Ask the Author: Ryan Lobo
Answered Questions (4)
Ryan Lobo
I sit down and begin writing.
Ryan Lobo
I am currently working on a new book and a feature film screenplay. I am also going completely organic on my coconut farm.
Ryan Lobo
I spent some time on the river Ganges making various documentaries for various clients. More often than not our films were quite spectacular, like a couple we made some five years ago at the Kumbh Mela. I recall watching a very old couple walk down to the rivers edge and bathe in the Ganges. Later they told me that they knew this was the last time they were going to see the river. The venue was chaotic with millions of people in attendance and various film crews were shooting all that was spectacular, the sadhus, elephants draped in marigolds and ascetics waving swords. It was astonishing; that spectacle, but in all that I found something very special about that couple walking down to the river in absolute silence, just like their parents had and so on for thousands of years. It struck me that though my country had endured and still endures the effects of colonialism, invasions, corruption and poverty that something had survived through the centuries, that compelled that couple to live their faith.
The main character Mr. Lalgudi Iyer was inspired by the character of Don Quixote, an idealist who believed in the values of an older time, knight errantry and gallantry, despite living during a time of decline. He lived his values regardless of outcome, charging the monsters of his time both imaginary and real, and though crushed repeatedly, rises from the ashes. I would like to think that India as a civilization is ‘rising’ in the sense that particularities long suppressed due to poverty and colonialism have begun to flow again. Identities, religious and cultural, once overwhelmed and displaced are coming into themselves.
I chose a Tamil Brahmin as it was important for me to find a main character who lived in both the modern world and who was still profoundly in touch with his mythology and culture. In some regards many Tamil Brahmins are people who live their beliefs quite profoundly and have done so for a very long time. I recall watching a man conduct a funeral ritual once and an archaeologist friend told me that he had found evidence of the same ritual from the Bronze Age. I wanted a character to assert himself against what he feels to be the corruptions of our time and yet hold onto what he feels is most precious, the truths of his own belief and culture, like certain individuals I know.
What moved me was the relentless and enduring nature of Iyer's being, never allowing himself to be destroyed, never compromising and never giving up. He refuses to be a dying old man and instead aspires to be a hero.
The main character Mr. Lalgudi Iyer was inspired by the character of Don Quixote, an idealist who believed in the values of an older time, knight errantry and gallantry, despite living during a time of decline. He lived his values regardless of outcome, charging the monsters of his time both imaginary and real, and though crushed repeatedly, rises from the ashes. I would like to think that India as a civilization is ‘rising’ in the sense that particularities long suppressed due to poverty and colonialism have begun to flow again. Identities, religious and cultural, once overwhelmed and displaced are coming into themselves.
I chose a Tamil Brahmin as it was important for me to find a main character who lived in both the modern world and who was still profoundly in touch with his mythology and culture. In some regards many Tamil Brahmins are people who live their beliefs quite profoundly and have done so for a very long time. I recall watching a man conduct a funeral ritual once and an archaeologist friend told me that he had found evidence of the same ritual from the Bronze Age. I wanted a character to assert himself against what he feels to be the corruptions of our time and yet hold onto what he feels is most precious, the truths of his own belief and culture, like certain individuals I know.
What moved me was the relentless and enduring nature of Iyer's being, never allowing himself to be destroyed, never compromising and never giving up. He refuses to be a dying old man and instead aspires to be a hero.
Ryan Lobo
I felt I had something to say and felt that writing a novel was the best medium to communicate a story I compulsively felt that I just had to share. I am not sure I was inspired to write but I worked at it and along the way the act of writing itself took over, if that makes sense.
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