Guff-suff With Sushma Joshi | The Buzz | Book | wavemag.com.np

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My interview in Wave Magazine, Nepal's youth magazine.
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Guff-suff With Sushma Joshi
In numerology, Sushma means inspiring, intuitive, and creative. These characters define Sushma Joshi, writer of a collection of short stories entitled The End of the World. She talked to Wave about her fascination with Paul, the future telling Octopus.
FROM ISSUE # 176 (August 2010) |







PHOTO SEBASTIAN MEYER/GRAPHICS WAVE
Who do you write for: you or your readers?
I write because the story begs to be told. I don't think about myself or the readers.

How do you choose the names for your characters?
Sometimes I take them from myths, sometimes newspapers.

What is the most hurtful thing people have said to you?
I can't remember now, so they can't have been that hurtful.

What is the strangest thing you have done while researching a book?
I took an acting class in graduate school. Strangely enough, it helped me get into the minds of the characters, much faster than taking a class on how to write fiction.

Which five people would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Ang Lee, Oprah, William Dalrymple, Virginia Woolf and Tin Tin.

If you were deserted on an island, which book would you like to have with you?
Rumi's Rubaiyat. Am I allowed to take a few comics on the side?

Which fictional character do you resemble?
I played Catherine in "Proof" and people said I was the spitting image of her—more so than Gwyneth Paltrow. I guess I look like a genius mathematician and she looks like Shakespeare's lover.

What distracts you from writing?
Kathmandu. It's a big whirl. I need to go to some quiet, deserted island.

Who is your hero/heroine outside of fiction?
Paul the octopus. I am deeply fascinated by beings that have the ability to foretell the future. 

Are you happy with where you are in life?
Ask me in 2.2 years, and then I'll tell you.

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