‘I like to try and write every day’
Chiranthi Rajapakse
A watch repairer occupies the centre of the title story of Keeping Time, Chiranthi Rajapakse’s unpublished collection of short stories shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize 2022 that oozes the nectar of everyday lives – lives both ordinary yet phenomenal.
“I was curious about people who are good at working with their hands, because I am really clumsy and that’s something I struggle with. I was trying to understand what it would be like inside the head of someone who is different from me.”
Chiranthi, having been shortlisted in 2017 for her collection Names and Numbers, has worn many hats. She has been a dentist, teacher, journalist, researcher, and worked with international organisations.
Having spent her early childhood in Matara, the family then moved to Kandy where she burrowed deep into the resources of the British Council library. The staples of those years – Agatha Christie, P.G. Wodehouse – “still remain my favourite comfort reading,” she says.
In the past three years she has worked with UNDP in Sri Lanka, and will soon be starting work with LIRNEasia. While she is currently completing a Masters in Human Rights, writing still “remains the central part of (her) life.”
Basically a short story writer, Chiranthi says she did not consciously pick up the genre.
“I think as I started writing I was drawn to writers who could express a great deal through a few words. I think I tend to be fairly concise, so perhaps the shortness of the form attracted me.”
Even through that tumult of jobs she kept on writing. While the exercise was solitary she knew one needs company to complete the journey. “I used to look out for writing workshops, groups, anything which would give me a community.”
It was thus she met someone who has been a guiding light for emerging writers – Ameena Hussein. Her encouragement led to the publication in 2017 of Names and Numbers.
“I always wish I could have a plot worked out beforehand but I find that really hard to do.” She always starts with something that bemuses or annoys her, working out as she writes what happens next.
“Once a first draft is done, I put it away for a while. I go back to it later and try to read it again as someone who hasn’t read the story before (This is impossible to do with your own work, but I try).”
Then she trims it, looking into what parts work and what don’t. “Should it be longer? Shorter?” she keeps at this till she can’t think of anything else to change (or simply runs out of energy to do more with it).
The story titled Man Next Door in the collection, she says, was woven out of an accident she heard of as a child. ‘Blue’ is set during the protests of 2022, and was triggered by the shortages and problems Sri Lankans were facing. ‘Merit’ is about a man who is nervous about a job interview and is tormented by the sound of a temple loudspeaker going on all night.
“All these stories started from some actual happening but changed in the process of writing.”
As for secrets of trade, she is not sure she has any but offers the following insights:
“Write a lot and read a lot. Regardless of what other job I was doing, I kept writing all the time. I’m also a persistent writer of journals. Sometimes when I get stuck with thinking about what to write I go back to my journals for ideas. I am very much a person of routine and I guess this is reflected in how I write. I like to try and write every day even if it’s a very short passage. It makes me feel better.
“I do want to say though that’s what works for me. Different people have different ways of approaching it. There are days when it’s really hard to think of anything to write and most days I feel dissatisfied with what I’ve done. But when I haven’t written for a while I miss it. I write because I want to.”
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