Climbing the Stairs From Science to Writing by Padma Venkatraman

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Yesterday, I blogged about wearing saris and dots on the forehead. Just below is a picture of me in a different garb.

That picture was taken when I was doing research in an engineering laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. One blogger recently referred to me as a book nerd and a science nerd. I'm proud of it too. It's COOL to be both. I'm trained in about the coolest science field possible - oceanography. NOT marine biology, no, no no. For some reason, people always think oceanography means marine biology, but that's not true. I'm into the physics and chemistry of the oceans. And I've had lots of fun working on research ships and on remote islands. I'm too squeamish to be a good biologist. But during one short foray into biology, I spent time tagging crocodiles.

Yes, crocodiles. Some were 16 feet in length. I am just about 5' 5" so it doesn't seem possible, but it's true. I may not have the perfect physique for a croc-wrestler, but I did spend some time overpowering those wild beasts in the name of science. I don't have any digital photos of this, unfortunately. You'll just have to take my word for it.

I also spent time ordering German men around in the name of science, which was a nice power trip, for sure. I enjoyed doing that so much I ended up marrying a German so I could do it all the time.

Here is a picture of the two of us.

So how did I, an oceanographer, wind up writing a novel about India in the 1940's?

Well, I've always loved writing and books. I was totally fascinated by the dramatic contrast between war and peace that was particularly intense during that period in India. It was the time when Mahatma Gandhi (who inspired Rev. Martin Luther King) was leading the world's first nationwide nonviolent independence movement. It was also the time when the world was witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust, undergoing the uncertainty of a terrible war, and upholding colonialism.

I was fascinated by the turmoil of the times, and I kept asking myself, where was India during World War II? If I had lived in India during the 1940's, where would my sympathies have been?

My character, Kitta, was born out of this question. But when I started writing, I didn't hear Kitta's voice in my head. I heard his sister, Vidya, speaking to me instead. So I wrote the novel in her voice. But they are both equally important characters to me and to the book. Without Kitta, the novel would just be about growing up as a woman in the 1940's - no more, no less. With Kitta, it takes on the theme of war and peace - a theme that is central to his struggle, the theme that drives the story, that is the underlying thread that ties it all together, the foundation in which the story is rooted.

Kitta and Vidya's struggles are ongoing. Although the characters live in India in 1941, the questions that tear them apart have great current relevance in the U.S., such as: Is war inevitable? If so, why? Vidya and Kitta have very different answers to that question, their ideas clash, they choose opposite paths, although both grow as a result of the tragedy that devastates their family. When I wrote the book, I could see clearly both points of view. I respected them equally. And their journeys, their debates, helped me realize that there are no easy answers to many of our most important questions.

Climbing the Stairs is a story that book clubs enjoy discussing because it raises issues as meaningful in today's America as they were in India in 1940. But it doesn't try to provide any answers. Partly because I don't think there is a single answer to any of those questions. Partly because all those years of training as a scientist have taught me that a good question is often more important than any answer.

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