CONVERSATION WITH MR. KRISHNA GUBILI

About the author:

Krishna Gubili was born in 1970 in Hyderabad, India. He lives in Easton, PA, USA with his wife and daughter. He is passionate about history, travel, movies and cricket. 

He is an alumnus of JNTU College of Engineering, Hyderabad and Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. This is his debut book.

Questionnaire:

1) when did you first realize you wanted to be a writer ?

Ans: I never planned to be a writer, actually. My goal was to find my great grandfather. After the miracle trip in 2014 when I found my great grandfather, when I started talking about it to my friends and family members, I realized that very few people had heard of Indian Indenture. Some of my mentors who heard about the life long search and the miraculous find, told me that I should write this story. That’s how my writing journey began.

2) how long did it take you to write this book, Viriah ?

Ans: I started writing in early 2015 and the book was published in December 2018. So, close to 4 years.

3) what is your work schedule when you are writing ?

Ans: The work I do to earn my living involves lot of travel and late night calls all the time. Managing the writing schedule along with the tough work schedule was very challenging. But the idea of telling the Indian indenture was a big motivator which kept me going. The ideal way is to block a set amount of time every day to write. I wish I could do that, but couldn’t.

4) what would you say is your interesting writing quirk ?

Ans: I did need a cup of tea every time I sat down to write.

5) where do you get your information or ideas for your books ?

Ans: I spent lot of time reading about Indenture. Books, web sites, reports on the subject. I was doing this research for a long time to search for my great grandfather and it helped when I started writing as I had already collected good amount of information.

6) what do you like to do when you're not writing ?

Ans: Read. 

7) Tell us something about your book, Viriah ?

Ans: Like most people, I love chocolates, ice cream, and delicious Indian sweets such as laddoos, jalebi, and gulab jamoons. Like most people, I rarely thought about how sugar, the key ingredient in all these treats, is grown and manufactured. I most likely would never have thought about it, but for the curiosity about my roots.  As a child, my grandmother told me stories about my great-grandfather, that he went to South Africa, was hardworking, but died poor and in tragic circumstances. I wondered why he went to South Africa and what happened in his life. Unfortunately, there were no records or photographs for me to see. All I had were stories from my grandmother and a lot of questions. As a youngster, I was sad to learn that my great-grandfather was an indentured coolie.He was one of the 1.3 million (13 Lakh) Indians who were sent as indentured laborers in the ninteenth century to sugarcane planations in the Caribbean, Mauritius, South Africa and Fiji.

                           

The indenture life was like slavery. The coolies suffered immense hardship on the sugarcane plantations, working dawn to dusk, six days a week in inhuman conditions. The farm owners withheld pay and rations at their whim. Coolies were whipped for the slightest mistakes and women coolies were constantly sexually harassed. I was determined to find my great grandfather. The search took me to countless researchers, websites, embassies, ship lists, social sites and relatives without any success for more than twenty five years. But I did not give up. I kept trying harder. In 2014 on a miracle trip to South Africa, I found the original ship record of my great grandfather. After a lifetime of search, I was finally able to piece together his life. The story of Indian sugar indenture is hardly known today in India. No history books mention it. Today, about 4.5 million (45 Lakh) people of Indian descent live in the indenture countries of South Africa, West Indies and Mauritius. Some of the famous Indians are West Indian cricketers Alvin Kallicharan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, World # 1 Golfer, Vijay Singh from Fiji, Nobel literature prize winner V. S. Naipaul and Anerood Jugnauth, former prime minister of Mauritius. This book, titled “VIRIAH” after my great grandfather is an attempt to present a sadly neglected chapter in human history, the story of Indian indenture. The addendums on Gandhiji, Colonial historyand Sugar history will surely make this an interesting read.

8) what one of the most surprising thing you learned in creating your books ?

Ans: Not surprising but a revealing fact that I learnt about writing journey is that it is lonely. It is a one person project. The ideas, thoughts and words have to come from within. One may get editorial help etc., but to get the story to life, it is you and you alone. One has to be comfortable to talk and listen to oneself. If the project goes for four years, that becomes tiring.

Link to buy:

https://www.amazon.in/Viriah-Indentured-Sugarcane-Plantations-Great-Grandfather/dp/1684663245/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1550862343&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=viriah&psc=1