The Fire-Ant’s Sting – Desire Diaries
This here is Kamalini’s second book, an anthology of twelve stories around the theme of desire: The Fire-Ant’s Sting: Desire Diaries’. It encapsulates the journey of twelve diverse desires, working its way through varied characters; a colourful assortment that makes you want to succumb to every desire that comes your way, or resist, as may be the case.
Desire is inherent. It is an innate element in humans; it is what propels a person to achieve, to triumph and to fuel one’s ambition. Desire cannot be ignored, but it can be tempered. If allowed free reign, much like fire, it consumes. It is addictive.
Naked Beneath The Midnight Sun
Naked Beneath the Midnight Sun (Olympia, UK) is a debut novel.
The story recounts a year in the life of young Suchareeta (Suchu), a young Indian girl, who takes off to small town Vestby in Norway, on receiving a scholarship to a Folk High School; granting her the flight to freedom she yearns for. Suchu imagines herself a winged creature, liberated and ready. Even as she grapples with a new culture and philosophy, the young girl develops friendships that deepen over time spent outside of learning what the school’s curriculum offers. The story describes far more than Norway’s physical splendour, taking us on a journey with Suchu that is emotional and transformative.
Kamalini Natesan
Kamalini Natesan is a language teacher, writer, poet and has authored two books:
- Naked Beneath the Midnight Sun (2019, Olympia UK) and,
- The Fire Ant's Sting: Desire Diaries, an anthology of twelve tales (2023, Om Books International)
She teaches French when not writing and is a classical vocalist. Having grown up in an environment where education was not just derived from poring into books, and writing exams, in Pondicherry (Sri Aurobindo Ashram School), her free spirit was allowed to blossom unfettered. Later she chose to pursue her passion in vocal music and cultivate her love of languages.
She speaks German, French, Spanish and a wide range of Indian languages.
She wishes to open a book café and hold writing courses, even as she would continue writing short stories and novels.
The Blog
Men Without Women ~ Haruki Murakami
Murakami’s construct leaves all of his stories open to a myriad interpretations, and that’s the beauty of his narrative.
He manages to etch distinct characters in each of his tales with remarkable dexterity and the Murakami mind observes quietly, much like the Lamprey, who live off life itself. I was agog by the sheer brilliance of an imagination that defies coherence yet draws you in, makes you believe.
The Firebird ~ Saikat Majumdar
Majumdar writes with great sensitivity- delving deep into the young lad’s mind, drawing from both the light and the dark that exist in tandem within. Ori senses the resentment his mother’s stage life provokes in others around him, the family and neighbours.
Script & ScreenWriting Workshop (HWR) May 2023
A script and screenwriting workshop in a haven called Himalayan Writer’s Retreat nestled in the mountains at Satkhol (3 hours from the plains at Kathgodam) en route via Bhimtal. It was an enriching experience with participants from all over India and abroad. Anu Singh Choudhary who has co-scripted many screenplays such as Aryaa, mentored us with great patience and panache. The four-day workshop was a great learning experience. And in such an idyllic environment too.
MAD HONEY Jodi Picoult ~ Jenny Finney Boylan
We aren’t here on earth in order to bend over backward to resemble everybody else. We’re here to be ourselves, in all our gnarly brilliance.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
“People will always yearn for a simple solution to their complicated problems. It’s a lot easier to have faith in something you can’t see, can’t touch, can’t explain, and can’t change, rather than to have faith in something you actually can.”
And, “Physical suffering, he’d long ago learned, bonds people in a way that everyday life can’t.” Bang on.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida ~ Shehan Karunatilaka
The novel is wrought with violence, both internal and external and noise, that I heard, and shrunk from. Yet there are moments of pause, when I put the book down because I could take no more of the stark imageries that seem to streak the afterlife; dismembered limbs, blood-stained bandanas, eyes in various hues, skulls and ghouls and all that can make you tremble in your sleep. There is unsettling humour that lines the almost-400 page novel.