KOCHI: Startled, she woke up, her face teary and pillow dampened. Four years since that night, Sruthi Venugopal’s nightmare has finally taken shape and size to become a novel - 'The Vixen'.
"The devastating nightmare haunted me so I took time off from college the next day to ease my mental state. Regardless, matters weren't resolved. The terror repeated itself the next night too and I was awoken from my sleep. I decided to pen down the dream to a friend who told me that it sounded like an intriguing story," says the 23-year-old. Sruthi needed no further encouragement.
She added characters from imagination, along with the protagonist Maya who endures the same dream as Sruthi. After a while, ‘The Vixen’ bore fruit. But the journey was far from smooth. “It had to be kept on hold due to various personal reasons. After a year, the book was published by Notion Press. Coincidentally, the book was released on November 25, International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women declared by the United Nations,” she says.
“Being a female-dominated story, I was overwhelmed about the releasing date,” she adds. When asked if the book had any inspiration from real-life characters, she says, “Absolutely not. However, many of my readers pointed out that Maya has a close resemblance to my behaviour which I will not deny. Also, some incidents in the story are inspired by my experiences such as my visit to Mumbai, the first day of college and of course, the dates of birth.”Discussing her further plans, she says, “I am working on an anthology with a few young writers and my next book,” she concludes.