My pen whizzes by wherever it wishes: Renée Ranchan

Our lived experience aids in creating new memories every day. Be it our relations within our family or bonds with our friends, everything evolves with each passing day and creates a special place in our day-to-day lives. Weaving these experiences in words is author and Delhi-based columnist Renée Ranchan’s latest collection of short stories titled WIDESCREEN. Having travelled far and wide in the West, she shares her perspectives with a dash of humour in this book.

What propelled you to compile the short stories as the book WIDESCREEN? Since the stories are not related to one another, did you face any challenge in sewing together these anecdotal tales for the reader to smoothly travel from one chapter to the other?

A long while back — actually a lifetime ago — I had written a book of poems titled Pain Propels. Funny how you’ve used the word propelled! WIDESCREEN was made into a book by stitching together a patchwork of columns narrated in what was more or less story form. Yes, as one goes through these 51something write-ups, there are multifold tales within tales, some interconnected while others are a far cry from the ones that follow.

How many years did it take you to complete the collection?

The pieces were penned over a period of two and half years — I had a bimonthly space to fill in a magazine. I do not think there was a challenge or brain-teaser of any sort. My pen, as I’ve often said, has a mind of its own, and whizzes by wherever it wishes to — for the most [part], crafting many coloured patchworks into an all-embracing quilt.

The titles of each chapter are quite conversational. Was this intentional on your part to create a dialogue with the reader while holding their attention?

I guess all pieces are interactive and speak in a chatty way. Again, it was not pre-planned to write [in this manner]. Regarding the titles, they were christened so after finishing the narration, for me to name them after reading. It was akin to naming a child according to what one would perceive their personality to be! And so we have chapter titles like Man-Machine Mesh, Human Harvesting, No Manners to Mind, Something to Munch on and more.

Who or what was the inspiration behind the illustrations strewn all over this book? Why did you feel it was important to give a visual to the readers to support the written thought presented alongside?

Yes, I adore the endearingly delightful sketches. I thought it was imperative to picture parallel stories by themselves — with the accompanying written words. To me, they add to the texture and tone, furnish a flavour of their own. They dress up, maybe even festoon the pieces; even adding a humorous edge. Here, I must add that it was the designer of the book, Rohit Kathuria’s magic touch, at work.

Some sections at the end of stories, formatted in bold, are quite lyrical in nature. Is this due to your inclination towards poetry?

Honestly, my ears didn’t hear any poetic note to them! The bold text towards the end of each piece have an embossed effect (again, courtesy Rohit) which, to me, was pivotal. The reason is that perhaps, with the constantly dwindling number of readers, these highlighted snippets at the bottom of each write-up, might just pique the interest of a prospective reader to take a dip into the tale from the start. The same was the reason for the speak-to-you sketches — to hold one’s attention. With OTT platforms drawing readers away from literature and bookbased stories, this is just a bid to temporarily beckon them back.

I adore the endearingly delightful sketches [in the book]. I thought it was imperative to picture parallel stories by themselves — with the accompanying written words. RENÉE RANCHAN, Author

The stories are an easy read but explore varied emotions through simple writing. Do you feel it’s easier for you to be simple, or love to explore complex writing patterns and chose otherwise only for this book?

I should think WIDESCREEN, coined so, covers my flitting from one end of the globe to the other side of it — be it diagonally, horizontally or even hanging like a bat. [It could even be interpreted as] trying to make sense of the maze we are stuck in. As

I said at the outset, it’s my pen that does the thinking — it’s the chariot as well as the charioteer, so I have little to say.