Usha Raman is an Indian author and poet. She is also a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad.

Her first novel, Polite Conversations, was published in 2024. Her other books include Writing for the Media (2010); a collection of poems, All the Spaces in Between (2009); and a children’s book, Under the Bed (2004).

Usha also edits Teacher Plus, a monthly magazine for schoolteachers.

Her writing has appeared in The Hindu, The Indian Express, Caravan, Deccan Chronicle, Times of India and The Wire (www.thewire.in). She has a blog, and a podcast called Reading for Our Times, which features people reading brief excerpts from books. She also contributes reviews to this website.

Talking About Books interviewed Usha on writing her first novel, the effect the new mediascape has had on reading books, and her poetry.

TAB: Your novel Polite Conversations is about three women: Parvati, her middle-aged daughter Kaveri, and Kaveri’s daughter Aparna. Which of these three women did you begin developing the story with and why?

UR: I think Kaveri and Parvati came to my mind together, and Aparna emerged later, as characters in the story. Of these, I began working on Kaveri’s narrative first, thinking that the others may only play supporting roles, but then the others refused to be entirely relegated to the sidelines. I suppose in some ways Kaveri represents the “sandwich” generation here, the one I know best, navigating relationships with adult children as well as ageing parents, and so her storyline does dominate.

TAB: How did you decide on the title of your novel Polite Conversations? Am I right in assuming that the title refers to spaces we leave in our conversations and the things we do not say?

UR: Actually, the working title I had originally used was Longing and Belonging—which my daughter (who has worked in publishing) shot down as being too pedestrian. Polite Conversations was my second choice, and I had initially used it just as a placeholder, thinking I’d come up with something better. The publisher, however, really liked it so we stuck with that title. Polite conversations refers to the veil of politeness that often hides the negative undercurrents within families, where we are schooled into a certain kind of amiability and discouraged from entering into discussions that can crack that veneer. This is particularly true of educated, privileged families where reputation and social approval become everything.

TAB: Each generation in the book seems to have more freedom to make choices, to have more control over their lives. At the same time, the pressure from society and the larger family to act in a certain way does not diminish. Can you elaborate on this?

UR: That’s true–I hadn’t actually thought of it as a “progression” of sorts, but it does reflect how things are today in many families, no? I certainly have more freedom of choice than my mother or grandmother did, and my daughters have many degrees more than I do. Yet there is a consciousness of social dis/approval that one is conscious of, even if younger people are less limited by it. There’s something to be said for the term “middle-class morality” and all the hypocrisies that go along with it, and with the characters in the novel, while they do push a little bit against social norms, they are still constrained within what they believe is “acceptable enough”—and I think so many of us play that delicate game, wanting to do our own thing yet not wanting to completely abandon the social structures we love to hate! It takes a lot to make a complete break or achieve a total transformation, and perhaps these are the compromises that many of us live with–small rebellions, for the most part.

TAB: This is your first novel. What, for you, was the hardest part of the creative process?

UR: I have a full-time job, so it was a challenge… to find the time and quiet to clear my mind for long enough stretches to commit myself to the writing. I wrote in very short bursts over a period of close to eight years. And then when the story lives inside your head for such a long time, you are not sure about its integrity or whether it works or not. There were other challenges, both to do with writing itself (how long to dwell in the mind of a character before moving the plot along, how to vary the tone across the three characters) and with the publishing (it took another eight years to find a publisher).

TAB: There seems to be a trend among authors writing in English to use words from another language without any translation or glossary. How does this shape the reader’s experience?

UR: I love this trend. I remember first encountering it in Junot Diaz’s work, and now you see it everywhere, both in translated work as well as in books written in English by speakers/users of other languages. I think it was Han Kang who said that many of us grew up reading work in English that had Latin and Greek terms and we were just expected to know them, or understand them in context, and her point was that in a globalized world, shouldn’t we all be willing to accept these smatterings of other languages? But also, it is how English(es) is/are used across the world, in cultures where it is spoken alongside many other languages, and that’s what you would hear, say, if you came to India or Sri Lanka. We throw into the English, like a dash of spice, a bit of Hindi, or Tamil, or whatever other language one speaks. Writing in English from a different culture introduces so many complexities—there is no way one can translate the culture in its entirety if one only used English. Using words that convey a sense of the local helps add that layer of richness, and I think that can only enhance the reader’s experience.

TAB: You have been a part of the Talking About Books reading challenge, reading books from around the world. Has this influenced your writing?

UR: Absolutely! All reading of course influences one’s writing, but the reading around the world challenge helped me understand how one might use English to convey other language cultures, and to appreciate translation even more. But in exposing me to so much good literature from countries I knew so little about, it made me feel a little bit daunted…because there is so much Indian writing in English, I began to think more deeply about how I might craft a voice that was distinct, yet intelligible. I’m not sure I’ve been able to do that, but then, my job was also easier because in some ways I am writing about a (mostly) recognizable urban experience that does not require too much translation.

TAB: You are also a poet. What inspires you to write poetry?

UR: Yes, poetry has been my first and maybe even primary mode of expression; fiction came later. Poetry is my response to both personal and social/political concerns, but also a medium through which I feel I can talk about everyday joys and heartbreak, things that are not linear (as a story) but held in the moment—as image, interaction, or sensibility. It’s also a way of making sense of things, working through ideas that may only be half-formed—but then, poetry allows one to express the unfinished thought. So what inspires me? My city. The trees and the rocks that make it still a place one can feel nature in. The contradictions and knotty situations that we encounter on the streets and in life, in culture and in politics. To write poetry requires stillness, the time to carefully sculpt words into meaning…and that’s something I haven’t had in a while–but once I find those moments of quiet, I will return to it.

TAB: Apart from being a writer, you have been teaching media studies for several years. What impact has the changing mediascape had on reading books?

UR: Strangely, books are so much more visible in popular culture than they were in the past, because of social media, yet by all accounts fewer people are reading books. More people certainly are aware of books and the buzz around them even if they don’t actually read! In my own classroom, of course, I find that very few actually read for pleasure. But if you go to a book fair or a literary festival (and these are mushrooming across the country), you find so many young people buying books, attending sessions, and engaging in discussions around books. And there are book bloggers (like yourself) and bookstagrammers with large followings. So there seems to be still a significant interest in books, and in reading. Maybe it’s a stage of life thing—there’s a growth in children’s literature, and more parents are buying books for their kids. But then towards high school the focus is solely on academics and so reading for pleasure falls off, possibly picking up again in the mid to late twenties when there is more leisure time and purchasing power. At this stage, social media helps (in a skewed way of course) to create visibility for some authors and books, and a desire to be part of the conversation around them.

TAB: Is writing something you have always done?

UR: I think so. My kindergarten teacher said, on my report card, “she has difficulty counting change but tells wonderful stories”! I had a four-line poem published in a Sunday newspaper when I was eight, and used those (mostly dreaded) composition classes to experiment with different styles. It’s something I did as a form of refuge (kept a diary all through school and college) and as a way of making sense of my world, but also a process I really enjoyed—the play with words, the way one could bring something into being with them.

TAB: Thank you, Usha, for the interview. I look forward to seeing where your path takes you next!

Read my review of Usha Raman’s book, Polite Conversations.