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| Edited By: Melissa D’Costa D’Silva |Source: DNA |Updated: May 03, 2016, 07:00 AM IST
Sukanya Venkatraghavan has always been obsessed with fairytales and the myth of yakshis. Hence, it was only natural for her to build a story around them in her first novel Dark Things. An intriguing tale of mystery, betrayal and seduction. Here, she talks about her journey, exploring the dark side and finding light on the way.
I come from Kerala, which has a very rich tradition of its own folklore. One of the things that prominently features in mythology and folklore here is the yakshi, which is like a female vampire, who seduces men and then kills them. This creature is supposed to inhabit Frangipanis trees. I have grown up listening to stories of yakshi. Just the idea of a supernatural creature that was beautiful, who could seduce men and at the same time have the power to actually kill them really appealed to me. I wanted to write a book and I was toying with a number of ideas. If you start researching on the internet. Wikipedia especially it will take you from one thing to another, if you start clicking. And that’s how I stumbled on a page about yakshis. And that struck a chord, and I said, “Wait a minute. I know the yakshi. I have been obsessed with them all my life. That’s how I started writing Dark Things. I wanted to tell the story of this yakshi, who seduces men and kills them. In my book, there’s a bit of a twist, she takes their secrets and then kills them. Through seduction she is able to draw their deepest, darkest secrets. She has been doing this for 500 years successfully, and one night, one guys survives. She realises much later through a series of events that he is still alive. And that’s when her world falls apart.
Dark Things is about a lot of things. It’s about one’s search for one’s identity. It’s about betrayal. That’s something we are all familiar with. In some way or the other we have all been betrayed in our lives. It’s about finding love in the most unexpected situations, Which again is a very human thing to happen. I may have written about supernatural beings but the situations are all something that anybody would go through. Especially, when it comes to the theme of identity. We are told all our lives we have to be one thing. Our parents tell us that, society tells us that. We kind of get put in a box and a lot of us stay in that box, until some incident changes that and you experience that sense that you can be a lot more. A realisation that I am much more than my limitations. And that’s what happens to myin protagonist Ardra as well. When she starts running and once she is separated from Atala and Hera, she starts discovering things about her past. That’s when she realises I don’t just have to be this. I have the choice to be a lot more. Even the choice to feel human emotions. She does not have that initially until she chooses to. A lot of us do that, we block out emotions and it takes one situation or a person to change that. And that’s what’s most appealing about it, it’s about themes that everyone would come across.
It was a working title. And I wanted to remind myself that I was writing about dark things which then found light in their own way. It seemed like a crisp title, and I did not want a long winded one. I stuck to it, as it encompasses a lot of things. It could be internal or external. It could be the monsters under the bed or in our head. It covers everything.
I am obsessed with fairytales. And every fairytale has prince charming and a damsel in distress. What if this was the opposite of a fairy tale? What if the maiden was the monster that Prince Charming had to attack? What if the tables were turned on a fairy tale? That was the idea behind the shout line. It’s dark and twisted fairy tales. Dark Things is the opposite of a fairytale but has the elements of one.
I don’t think I have modelled my characters on specific people but I have taken some traits and situations that have intrigued me. For example, I have always wished I could fly and have given that trait to my protagonist. It’s a wish fulfilling power that I have given her including the fact she can travel different realms. So, while I have not modelled my characters on people I have met, I have definitely taken traits and situations I have encountered.
While I have had many readers asking me to write a book about the backstory of Hera. I don’t know if I want to do that. I think I have answered about 95 per cent of the questions that need to be answered, the remaining five per cent I have chosen not to answer. Having said that there are times I feel I am not done with my characters. I don’t think, I would do a sequel but I may consider doing a spin off. I may just put them in a completely different story. It would not be a continuation. Maybe there’s a spin off in the offing, but then I am a writer. I am whimsical. It’s still possible that I may consider doing either one somewhere down the line.
The opposite of a fairytale.
Dark Things is a tale of seduction and betrayal. It’s a page turner and you will not be able to keep it down till you find all the answers. You are drawn into Ardra’s world and become a part of her quest to unravel the mysteries buried in the recesses of her mind. True to its name, Dark Things leads you to some scary corners. However, even in that darkness, there’s a flicker of light that never dies out, leading you to that one portal that ultimately answers both Arda’s and the readers questions.
