Bangalore-based author Usha KR talks about the changes brought in society by once alien concepts like globalisation, privatisation and the IT revolution.
For Bangalore-based author Usha KR, her career in writing has not just seen her climb up the success ladder. In fact, along the years, the writer has glided from one genre to another. Beginning with short fiction, even winning the Katha Award for her short story, Sepia Tones, Usha has found her space amongst novels today, especially with a theme that explores how different individuals negotiate with the world around them.
“In novels, I found my voice,” states Usha in a telephone interview with After Hrs. She goes on to explain, “The length of a novel, its leisurely pace, the opportunity of developing the plot and the characters has helped me find who I am as a writer. I am curious about the world around me and how people make sense of it.”
Usha maintains that she loves writing about her favourite city, Bangalore, which she calls home. The rapidly altering cityscape and the mushrooming social issues that people are grappling with, makes it an ideal venue to set her novels in. Usha explains, “Globalisation, privatisation and the IT revolution have changed the way people think. Bangalore is the poster city for these changes all over India.”
Usha’s latest novel Monkey-Man at first seems like a take off from the recent Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6. Are the two similar? The author does not deny. However, she explains, “I think that every work of art cannot be about the monkey man alone or about a single biological entity. It stands for something else. In my book too, I refer to a distant incident when several cities in the country reported sightings of this mysterious creature. As a novelist, it intrigued me. I wanted to find out about the changes that the country has witnessed in the last 30 years due to concepts like globalization and privatization.”
Demystifying the monkey man, Usha says, “The monkey man represents the projection of man’s innermost fears and desires. I want to explore if cities can have a metaphysical presence that parallels its people?”
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