‘I love thinking about what makes people tick’

Sri Lanka-based author Chhimi Tenduf-La’s collection of interlinked stories, Loyal Stalkers, has been published by Pan Macmillan India. His previous two novels are The Amazing Racist and Panther, which were published in 2015. 

Loyal Stalkers brings together 15 edgy stories of  everyday Sri Lankan living where “smugglers, waiters, single moms and cheaters cross paths as they attempt to negotiate a web of shock, subterfuge and irony.”

Tenduf-La says that he loves thinking about what makes people tick; what in their past makes them behave well or badly in the present. “With these stories, because they are linked, one story may explain a character’s emotions and relationships in another. I begin writing most stories assuming all characters want to be good people and when they do bad things I can refer back to another story to see if there is an explanation for this,” says the author. He adds, “Since these stories are about relationships, so it made sense to examine how characters in different stories interact and affect each other.”

Tenduf-La says all his characters are either based on quirky people he knows (mainly his mother-in-law) or had read about. “Obviously I take some liberties,” he says. 

THE PUNCH: All your stories in Loyal Stalkers deftly deal with relationships and human emotions. How did you go about choosing the canvas for these stories?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: I love thinking about what makes people tick; what in their past makes them behave well or badly in the present. As a parent with young children, I am invariably aware of how much my actions and behavior can affect how they turn out. With these stories, because they are linked, one story may explain a character’s emotions and relationships in another. I begin writing most stories assuming all characters want to be good people and when they do bad things I can refer back to another story to see if there is an explanation for this. 

THE PUNCH: How did these 15 stories come about? Did you set out to write interlinked stories or it happened as you were working on these stories? 

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: I started most of these as stand-alone stories. I am aware that it is easier for a reader to put a book down if each story starts from scratch so I wanted to link them so that, as the reader gets further into the book, he or she will want to continue rather than treating each chapter as a separate event. As you said in your first question, these stories are about relationships, so it made sense to examine how characters in different stories interact and affect each other.

THE PUNCH: Contemporary Sri Lanka and its people come alive in your books. Even though it’s your adopted country, you seem to capture the typical nuances and mannerisms of the Islanders really well. What do you think gives you an edge? How relevant to your writing are the insider-outsider perspectives?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: Because I am not actually Sri Lankan, I am more fascinated with day-to-day life here than someone who may take it for granted. I would struggle to think of a more helpful, considerate population. The generosity is incredible, particularly with those who have less than others. Because I am not as kind, generous and helpful myself, this is more obvious to me. Someone in England may not write about how cold it is, because that is the norm. Even though I have lived here for a long time, some things are still new to me, so I observe them, remember them and write about them. 

THE PUNCH: Do you draw on your own experiences? Do these stories have real-life parallels?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: All my characters are either based on quirky people I know (mainly my mother-in-law) or have read about. Obviously I have taken some liberties; for instance, I know a gym instructor who is painfully shy and barely talks. He instructs his new female clients with claps and gestures rather than words. He is actually one of the nicest, most gentle and loving people I know. In the book, I turned him into a stalker. This outward personality trait fit nicely with the character arch of the obsessive and abused trainer I was writing about.

The other stories have real-life parallels too. Most are based on events I have read about, be it here or in other parts of the world. Because they are all about human emotions, it was easy to transport a true story from an American high school, for example, into a Sri Lankan setting. 

THE PUNCH: How do some of the native Sri Lankans respond to their life you portray in your books?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: Some say I have captured it well and can see how obviously I love the country, for all its strengths and weaknesses. They are able to nod their heads and say how much my characters are like people they know. At the end of the day, all I am really doing is observing these characters and writing about them as best I can. A few readers want to rub chili powder in my eyes because they think, as a foreigner living here, I have no right to paint the country in anything but the most positive light. I think a fair criticism, in some ways, is that maybe my dialogue pokes fun at people for whom English is not their native language. Yet, it would be very hard to write convincing dialogue for some of my characters if I made them sound like Churchill and again, all the peculiar turns of phrase I use I have not invented. They are things I have heard. I think since I have grown and matured as a writer, I have got this balance better in Loyal Stalkers. 

THE PUNCH: Tell us about your first impressions of Sri Lanka. Has your approach and understanding changed over the years?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: We moved here when I was eight years old, and my main memories of that time were that all the mild curries people kindly made for me were explosive. I remember going to a hamburger joint which served what seemed to be a rock between a stale bun. Yet, what I remember the most is people smiling; we had been here on holiday many times before we came to live here and I always used to love it because people were so friendly. That has not changed, but the quality of hamburgers has. 

I now see the country through the eyes of an adult rather than a child, but this does not mean I am more perceptive in anyway. I guess you just become a little more cynical. I used to go through a phase of wondering what someone wants from me if they are smiling and being overly friendly. Now I realise, okay there are a few bad eggs, but on the most part they are just exceptionally kind people and if occasionally I get ripped off I feel sorry for the people who do it because they could have children to feed. It is better to be cheated than to cheat, and I am thankful I am in a situation where I do not have to be tempted by the latter. 

THE PUNCH: In some of your stories, you dwell on the class difference and prejudice. How stark are the social inequities there?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA:  It’s similar, but perhaps not as stark as it is in India. There has been a concerted effort made by some organizations to address prejudice at a young age here, so that we do not repeat the mistakes of older generations. To be honest, this is the country I know best as I have been here for so long. I have to remind myself that there is prejudice everywhere in the world; it just takes different forms. 

I also have to be honest enough to admit that I cannot preach about class divides and the like, when I do not allow my domestic help to sit down and eat with us. The story, “Help, Help,” is about that. We can say all we like about wanting to help shed the class divide and promote equality, but at the same time I take advantage of inequality by employing a maid at a salary which is well above the market rate, but not enough to provide her family with any level of security. I obviously would not be able to afford to have domestic help in the UK, yet I sit down with friends complaining about our respective maids. 

THE PUNCH: Do you consciously set out to foreground the contemporary Sri Lanka and let the ripple effects of war serve as an occasional background?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA:  I lived in Colombo throughout the war and whilst we had checkpoints and the occasionally bomb, I never really lived in fear. In some ways, I think it would be disrespectful to those in other parts of the island for me to write extensively about the war, with the knowledge and experience I have. I am not saying you had to live there, but if you didn’t, like other great Sri Lankan writers, you need to understand it and have researched it more than I have. 

Our neighbours were assassinated in front of us when I was very young, but somehow this did not scare me. Even at that age, I always thought how children in other parts of the country must live in fear all the time. This is not to say that I am altruistic in anyway, but more that I wondered how I would cope in such a situation. Because I do not know the answer to that, I preferred to leave the war out of this book and show many other facets of Sri Lankan life. 

THE PUNCH: Of late, there have been some wonderful writers from Sri Lanka whose books have made a mark. Could you talk about some writers from Sri Lanka whose writings appeal to you?  

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: Nayomi Munaweera, who read and gave us a blurb for Loyal Stalkers, is a huge influence. Her writing is beautiful and has enormous literary merit but what I admire most about her is that she is enormously brave. I am more like other Sri Lankans in that I do not like to rock the boat, but she has perhaps influenced me to be more courageous. 

As much as I love their books, what I have learnt most from Sri Lankan writers like Nayomi, Shehan Karunatilaka and Ashok Ferrey is how generous they are to new writers who are looking for advice and a platform. They love what they do and want more people from here to join in. 

THE PUNCH: Please share something about your literary influences.

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: For this particular book, I was influenced more by film than books. Robert Altman’s excellent movie, Short Cuts, was based on Raymond Carver stand-alone short stories. Altman linked these stories by having characters in one, popping up in another. This allowed him to study their emotions in more depth. 

Currently, my influences are a little strange in that they come more from non-fiction than fiction. I feel I learn more about relationships, anxieties and insecurities from non-fiction and this helps me to create plots. 

THE PUNCH: What are you working on next?

CHHIMI TENDUF-LA: I am working on my body! When I saw some publicity shots of myself, I noticed how much weight I have put on. 

I started writing a crime novel and was enjoying doing so, but I felt it would aid my own skills to take a break and read more instead. Plus, I am boring people on Facebook with the publicity for this book, so I may spare them for a couple of years. Also, I want to take stock and see how these short stories are received before I commit to another book. I would love to be able to write more short stories, if there is a market for it.