pappu Murti is a retired professor of German Studies. She has authored fictional and non-fictional writing. Fiction includes children’s books and murder mysteries. Her scholarly writing is devoted to multi-cultural issues, as well as gender studies.
Fiction: Murti’s first children’s book LALLI’S WINDOW was published in 2017 by Austin Macauley, and her first murder mystery MURDERS MOST MATRONLY came out in 2017 as an e-book by Juggernaut Books in India. MURDERS IN THE IVORY TOWER is in the process of being published by Pegasus in Great Britain.
Non-fiction: Scholarly monographs include “Die Reinkarnation des Lesers als Autor: Ein rezeptionsgeschichtlicher Versuch über den Einfluß der altindischen Literatur auf deutsche Schriftsteller” (de Gruyter, 1990) “India: The Seductive and Seduced ‘Other’ of German Orientalism” (Praeger, 2000) and “To Veil or not to Veil: Europe’s Shape-shifting ‘Other’” (Peter Lang, 2012).
Murti is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA), Modern Language Association (MLA), American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE).
Murti is presently working on a series about two teens, Yasemin and Nirmala (“Yasemin and Nirmala: A Tale of Two Teens”) who navigate peer pressure, social media, and their physical disabilities (Yasemin loses an arm in an accident. Nirmala suffers from ALS).
TBE: Can you tell us a bit about your book ‘Bandilanka’s Forgotten Lives’ and what inspired you to write it? I find the title very interesting, how it is employed?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: The stories in my book “Bandilanka’s Forgotten Lives” are a microcosm not only of India, but of the world.
Re-reading R.K. Narayan’s “Malgudi Days” inspired me to write my own collection of stories about this fictional village Bandilanka.
I chose the adjective ‘forgotten’ to describe these lives because of memories from my childhood. As a child, I had spent many a summer in my maternal grandparents’ home in a village very similar to the fictional one I have created. Many decades later, I asked myself: ‘What do you remember of those summers?’ – a remote Brahmin grandfather, an overworked and loving grandmother, dozens of cousins, lanterns and oil-lamps (electricity came to the village only in the early 1950s). What I didn’t see were those shadowy figures at the periphery, those who slaved for our family, who starved and slipped through the cracks. These are the forgotten lives on which I focus.
TBE: Writing a novel and writing short stories are two very different crafts, I think: writers of short stories are in a certain sense a different kind of writer. They are word-chiselers. What do you love the most, in writing short stories?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: Yes, writing a novel and writing short stories are indeed two very different crafts. When I write a novel (and I have written more than a dozen now), I include whole trajectories of lives and events. Writing short stories allows me to actually compress a lifetime into a few lines without sacrificing the vitality of this life, its moments of joy and sorrow.
TBE: Why, or how do you think stories are able to create that kind of reaction in people, where they touch something viscerally inside of us that relates to our own past?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: That is a great question! I believe that people have many stories to tell, and are perhaps unwilling to tell them. When they recognize their story in somebody else’s writing, it moves them in multiple ways. As a reader, I would – wittingly or unwittingly – look for that moment of recognition. Short stories present multiple trajectories of lives to achieve the goal the goal of touching something viscerally inside the reader.
TBE: Is there something in your depiction of this small fictional town Bandilanka, aside from the quality of writing and storytelling itself, that gets to people in some universal way? Do you think you’ve hit upon something that’s ubiquitous to small towns or the shadows of small towns, something that people can feel in their own communities in isolated parts of whatever city they may be from?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: My stories highlight the inherent worth and dignity of the lives of disenfranchised groups, challenging socially constructed divides and inequalities of caste, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age. These divides are universally felt, in any community across national and international borders. Societal rules govern a community, whether within the confines of a small village or in the world at large. Consequently, my stories will resonate with readers around the world.
TBE: One thing I noticed throughout the collection is that while none of your characters could be considered heroes in the traditional mold, there is something heroic in their unflinching courage. They’re lonely and they’re frustrated and they’re longing for something more, but they’re not, for the most part, losing hope. They’re quite stoic about their lot. Was it a conscious decision to make courage the virtue that sustains them through what could be deemed a purgatorial existence, or did you see it more as a shackle that prevents them from escaping this world, this stagnant way of living?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: I firmly believe that every human being possesses a core of courage that sustains them through horrific moments of suffering. The courage that my protagonists display pushes them to break their shackles, not to keep them imprisoned. This might not be readily visible to those whose privilege blinds them. However, those tiny cracks that appear, cracks that will gradually demolish the structures of ill-begotten gains and privilege, are what sustains the so-called forgotten ones. Their stoicism combined with their courage makes them heroic.
TBE: What kind of situation for character do you find yourself searching for when you start a new story? What most frequently gives you a way in?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: Conversations with family, friends, acquaintances, former students provide a wealth of material about various convictions, various phobias. Finding out the reason for a conviction or a phobia frequently gives me a way in.
TBE: Did you have any goals for this collection when you wrote it? Any particular theme you want to explore?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: My goal was to attract as many readers as possible to encourage them to critique their own cultures, their own environments. I am exploring two themes now: 1) adults with disabilities; 2) the LGBTQ+ communities.
TBE: How was your publishing experience with Leadstart?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: More than I could have ever hoped for! Leadstart’s teams have been wonderfully helpful in a) advertising my work; b) helping me use social media more effectively; c) reaching out to readers and potential readers. I wish more publishers would reach out to their clients with such empathy and patience as my ‘family’ at Leadstart has done!
TBE: Ultimately, what do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: Greater awareness of injustices committed both in their community and around the world, and a greater willingness to be conscious of their own internalized prejudices and fears.
TBE: Is there anything you are currently working on that may intrigue the interest of your readers?
Kamakshi Pappu Murti: As I mentioned, I am looking at two groups: 1) adults with disabilities; 2) the LGBTQ+ community.
I have finished writing a novel “Yasemin and Nirmala: a tale of two teens.” It tells the story of Yasemin McGinty-Mahsud, a fifteen-year-old Pakistani-American teen, and fifteen-year-old Nirmala Rao-Sumatzkuku, a South-Asian/Native-American teen. Yasemin has lost her left arm in a car accident. Nirmala is confined to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. The friends combine forces to comprehend and confront discrimination and an internalized islamophobia that even Yasemin’s Italian-American friend Natalie cannot hide. The novel should have great appeal to readers, especially young adults, who are being bombarded by social media’s incessant portrayal of ‘the ideal body.’
I am currently writing a novel entitled “Murders Most Trans-Gressive.” It deals with the murder of a transwoman in Chennai, India. I felt compelled to talk about this violence after reading about the murder of Tara, a transwoman who was set on fire in front of the Pondy Bazar police station on November 9, 2016. It also features two elderly female sleuths Leela Rao and Meena Rao, whom I introduced in my first novel “Murders Most Matronly,” published in 2017 by Juggernaut in India. The novel will have universal appeal, especially since the violent abuse of trans-communities is a world-wide phenomenon.
