Manil Suri was born and raised in Mumbai until he came to America to attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. Manil earned his Ph.D in Mathematics after which he started working as a Professor of Math, which he continues to do till date. How does he find time to write these novels, how did he get trained to become a writer? Manil Suri took time out of his hectic schedule to answer some of these questions and more for Suprose.
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| Photo Credit: Nina Subin |
You are a mathematician by profession. How did writing come
into your life? When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
In 1983, when I first became a professor, I realized I
needed to do something else besides mathematics, so that I wouldn’t be as
one-dimensional as some academics can get. So I started writing short stories –
purely as a hobby, and maybe just one every year or two. Very much in secret,
because I wanted to be taken seriously as a mathematician by my colleagues,
wanted to get tenure. I didn’t really want to “be” a writer, I was content to
be a mathematician with a hobby.
How did you pursue it, from a training standpoint? Did you
attend any classes, get any formal training?
The first step was to join informal writing groups. The one
that sticks out in my mind was “People of Color, Third World, Gay and Lesbian
Writing Group” – I never was clear how many categories you had to belong to in
order to join, but it had writers much more advanced than I was, so I learned a
lot. (Sadly, the group imploded when a woman who identified as bisexual wanted
to join, and we couldn’t agree on whether or not to allow her in.) After
several years (12 to be precise), I took a writing class at the Writer’s Center
in Bethesda – the instructor was Jane Bradley, a great writer, and also a
friend of mine. That’s when I was working on the opening chapter of “The Death
of Vishnu” (just a short story at the time). After that, I got accepted to a
community outreach class at George Washington University led by Vikram Chandra,
and a year later, I took a 5 day workshop at Fine Art Work Center in
Provincetown with Michael Cunningham. He was the first one to say, bluntly;
“You are a writer.” It really hadn’t occurred to me before.
Most aspiring writers are disillusioned by the whole
acquiring and agent and getting published process. How did yours come about and
how easy or difficult was it for you to get that first book published?
I was very lucky. After my writing workshops, I managed to
get fellowships at some artist colonies (first VCCA – Virginia Center for the
Creative Arts, in 1997 and then the MacDowell Colony in 1998). At the latter,
another resident who heard me read from my work said he knew the perfect agent
for me. So when I finished my novel in 1999, I sent it to him, and he passed it
on to this agent. She loved it, and not only submitted it to the right editors,
but also managed to get an excerpt published in the New Yorker. There were
auctions all over the world – it was all very exciting.
What was your reaction to your first novel getting
long-listed for the Booker Prize?
It was thrilling for the month or so before I got
eliminated. But there was more to come, and the book did end up winning the
Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, among others.
Initially you had talked about a trilogy. After Vishnu and
Shiva, it was natural for many, such as me, to expect a Brahma based
story. So why Devi?
The switch came somewhere in the middle of the book. Mumbai
is under the threat of nuclear annihilation and a deity has supposedly
materialized in person to save the city. Brahma, the creator, simply didn’t fit
very well – but Devi, who also represents destruction, seemed to be the right
choice. Given that she also takes the form of Mumbadevi, the patron goddess of
Mumbai (the city’s name comes from the words “Mumba” and “ai” – both related to
“mother” in Marathi), the choice also underlines the fact that the trilogy is
also about Mumbai (by extension, India) – it’s present, past and future. And if
one wants to get technical, the true Hindu trinity (in terms of numbers of
worshippers) has Devi supplanting Brahma. In fact, Hinduism originally
consisted of three strands (Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism) which were
woven together in post-Vedic times. The addition of Brahma to the trimurti was
never very successful according to scholars like Majumdar. One can still find
trinities of two male and one female deities, for example in Jaggannath.
You were at the Jaipur Literary Festival, did you attend any
others in India while you were there? What do you think about literary festivals and what they hope to achieve?
I also attended the Apeejay Kolkata Book Festival right
before. I think it’s great that literary festivals have been getting so much
attention in India – the one at Jaipur now has an extremely high profile,
worldwide, with 50,000 attendees. Not sure how many of the festival-goers buy
books, but the fact that they come and sit in the audience and listen to
writers speak is wonderful.
Your thoughts on the burgeoning publishing industry in
India?
Surely this must be due to increasing demand, and who could
be against more people reading? The one fear is that it might get too easy to
be published. I personally honed my craft for over two decades before getting
anything in print, and there’s a real danger for authors if they get published
too soon.
How do you balance mathematics with writing? How do the two
come together in your life?
I’ve been trying more and more to weave together these two
strands – for instance, my next work is going to be a mathematics novel. My
idea is to incorporate little bits of mathematics into the narrative – at a
level accessible to everyone. A way to do mathematics outreach, make some
inroads into a very math-phobic society.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
It’s the first draft. I literally feel I have to extrude it
out, word by word. Once that’s done, the polishing and editing is something I
look forward to. And in terms of writing novels, the plot is definitely more
difficult for me than the characters.
What are some tools that you use when you get to a tough
spot during the writing process?
Sleeping on it often helps. Problems that seems intractable
the night before have this magical way of resolving themselves when revisited
at 6 am the next morning. Bicycle rides also help. I find myself diagramming
plot outlines as well, drawing possibility trees to track the different branches,
much like possible hierarchies of moves in a chess game.
What fires your creativity?
Being kept from doing creative work for an extended period.
That’s why having a demanding teaching schedule can help – by the end of the
semester, I’m all charged up to get back into writing.
What do you read for pleasure - both Indian authors and non-Indian authors? Who are some contemporary favorites?
I mainly read fiction. At the Jaipur Literary Festival, I
was on a panel with writers who write in regional Indian languages, and I had
the pleasure of meeting Benyamin, who writes in Malayalam. I read “Goat Days”
his breakout bestseller – a wonderful story, reminiscent of “Life of Pi” in some
ways. Some authors I follow are Margaret Atwood, Orhan Pamuk, Kazuo Ishiguro, J.M.
Coetzee. Amongst young Indian writers, I look forward to reading the next works
by Aravind Adiga, Manu Joseph and Aman Sethi.
If I looked at your to-read pile on your nightstand, what
would I find?
Just added “Out: Stories from the New Queer India” an
anthology on gay fiction, “The Marriage Plot” by Jeffrey Eugenides and “The
Twelve Tribes of Hattie” by Ayana Mathis. Scared to look what else is there.
What are your thoughts on South Asian fiction today?
It’s so diverse – great to see not only Indian voices now,
but also wonderful work from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Particularly looking forward to the final part of Tahmima Anam’s trilogy – “The
Good Muslim” was a devastatingly good book.
What is next for you from a writing standpoint? Are you at
work on your next novel, can you say anything about it?
In addition to the math novel I already mentioned, I’ve also
started feeling very guilty about cheating Brahma out of his book. So I’ve been
toying with the idea of a fourth book to tie together the first three. Not sure
how that will work out, or if I will ever write it, but I have the perfect name
for it: “The Trinity Quartet.”
