When I wrote of how Sisters at New Dawn and Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells came into being, I had every intention of documenting the journey of each published book.
So much for that.
It’s been three months since The Clockwala’s Clues was published, and I kept postponing writing the story behind the story. Yesterday, however, I visited Kolsa Gully, which inspired my Tipu Gully, so I decided to take a few pictures and finally write Clockwala Uncle’s story.
Unlike my other books, The Clockwala’s Clues is heavily inspired by Pune, the city in which I grew up. In particular, it’s based loosely on what is popularly called the Camp area, with its bakeries, old shops and diverse population.
Here’s an excerpt from the book:
And here’s a picture of Kolsa Gully:
No, the key shop is not the first shop in the street, and no, it is not called A.K. Locks or A.K. Keys. But that’s where the idea came from. I love key shops, and I love the huge keys they make to advertise the existence of their tiny shops!
Do you see all the shops that make frames? Shining Frames was inspired by all these.
The third shop in Tipu Gully, Clockwala Clocks, is completely fictitious, but the truth is that I’ve always been fascinated by clocks of all kinds. There was a time when, at home, we had more than one clock in each room. My grandmother in Bangalore had a winding clock, and later, we got one too. A winding clock is special!
Our old, old clock:
Jasmine winds a clock:
And this brings me to the question I hear most often during school visits and interactions with children: where does your inspiration come from?
I find myself repeating that old, overused answer – everywhere. Sure, it’s a boring answer. The problem is that it is true. Inspiration comes from everywhere, and often, a seed of inspiration takes root years later.
I’ve been visiting Kolsa Gully since I was a child. The shop ‘Top’, which makes a brief appearance in the story, used to exist too, though I don’t know if it still does. I remember that my sister Nisha bought her first pair of heels there.
West End (and the picture that forms one of Clockwala Uncle’s clues) is a real cinema hall, which we visited before multiplexes came in.
By themselves, perhaps these places and facts don’t create a story, but slowly, the ideas come together and voila! A story is born.
The Clockwala’s Clues is special to me for so many reasons:
- It’s my first chapter book, and it made me discover how much I enjoy writing books of this length.
- I’ve loved the hOle books for ever so long, and I’m thrilled to have one of my own.
- It’s one of the (very few) stories I’ve written that has never been rejected. I wanted Duckbill to publish it; I sent it to them; they accepted it. Yes, it took time and more than one revision, but no rejection. That makes it oh-so-precious!
- Less than two months after it was published, it went into its first reprint. Only one other book of mine has gone into a reprint – The Story-Catcher – and that was about six years after it was first published!
There you go; that’s the story behind the story. It goes without saying that I would love for you to read it, review it, gift it and show it some love.
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