Human Rights Education Today
October 2011
Banner photo: Leicester, UK [© Justin Jin/Panos Pictures]
The Writers' Story
Ruchira Mukerjee, originally from Lucknow, India, has been practicing Buddhism for 20 years. She has been writing for close to 30 years and currently writes full-time in New Delhi. She has written a number of short stories, one of which was included in an anthology of Indian women writers. She has published a novel and is currently working on another.
Stella Duffy was born in London and grew up in New Zealand before returning to the UK in later life. She has been practicing Buddhism for 25 years and has been writing for 30 years. She has written novels, short stories, plays, reviews and articles and also writes for radio, television and film.
What inspired you to become a writer?
Ruchira: I read my first novel at age eight and have continued to read ever since. The stories always had power and got me into the fascinating lives of countless people. They shaped me. I believe that each person has within some truths and beauty that need to be expressed, as well as the desire to create something that will add value and give beauty to one's own life and those of others.
Stella: I like telling stories. We didn't have many books and we didn't have much money, so there was a lot of library borrowing. But I didn't know I could become a writer, coming from a family like mine. It was to do with my age and class; it was to do with being the first in my family to go to university. So, I went to university to earn an English literature degree, assuming that I might become a teacher. Returning to England, I started doing stand-up comedy and improvisation. I realized we weren't just doing comedy, we were telling stories, improvising plays. Out of that, I decided to start writing. I didn't know I was writing a novel--I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was a story I wanted to tell. I got an agent and sold it as a novel. After about three books, I called myself a writer.
What makes a good writer?
Stella: My definition of a good writer is a storyteller. I don't care about anything else. I find it astonishing that people talk about the voice mattering so much. I don't think the voice matters. I think the story matters. You can convey a story in whatever form; that's why I don't only work in prose. It's a basic human desire and need, the story of "What did you do today?" "We went to the park, we had lunch"--that's a real need.
Ruchira: Fundamentally, a love of life as well as a great curiosity about, and sympathy for, all kinds of people. The act of creation also derives from the impetus to introduce harmony and order into seemingly random and chaotic events around us. An awareness of existing social and political conditions, as well as a sense of history, are also great assets. In my view, a good writer, no matter what he focuses on, will bring out truths about the human condition that readers across the world can relate to.
What do you enjoy most about your work and what are the biggest challenges?
Stella: Telling stories is challenging, but it's a challenge I enjoy. It's only nonwriters who say they love writing. All the writers I know say they enjoy having written. It is like going to a gym or going for a run; it's the euphoric amazing feeling of "It worked" or the beating your head against a brick wall saying, "It didn't work today." You can't legislate which one you're going to get today. I am lucky. It's hard work--it's work I enjoy.
Ruchira: What I like is how it absorbs me: I forget food and sleep, whether it's hot or cold, night or day. It is my great good fortune that work is no longer work, but my joy and pleasure. I look forward to Mondays! Gustave Flaubert said that for any experience, thought or feeling, there is just one precise word. Every writer's struggle is to find that word. And in my country, especially for a woman, people don't take a writer's work as seriously as other professions. They expect you to be available to them at all hours.
Do you think fiction has a responsibility to educate?
Ruchira: If one starts out with a didactic purpose, the result is not art but speeches from the pulpit. But fiction must break stereotypes, expand people's horizons, widen their sympathies and ultimately celebrate life. And if a writer has strong core values, they will inevitably be reflected in his material.
Stella: I really hope not. I want to tell a story. It may be that because of who I am and because of what I believe and of how I live, some people find what I write educational. However, I think I would be a poor writer if my first impulse was to educate.
Does your perspective as a Buddhist influence your approach to work?
Stella: They have influenced each other. My approach to my writing has affected my Buddhist practice. I don't expect immediate results. I am very well aware that what I do today may not bear fruit for five years. There is this idea within our practice that one can create one's own happiness and that we are the authors of our own lives. That resonates with me enormously. It is really important to give everything you can. It doesn't mean that I always do or that I always achieve it. Not that giving it 100 percent makes it brilliant, but it means that I give it my attention in the moment. In the sequel to my novel, Theodora, I write about turning destiny into mission. Anyone needs a moment in their life where they say, "This feels like something I don't have any control over, and yet I can turn it into something in which I do have control." And we have times in our practice when we say, "Am I doing enough with this? I have it in my life--am I using this practice well enough, correctly?"
Ruchira: It was only after taking up Buddhism that I began to dream big and have acquired the strength to persevere in my goals. I have also discovered that the way to tap into my creative depths is by chanting and maintaining a connection with my mentor, SGI President Ikeda. My practice has encouraged me to write to touch and inspire people.
What kind of advice would you give an aspiring writer?
Stella: I would say the same as to people who start to practice Buddhism. This is not magic, you have to do it! It is doing the work that makes you the writer, or the Buddhist. It doesn't happen if you don't do the work. You have to keep going. That is the only advice to any writer. You have to get rejected; it's normal, you learn from that. You have to write some rubbish so you can write some brilliant stuff. You have to do it in order for something to happen.
Ruchira: To read the greatest writers of the world and avoid pulp as one would a personal enemy. The written word shapes us and our abilities. I would also earnestly urge them to believe in themselves and dream the biggest dreams. Each of us has the potential and power to fulfill them.
