Ravi Nambiar

Ravi Nambiar is the author of Monsoon Minds, a collection of eighteen short stories. The book has been a success and he is planning to continue this venture in fiction writing. Ravi is an entrepreneur by profession. You can read more about Ravi on The Indian Authors

TeamBR_Online: Ravi, our team has observed that your book offers pathos at its best. From the very first story to the last of them, a kind of emotional appeal attract the readers. Simple obituary desire to the divine bonding… give us an idea of the background. How did you manage to create such an emotional appeal?

Ravi Nambiar: Human life although being full of complexities and paradoxes, does give us an insight into the sentimental and emotional values of simple people. I just pick-up some of these sentimental nuances that I observe during my interactions with so many people and weave my stories around them.

TeamBR_Online: Monsoon Minds offers the readers 18 short stories and most of them seem in a kind of synchronisation. Do you ever think that you could also have written a novel? Why did you choose the genre of short story?

Ravi Nambiar: Writing short stories is of course an intricate art where the author tries to bring out the story theme and ideas in his / her mind with a few words appealing to the readers. To weave a novel with all these characters from different walks of life and incidents would result in injustice to the original and a herculean task of presenting these as a novel to maintain the continuity of the ideas expressed in these short stories. Therefore, I chose to put them in their different compartments.

TeamBR_Online: You raise social issues in your short stories – suicide because of social pressure, arrogance of the people, unfair tactics by the police officer and also social injustice. What are your views on representation of these issues in modern fiction?  

Ravi Nambiar: Grim realities of the Urban life we face day in and day out… should we always get bogged down by these and portray the same in a classic literature? Every person looks for some bright, shining and encouraging side of life reflected in the lives of others which can be connected in some way or other in our own lives. There is no dearth of writers portraying the grim and negative side of lives and that is the reason I always try to find positivity in every drastic situation. The village background gives this perfect setting to portray the emotions and sentiments of characters in my short stories.

TeamBR_Online: When did you decide to publish your debut book, Ravi? Did it happen all of a sudden or you have been writing for long and decided to publish?  

Ravi Nambiar: Writing has always been my passion and took up to writing these short stories the moment I found “time” on my hand after the excessively busy schedules as an entrepreneur. As the stories came into black and white, I shared them with my friends and on receiving a positive encouragement decided to get these published for a larger reader-base.

TeamBR_Online: You are a corporate person Ravi. How do you find yourself sometime to write? Do you write daily as routine or write when you feel like writing?  

Ravi Nambiar: That is a million dollar question. As mentioned earlier, taking out time to pen my abstract thoughts into a story was indeed difficult. I used my commuting time in building up the scenarios and stored them at the back of my mind. As and when I got any free time I used to type them and over the weekends gave them a definite shape.

TeamBR_Online: Your short stories, specially which ones are in first person, offer the readers a kind of personal feelings involvement. Are some of those autobiographical in nature? (Elangi tree story, Sugadamma story, pinch of punishment etc)  

Ravi Nambiar: Not exactly autobiographical but it is my habit to get into the depth of the characters of these stories and putting myself in their shoes I try to ‘enact’ their lives trying to figure out their sentimental and emotional depths. Some of these characters with whom I could easily ‘associate’ came out in the stories as first person narrations.

TeamBR_Online: What is your philosophy Ravi? What guides you when you sit to pen down a short story? What is your main motive behind writing?

Ravi Nambiar: I am a nomad, wandering from one thing to another. I always wanted to write. However, destiny took me to being an entrepreneur.  Now, after nearly two decades of entrepreneurial journey, I am trying to return to what I enjoy most. Initially it is just weaving some abstract thoughts in to a storyline and the easiest part is once this idea is born writing comes like a flow… As mentioned earlier writing has always been my passion and this passion has been the main motive behind my writing.

TeamBR_Online: Do you think you will come up with a novel in future? Moreover, what are other writing plans for you in the coming days?  

Ravi Nambiar: As of now I am taking a short-break from writing. However, I am contemplating on my next creation which will be a novel.  The vague idea that I have in my mind is to tell the world through protagonists that anything can be achieved in life with manifestation of intense desires.

TeamBR_Online: It was great talking to you, Ravi! Best of luck for the future plans and wish you a great writing career! Our team enjoyed Monsoon Minds a lot!  

Ravi Nambiar: Thank you so much for appreciating my work and getting to know more about me and the “thoughts” that have gone behind my writing!