Author Profile – Chitra Kallay: The Flat on Malabar Hill
Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
A: I was enrolled in a writing class through UCLA Extension. The first assignment was to tell a story in one page. I could not think of a thing! Then I remembered a little nugget I had read in an Indian newspaper about a couple who had deeded their home to their son–and the consequences of that action. People loved my one page story and urged me to expand it. So–I started from the factual end and built a fictional family to take me to that end. Along the way, I found the opportunity to write about the dilemma of a generation caught between children and parents, about the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s disease and about the differences and similarities between family life in India and the U.S.
Q: Do you have any secret writing tips you’d like to share?
A: Writing is hard work! I never realized how hard it was going to be. One of the best writing tips I can give is read, read, and read!
Q: Tell us a quirky or funny story about you!
A: The last thing I did in college was a master’s degree in journalism. I worked for Newsweek for a spell. I also did some writing for the Los Angeles Times–stories I sent them from India about a group of UCLA students visiting in the summer. Teaching had never crossed my mind. Then I married, and my husband, a lawyer in the Navy JAG, was posted to Guam! I had always lived in cities, and Guam was a small island; I knew I’d be restless. So I explored and found a four year college–I applied for a teaching job, but was told they had filled all their positions in English. Then one August day, I got a call asking if I was available; someone had backed out. Yes, I said excitedly, I was available. What would I be teaching? Basically, English literature from Chaucer to modern times–a very large order! I asked about books so I could prepare. Well, the books had not yet arrived from the mainland. When would classes start? The following week.
So my first teaching job was one where for a couple of weeks I taught from memory. I did have a very rewarding experience teaching wives, sons and daughters of U.S. Navy and Air Force officers and enlisted men. Also in the classes were native Guamanians, and young people from neighboring islands with delicious names like Yap and Truk. When I returned to the U.S. it was easier to use my experience to get teaching jobs. That is how I started on my teaching career.
Q: Have you ever battled writer’s block? How do you deal with it?
A: Of course I’ve battled writer’s block. The first time it happened, I sat and stared at my computer, panic slowly spreading through me. I thought, why did I ever think I could write a book? Finally, I left the desk and crept off to bed. I couldn’t move that block for a week. I stopped trying–I thought “No one will miss the book I never wrote.” Then one evening I booted up my computer intending to do my email–and just like that I opened up the last chapter I had written. And I started writing as if there had been no break at all. Several times I was uninspired–but after that first time, I didn’t worry about it. I knew when I was ready I would go to the page and the right words would flow. Often times, the characters would begin to weave their stories to me–that was the fun part. They made my writing easy.
Q: What’s your favorite quote?
A: I don’t have one.
Q: Who inspires you the most?
A: My daughter and son inspire me the most. They are amazing–and it was for them that I wrote “The Flat on Malabar Hill.”
