At Thiruvananthapuram’s All Saints’ College, Khyrunnisa A’s lectures were always keenly awaited. The humour she garnished them with transformed routine English classes into joyful learning.
Her friends, too, have long savoured her way with words. The kind that can prompt a quiet chuckle or leave behind a lingering lightness.
Khyrunnisa traces that instinct for humour to her childhood. The youngest of eight siblings, she used humour to make herself noted amidst the clamour of a large family.
Perhaps it was inevitable that humour would eventually lead her to writing. Today, she has built a devoted readership, particularly among young readers, with the warm wit in her books, including the much-loved ‘Butterfingers’ series.
Older readers, meanwhile, are drawn by the nostalgia, returning to her stories for quiet escapes.
With nearly 20 books and novellas that have earned her several laurels, Khyrunnisa is one of Kerala’s most popular English writers. For her, humour is less an achievement than an instinct and an enduring reason to keep writing.
Excerpts from an interaction:
You once described your entry into children’s literature as “accidental”. How did it begin?
In school and college, English and composition periods were special to me. I also wrote stories for All India Radio and college magazines. But I never aspired to become a writer.
The turning point came when my son was young. We used to read ‘Tinkle’, which announced an all-India competition for adult writers of children’s fiction. I loved sports and humour, so I wrote a story blending both. It became my first ‘Butterfingers’ story and won the second prize.
Someone associated with ‘Tinkle’ nudged me to enter the following year as well. I did and won the first prize. That boosted my confidence.
Around the same time, I began writing a regular column for the Express on literary classics and fiction. I also won the Children’s Book Trust prize and the Unisun award. All this happened while I was still teaching.
In ‘Butterfingers’, Amar is the protagonist. That’s your son’s name…
In my original story, the boy was called Mukesh. In 2006, ‘Tinkle’ asked whether I could create a regular character. I was told Mukesh sounded old-fashioned.
I normally used names of boys and girls I knew, because my son would never allow me to use his name. But this time I asked whether I could change Butterfingers’ name from Mukesh to Amar. I don’t think he was even listening properly, but he nodded.
How did ‘Butterfingers’ move from ‘Tinkle’ to a series of novels?
The original stories were much longer than the comic strips. Once I had enough, I sent them to Puffin. The editor liked the fun, school atmosphere and character, and asked whether I could write a novel. That became ‘Howzzat Butterfingers!’ in 2010.
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was among the fans of ‘Howzzat Butterfingers!’…
After the book came out, I received a letter from Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. It remains a precious possession. Penguin had sent him the book, and he wrote saying how much he had enjoyed it.
He had been a hero from my school days, so you can imagine what it meant to me. The reprint carried his words on the cover.
Where did your interest in sports come from?
I have always loved sports. We played cricket at home while growing up. I used to read newspapers from the sports pages.
My first novel was cricket-based and the second, ‘Goal, Butterfingers!’, football-based. I wanted to write one on tennis, but my editor said, “Tennis doesn’t sell. We want cricket.”
That led to ‘Clean Bowled, Butterfingers!’. The challenge was to make it completely different: the children play without conventional bats and balls, using all sorts of things instead.
You also wrote a ‘Butterfingers’ story involving karate…
Someone once told me, “I don’t like cricket. If you write about karate, I will read it.”
I knew very little about karate, but took it up as a challenge. I read about it, watched YouTube videos and films, and did all the research I could.
Humour is central to almost everything you write. Where does it come from?
I am the youngest of eight children. In a house with so many people, everybody has an opinion. So we used humour to get noticed. I also read a lot of humorous books when I was young. Even in school compositions, I would sprinkle in humour. Perhaps I internalised it. While teaching, I used humour to keep students interested. It comes naturally to me.
Q. Do you feel typecast as a humour writer?
I have written serious stories too. Some have appeared in collections such as ‘Vanilla Desires’ and ‘The Shrinking Woman and Other Stories’.
People who read them tell me, “Very nice, but that’s not you.” People probably identify me with humour, and I don’t mind that.
Do editors intervene much in your plots?
Hardly ever. The only real disagreement I remember was while writing ‘Clean Bowled, Butterfingers!’. I used the word ‘sapota’. My editor wanted ‘chikoo’, saying people in the north might not know ‘sapota’.
But ‘sapota’ sounded better to me. Finally, we compromised. One character says ‘sapota’ and another explains it as a chikoo.
Your titles are often quirky — ‘The Mystery of the History Paper’, ‘The Lizard of Oz’, ‘The Couch Potato Who Said Ouch’, ‘Happy Go Funny’.... How do you come up with them?
Mostly, by myself. Sometimes the editor suggests one. ‘The Lizard of Oz’ happened differently. There were lizards at home. One lizard was chasing another and suddenly ‘Lizard of Oz’ struck me.
Sometimes you write a story and find a title afterwards. Sometimes you get a title first and have to find the story hidden inside.
How important is research when writing for children?
It is vital. People may assume children’s books do not require much research. That is wrong. Books are a source of knowledge for children, so you are responsible for what you tell them.
For ‘The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories’, to cite an example, I had to thoroughly research lizards, mosquitoes, flies, and many other creatures.
How are you able to understand the mind of a 10- or 12-year-old?
I was the youngest of eight. As my eldest sister married when I was very young, I became an aunt at the age of seven. So there were always little children around.
It is also important to remain in touch with children because things keep changing. I visit schools often. Many of my former students are now teachers, so I continue interacting with children regularly.
Children’s lives are now dominated by technology. Does that require you to change the way you write?
Technology has changed enormously, and naturally I bring computers and other things into stories when they are part of children’s world. But technology need not be at the centre of my plots.
When we were young, we read books written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and still entered those worlds. Even if technology changes, the basic story does not have to.
Is there any particular feedback from children that has stayed with you?
Once, a schoolboy asked me, “How do you get your ideas?”
I replied, “They could come from anywhere. You have to observe what is happening around you.”
He then gave me a prompt: “Butterfingers is sitting near the window writing his exam. There is a gust of wind and his paper flies out of the window. Now you write.”
That was all. It was a beautiful one-line beginning. I eventually turned it into ‘The Mystery of the History Paper’.
Amar’s history paper flies out of the window and gets mixed up with the principal’s paper. The principal has forgotten a password and remembers only that it has something to do with a war. When he sees Amar’s paper, he notices that the boy has written about the Battle of Haldighati. Suddenly, he remembers — Haldighati is his password.
What began with one sentence from a child became an entire plot.
What do you make of the present generation’s reading habits and preference for shortcuts?
Attention spans have certainly become shorter. Teachers tell me how frustrating it can be. Students don’t want lectures, classes or books.
The system itself can encourage shortcuts. There came a stage when evaluators were effectively discouraged from giving low marks. If every institution just wants to boast a large number of ‘first-classes’, what does that eventually mean?
Books seem to be selling in large numbers. Are young people still reading?
Whenever I go to schools or colleges, I am almost always asked, “Can you give us some writing tips?”
Sometimes a child has written a little, and the parents immediately want to publish a book. I tell them: please read. Reading is the foundation of writing.
‘Tharoor said he enjoyed reading Butterfingers’
What role do parents have in developing children’s reading habits today?
A crucial role. Sometimes parents hand phones to children just to keep them quiet. That can become dangerous.
If parents are constantly looking at their phones, why would the child listen when they are told to read? There should be books at home. Lots of books. A house without books is like a room without windows.
How do you view the changes in the teaching of literature in Kerala?
It has changed a lot. The semester system began while I was still teaching, and I felt the annual system was much better.
With an annual public examination, students broadly studied seriously, and you could see it in their command of English.
With semesters, everything seems to happen in a hurry — internals, assignments, seminars and constant evaluation. Earlier, we struggled to make students read the actual text rather than guides. Now I hear that in many cases they find other shortcuts. That makes me unhappy.
Ultimately, it depends on the quality of teachers. Now teachers also have to accumulate points for promotion. They attend seminars and meet various requirements, and unfortunately teaching can take a back seat.
Shashi Tharoor has launched several of your books. How did that association begin?
When my first ‘Butterfingers’ novel came out, Shashi Tharoor was the MP from Thiruvananthapuram. He is a fine writer and loves cricket.
At the launch, Tharoor said he had launched many books and did not necessarily read every one, but that he had read mine and enjoyed it. So we invited him again for the second book, and he agreed.
By the third, he said, “You keep writing the ‘Butterfingers’ books, and I will keep launching them.” And that is how it continued.
Many Malayali writers are writing in English today. How do you see that space?
It is a positive sign. But if you mean writers who gain prominence, the number is comparatively small. Reaching the top bracket is still quite difficult.
Has self-publishing changed the value attached to becoming a published writer?
In one sense, it is good that people have the opportunity. But when everybody can simply publish and publish, the idea of being “published” itself can lose some of the significance it once had.
You are also related to spiritual guru Sri M. Are you spiritual yourself?
No, I would not call myself spiritual. But I have nothing against spirituality.
Any words for budding writers?
Writing is hard work. You have to be persistent, keep reading, keep updating yourself and be observant.
You may not immediately know what kind of writing you are good at. You may think you are going to write one thing and later discover that your strength lies somewhere else.
So, keep writing. And never give up because of rejection.