I, Me, Myself.

I don’t think creative writing is what I had in mind when I started my professional career. I guess I just glided into teaching, since the genes were already there, for my mother had been a school teacher for over forty years. I had the qualifications to go one step higher and that was what got me into one of the top Higher Education institutions in the city of Chennai. I know I was good at my job; I know also that most of my students knew that too, because I could see their enthusiasm as soon as I entered a classroom. I did my homework painstakingly, because I have always felt that to be a good teacher, you have to be at least three steps ahead of your students. I entered a classroom supremely confident in my own abilities; let me assure you, the initial hard work will eventually pay off.

After four years of teaching, I applied for and succeeded in getting admission for the MPhil course in English at the Central University of Hyderabad. It was there, in the presence of stalwarts, that I learned that there was so much more to learn and master. I had the great good fortune to complete my research with Dr Meenakshi Mukherjee as my supervisor and I’m sure it was her encouragement that led me, ultimately, to creative writing.

With the guidance of my Guru, I embarked upon a wonderful journey that would take me back to my roots. Initially, I focussed on the works of the British novelist Paul Scott, accidentally stumbling upon the “Anglo-Indian question”. This subject has been my abiding passion from about 1980 onwards, and this culminated in my being awarded a PhD from the University of Madras in 2010.

That, dear Reader, is the necessary background to my career as a writer. For my MPhil Degree I discovered I could write intelligently, fluently and convincingly. My dissertation for the PhD was also a walk in the park, especially because I was so immersed in the subject and wanted to learn everything about my people—the Anglo-Indian Community. But, before all that, during a short stint in Bahrain, I realized that dark anger and long-lasting frustration are very real and robust motives for creative endeavour. If you have been following my Blogs, you would have come across something that alludes to that time.

So, anger and frustration and pent-up emotion were instrumental to my development as a writer. In Bahrain I produced a novella—No Accident—which saw the light of day only in 2011. I still have no facilitator in the publishing world, so I decided on self-publishing. Naturally, the results of my first venture were not very encouraging, but I persevered. Self-certification need not be all bad, but I still believe all my work is worth reading. Don’t take my word for it, however.

Yes, my very first book—No Accident. The novella can be read in one sitting, but there are layers that may be savoured only through reflection. The book asks questions, but provides no answers, for it is you, dear Reader, who must figure things out. It also has multiple narrators, so you have to look at perspectives from different angles. Is it a true story? That’s hardly a question because, in the realm of the imagination, everything one creates is true. Is it a love story? Is it many love stories rolled into one? Is it a deep fake? Only you can answer all these queries.

Reactions to the book have been diverse. One reader told me, to my face, that she could picture herself as one of the characters. Another, taking the contents to the personal level, was caustic in her comments with regards to some of the characters whom she believed she could identify. Yet another confessed that the book made her cry, while a relative of hers dismissed the book as juvenile. One reader confessed that he was aroused by an action sequence (in words) in the narrative, while one more threw tantrums about the deeds and intentions of the male protagonist.

Going by the interpretations, I myself am satisfied that the book has done its job. No, it is not a runaway best-seller, but in its own small way it has made readers ponder. That’s what books are created to do; they give you that something, that extra, that chord that touches you, so that you can never forget the emotion that made it so. Books, and the words they contain, are supposed to seduce you to their line of thinking, all the while reminding you that YOU (the Reader) are in control.

Believe it or not, on the very day that I completed the manuscript and was quite satisfied that my first baby (the book, I mean) would make it in the world, the song “The Keeper of the Stars” by Tracy Byrd, made it to the top of the Country charts in America. That is why the dedication in my book goes deeper, for the narrative reverberates with the soulful words: “Someone had a hand in it/Long before we ever knew”.

The price on Amazon may seem a tad too much, but if any of you, my Readers, send me a message [on Facebook at peppin.bryan@gmail.com], I will send you an autographed copy, my gift to you. You can also contact me at my blog address: bryanpeppin.com

Happy reading, folks.