Growing up because the youngest of seven siblings, Khyrunnisa A says she needed to flip to humour to carry her personal in her household and, sometimes, get the higher of them. Perhaps it’s that “practical experience” that has helped her make a mark as a author of humour together with her best-selling ebook Tongue in Cheek, going into seven reprints. “You should have a funny bone to appreciate humour,” she says.
As her new ebook Chuckle Merry Spin reaches ebook shops, the award-winning author sits down in her book-lined, snug research in Thiruvananthapuram to speak about her work, a candidly humorous account of her first journey to the US in 2018. Khyrunnisa and her husband, P Vijaya Kumar, went to the US to spend time with their son, Amar, and his spouse, Arpitha, and to attend Arpitha’s convocation.
The fascinating a part of the ebook lies in her pleasant portrayal of the individuals she meets — taxi drivers, bus drivers, museum guides, passers-by, waiters et al, and the attention for element she has whereas capturing in phrases her experiences within the US.
She had no plans of writing a ebook whereas on a vacation. During their journey, the duo, each retired faculty lecturers of English and quiz masters, travelled from the East Coast to the West within the US, assembly up with mates, kinfolk and their huge circle of scholars. They visited six states — Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and California. “I have a habit of jotting down mundane things in a diary like where we went, when to book a gas cylinder and so on. I certainly don’t bare my soul in my diary. But it is a record of what happened on a day,” she says.
Khyrunnisa A and P Vijaya Kumar
| Photo Credit: Christopher Francis
In the US, she continued jotting down the names of locations she visited and what they did on a day. In California, Abdul Nizar, a pal, requested her if she was planning a ebook when he noticed her writing within the pocket book. “That was when I thought of a book on our misadventures and memorable experiences in the US. The more I thought of it, I felt it would be interesting to capture the thoughts of a first-time visitor abroad,” explains the creator. Then she discovered that the notes stored getting longer and longer and descriptive as effectively.
When she mooted the thought to her publishers, they have been enthusiastic a couple of journey account that will take readers to touristy locations within the US and museums — well-known and little-known, and so forth. She talks about locations and amenities that one wouldn’t discover in journey brochures.
While she gushes about blue skies, clear streets and disciplined queues, she additionally talks about washrooms or slightly the paucity of it, together with the not-so-spic-and-span consolation stations, the motel with no heater and so forth. But, all through the ebook, she has retained the light-hearted tone of the narrative and offers laughs aplenty as we learn in regards to the meals, individuals and locations.
With a canopy illustration by Priya Kuriyan, the ebook has been printed by Pratilipi.
Source: www.thehindu.com