My second novel

It was so satisfying seeing my first novel being serialised in Kannada Prabha on a daily basis for 41 days. Wow, I have written in the same slot as Dr. S L Bhyrappa who also had written one or two novels in Kannada Prabha. Of course, my other favourite Mr. T K Rama Rao who had written most of his thriller novels in Kannada Prabha. Really an overwhelming feeling!

Ok, what next? This question started bothering me. There has to be a subject on which I could start my second novel. But the mind went blank.

It was at that time I met Mr. Babu Krishnamurthy, then the editor of Mangala Weekly.

I told him that I don’t have any subject to write my second novel. He gave me plenty of ideas on how to get ideas!

He must have seen my blank face. He opened that day’s Kannada Prabha and showed me a news item. Why don’t you write about this?

I read the item with semi curiosity. Newspaper item? What story it could provide? -was the question in my mind.

But the item was very curious. Here is one girl who has been buried by her own father two years ago, has returned to her home. Quite an absurdity, if you ask me. The item also gave another interesting item about her husband hitting her mother and her ending up dead. Police are checking her whereabouts during the last two years.

My first doubt was, if the dead one is not the ‘dead’ one, then who has been buried by her father? This question started bothering me. Ok, this news item has some stuff, I decided.

I thought of the story line. Those days I was working in a company which took me to the depths of Kodagu District. A very small place where we placed a coffee pulping machine. I felt that, this would give me a good background for my novel. I started noting down points in a small notebook which I always carried in my packet.

I wanted a very interesting beginning for my novel. If they start, they should not stop in the middle. This was taught to me by my favourite author Mr. Yandamoori Veerendranath who is a very famous writer in both Telugu and Kannada.

As luck would have it, during that time, Mr. YV had written a book on ‘how to write popular novels?’ in Telugu. I was very eager to read the same. When I read the beginning, I was determined to use the same in my novelJ

I asked his permission and he said ‘YES’!

He had used suspense, comedy and horror for the commencement of his article series. I used the same continuously in my novel, Parishodha (Detection).

The hero Shathabhisha (my birth star) will be reading a suspense novel when someone knocks the door of his house. He opens and finds that his nephew’s friend has come to report that his (Shathabhisha’s) nephew has been shot.

This is only the beginning. The story takes quite a number of curious turns before the detection is complete.

The story, I will tell some other day. How the novel got serialised was more interesting than the story itself!

The assistant editor of Kannada Prabha came home. He was awaiting a novel from a famous detective novelist which did not seem to come on time to get serialised. The assistant editor put a proposal in front of me. If I can give the novel within the next 2 days. The plot was ready in my mind. Only thing was that I should write.

Luck was on my side. I went out from the office to get some photocopies done in mass scale. There was a huge power cut in that area that day. I had to wait till the power came. I bought some plain sheets and continued the story from where I had left it at home.

I could finish almost more that 70% of the novel. I came home tired and found to my dismay that my mother took ill and was to be hospitalised immediately.

I stayed with her in the nursing home. While she was resting I continued writing from where I had left off.

There was this horrifying moment when some machine wired to my mother’s body started beep beep and the reading slowly started waning. It was like what I used to see in the movies. The patient is on the bed, the beep beep reduces and dies and the patient also collapses.

I got very scared. It was past 12 midnight. I rushed searching for the duty doctor. He came running and checked my mother. He said she is ok, but the machine is not ok. I didn’t know whether to get angry or feel relieved.

I could then peacefully finish the novel. I had applied leave since my mother was still in the nursing home. I requested my sister to take care of my mother for some time and then went to the newspaper office.

I handed over the novel and it got started from the third day. Of course, there was publicity on the first page for 2 days.

Wow, really a nice way to write the second novel!!!!