A number of residencies are now allowing writers the space to exit their ‘real’ lives and focus on their creativity
Myriad stories and inspirations run amok. If only there was a place where they could be woven into a work of creative brilliance. This is where an artist or writer’s residency comes into play.
Away from the hullabaloo of the mundane, it’s a place where the prerogative to create is given freedom to soar. Be it internationally renowned ones like the Bellagio and Vermont Studio or Delhi’s Khoj, Bengaluru’s Sangam House and T.A.J. or Goa’s Sunapranta or Fundacao Oriente, Nikhil Chopra’s Heritage Studio, Mumbai’s Waa Studio or smaller lesser known hubs, there are many spaces that have taken the onus to explore the mind, to ideate, connect and flourish. For instance, there is right now a poetry slam being organised at Chorao in Goa, where poets can enthuse on verse.
Pondicherry and Kolkata also have their offerings of resting places for writers to rejuvenate their creative juices and get some quiet time to concentrate on writing. Novelist and writer Margaret Mascarenhas ran a pilot for Sunapranta in Goa for exchange artists earlier. She is also providing a space for artistes and writers to stay at her Portuguese home in Goa.
“Most residencies abroad are not easy to get into, you have to apply, pay a fee, be among thousands, jump loops, screen tests, etc. Since I have an extra house in Goa. I decided to create my own small space where I have hosted pretty major writers (I’d rather not mention names), and it’s pretty continuous,” explains the author of Skin, who is working on her second collection of poems and a third novel.
Delhi-based lawyer-turned-art conservationist Sumant Batra feels that India needs such spaces. With his to-be-launched Kumaon Literary Festival on October 1, his little village near Mukteshwar, Dhanachuli, will be where arts converge, “It will be the hub of arts and culture — a place 7,000 feet above sea level. I have planned a few cottages where writers can come and rejuvenate, and they will have access to a huge library too.”
She lives in the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains in Coimbatore. And she has created her own residency! Novelist Venita Coelho, author of Dungeon Tales and The Washer of the Dead: A Collection of Ghost Stories, lives in an ashram and believes residencies are wonderful getaways, “A writer has no place to go today. I don’t mind starting one here as it is so peaceful and beautiful, maybe next year. I am writing like a maniac right now and am also building a house. The idea of getting away for three months and writing sounds blissful though,” says Venita, who has just finished a children’s book Dead as a Dodo and has three books under an alias waiting to be released.
But there are those that like the anonymity and newness of a far away land, like fiction and travel writer Janhavi Acharekar who grew up in Mumbai and Kolkata. For her recently published historical fiction Wanderers, All, she stayed in four residencies (three outside the country). She says, “A residency offers time away from daily life. It structures that time. I was the Charles Wallace Fellow at the University of Stirling — the location fuelled my inspiration for the novel set in colonial India. My next residency was in an old manor house in Denmark which offered a sort of time travel to the century in which my book is set! There was one in Latvia too. My third was in Pondicherry as a part of the Sangam House Residency, and it had an indelible effect on my work.”
The need for more residencies is crucial, given that there so few. For Arshia Sattar, the director of Sangam House in Bengaluru, it was this idea of giving the writer a place to congregate in individual pursuits that opened the gates to the dance village of Nrityagram in Bengaluru. For Arshia, whose most recent publications are Lost Loves: Exploring Rama’s Anguish, Sangam is a labour of love, “Residencies are a great help as they allow writers and artists to exit ‘real’ lives and concentrate on work. Often, in the company of peers, something that shows up in their work, years on. Sangam House opened in 2008, and as far as I know, we’re the only residency in the country, perhaps in South Asia, that provides space exclusively to writers.”
For author Richard Crasta, author of the Revised Kama Sutra, a residency is replete with possibilities, “I would love to have a place, a naturally blessed and quiet spot for social interaction, but enough isolation for writing. So there would be a combination of calm and comfort with creative interactions. A place that does not discriminate against politically incorrect writers, and does not demand recommendations, but judges creativity by the output itself, and the risk-taking nature of the writing,” he says.
Frederick Noronha, editor and publisher, speaks about authors coming to the sunny beaches of Goa for their tryst with creative spurts. “Writer Cristina Osswald who has written a book on Jesuit Art in Goa, stayed at a writer’s residence here,” he says.
Debut author Raghu Karnad wrote his recently launched novel, Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War, at two residencies. “The first chapter was written at Sangam and the book was finished at T.A.J. At home, one has to struggle to get away. The thing about writing a book is that you don’t really have an office, it just at home or a coffee shop, so no one believes you are working — friends are incredulous and family have some ‘mama’ one has to meet! Working from home emboldens other people to distract you, it also emboldens you to daily life, thus nothing gets done,” Karnad says. Recalling his time at the residency, he says, “There was a Japanese woman, an essayist, a Danish man, a children’s book writer, a young white South African short story writer and a French Malayali writer — all experienced writers whose imprints have remained with me”
Tara Kelton started T.A.J. two years ago with founder Sunita Kumar Emmart. “It is an interdisciplinary space which helps create dialogue. The idea is to get people to think, ideate and interact with the sole purpose of embellishing talent,” explains Tara.
Sitting in a room with your thoughts as company, with silence as your partner, gives clarity, feels Karnad. “There is a seclusion to let your thoughts form. There is daaru and conversation in the evening. Yet, the isolation is sacrosanct. The danger, of course, is that someone could get addicted to residences” he cautions with a laugh.
Nihaal Faizaal, a video artist, recently completed his residency at Bengaluru artist Suresh Jayaram’s quaint 1 Shanthi Road address. “The living room is forever bustling with ideas with Suresh playing host, ready with a fresh cup of chai. I shared my residency with a photographer, performer and a video artist. We met and shared views. It culminated in a show,” says the 16 mm videographer.
Archana Prasad, artist and graduate from NID and founder and director, Jaaga, says, “We are keen to support artists who want to jump into the deep end of the urban mayhem. We push residents hard, to look at how their work links to the communities, places and city. I see residency models as critical to the active nurturing of creativit.,”
Talent, they say is nurtured, it is but a flame. And genius is a fire. Such havens are rekindling the embers of that fire… for leaps in creative freedom.
— With inputs from Soumashree Sarkar and Namita Gupta
