Storytelling has been a natural impulse with Indu Ranchan. At the age of eleven, she penned down a comic tale which entertained her elder sister and younger brother to no end. Around the same time, she was the storyteller creating a narrative extempore for her siblings who curiously waited each evening for the developing scenario, emerging as it did, by itself, impromptu.
At college, Indu Ranchan’s satirical rendering of a teacher and of her teaching, done in the most exaggerated manner, had nearly brought the student-playwright in serious trouble for her ‘PLAY’ which had landed in the hands of the college principal. Emerging from many a decade long hibernation, Ranchan wrote No Child’s Play in 1995.
Some years afterwards, she penned From the Terrace, a collection of short stories, yet in manuscript form. Ranchan is the author of two books of short stories in Hindi published in 2010 and 2013. In addition, in the mid-eighties she had produced two English Grammar books.
Ranchan received her Masters in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A. She commenced her teaching career at the Government College for Women, Patiala in 1964 which, however, remained a chequered one because of transfer of residence to varied locales. Excerpts from an interview with The Pioneer
Q: ‘No Child’s Play’ an often used phrase, but an interesting book title. Would you like to give the reader a preview of the story?
As the title ‘No Child’s Play’ suggests, the story does not present an easy-going, playful narrative with magical progression. It is about children going through experiences of fear, loss, danger and abandonment confronting a strange world of a high-tech scenario. They emerge from a state of innocence to an awakening of reality. Jealousy is the active emotion which sets the play going initially by Muffy, the Cat. Later on the same emotion takes control over the Master’s mind rocking havoc in the lives of the rest. The two adults in the story represent two contrary realities. The interactive relationship, I should think, of animals and of an Owl with humans ,keeps the story unfolding richly.
Q: Before one embarks on ‘No Child’s Play’, you mention that the manuscript had been written 23 years ago. Why did it remain in your desk drawer for so long?
I do not have any explanation as such for it's having stayed in the limbo for 23 years, literally. Perhaps, it is one of those things which just stay unnoticed like a dress one has put aside for wearing on a special occasion. However, on account of day-to-day living, the dress stayed unseen under a pile of clothes. Or perhaps, it is like some family pictures in an envelope you had put aside to cherish at an ideal time of leisure but with the routinised goings-on, you had totally forgotten about them. Though in my case, it was not a case of memory loss; it was more like a call unattended.
Q: The reader would assume you gravitate towards Science Fiction? Any favoured writers? At the same time, 'No Child’s Play' strains on the vast range of human emotions,Love, Jealously, Fear, Abandonment, Guilt, etc.
Dealing with varied human emotions the story develops into a psychological drama, rather than a science fiction as such.Initially, Muffy the Cat, due to her jealousy for Harry, the Puppy roguishly succeeds in replacing the Edenic state of happiness of the Islanders with a state of hopelessness to the point of becoming a saga of an unending search and suffering. It's only after the role of the Master progresses, one finds the drama taking on in full view another dimension of a high-tech world of machines, computers, robots and space-travel etc. Believe it or not, I’m not by far a reader of science fiction. Perhaps, just indirectly aware of, more at the sensory level, of the theme of The Twilight Zone or that of Star Trek, as a backdrop which my son would view. My favourite writer being the evergreen old-gold William Shakespeare.
Q: Your children’s books ‘Bindaas Bandar’ and ‘Dalheez Paar’ both books of stories in Hindi were well-received. Is it a seamless transition to write both in Hindi and English, or does it involve some measured effort?
Since the story-books, in my case, do not present a scholastic approach to writing ------- these not being essays or prose ,it is simply the live-in experiences of the characters involved.As such ,it does not require a scholastic, analytical application, speaking stylistically and content-wise. Therefore, being okay with both English and Hindi, writing in either does not involve any labour on my part---- my subject being life in its basic behaviourial on-flow. So in the context of creative writing, I am at home both with English and Hindi. If it were to be a work of translation from one to the other, then it may involve some effort for sure!
Q: A word of advice for aspiring writers?
The advice to aspiring young writers is that they must not let 23 years go by before seeing their writing in print. No need to hibernate for a lifetime, in any case! The work is not going to be maturing with time like old wine would with age. Therefore, get going, retaining the freshness, availing of the opportunity Here and Now! Do not let the grapes get sour !
