In Conversation with Sriramanathan Muralitharan

About Sriramanathan Muralitharan

Sriramanathan is a young author studying in seventh grade at Kendriya vidyalaya, Trichy. He attended the Spell bee program in 2016 and has gone to state and national level securing 14th and 15th rank. He loves adventure and comedy books like Geronimo stilton, Roald Dahl and The diary of a wimpy kid. His hobbies are exploring GK, speedcubing and reading stories and news. He loves to collect Hot wheels cars and marbles.

LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it and its content.

Sriramanathan: My book is about s a science fiction story were a normal boy leading a normal life goes to science museum along with his dad and finds a time machine in a secret trapdoor. The story is how James tingly and his dad accomplish their mission using the time machine. I just got an idea in my mind to write a book and I wrote down the every first thought that came to my mind. It took me 2 months to come up with a solid start and a good end. I really enjoyed writing this book.

LiFT: Why you chose this title?

Sriramanathan: I chose this title because the hero of this story is James Tingly and the name of the time machine is Wingo radium 100 so I am basically explaining what this story is about in one sentence.

LiFT: When did you realize that you want to be a writer and what’s your inspiration behind it?

Sriramanathan: I realised I had potential in me when I was 10 years old, but I didn’t have any ideas at all. But then there was a challenge in scholastic publications. I submitted my short story to them and they made me participate in a 10 days course in scholastic. There were many others in that course and I had a chance to learn from their stories as well. My inspiration was my mom and dad because they were the one who encouraged me to write books at the first place.

LiFT: Where do you see yourself ten years down the line in the world of literature?

Sriramanathan: I want to publish more books and I want to create a franchise of James Tingly. I want it to become a trademark and want it to be famous. In the next 10 years, my books will be published world wide.

LiFT: How much do you think marketing or quality of a book is necessary to promote a particular book and increase its readers?

Sriramanathan: Nowadays, readers usually prefer to get quality books with smooth paper. I myself prefer books that have good white paper and have a gloss finish in the cover. I personally believe it is because for the satisfaction of the product. You get a feel of satisfaction like the book was worth for the money. Another thing is life of the book. With better quality papers, the life of the book is increased. My Geronimo stilton books are 4-5 years old and they are still good as new because the paper doesn’t tear easily as well as the cover page.

LiFT: What is the message you want to spread among folks with your writings?

Sriramanathan: My writings are a complete imagination. Imagination is a gift given to mankind. It helps us think parallelly and make us find new worlds. So use your imagination, write your own stories because the satisfaction you get when you write your first book can never be felt afterwards.

LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?

Sriramanathan: I personally like reading stories. But apart from writing, I try to speedcube my 3×3 rubik’s cube. I can solve from 2×2 to 7×7 rubix cubes. Not only that, I like drawing and writing comics. I play cricket and football in my free time just to move my legs and stretch my body.

LiFT: What are the activities you resort to when you face a writer’s block?

Sriramanathan: When I am unable to think what I should write next, I sit out in the open and feel the cold breeze. That makes my mind calm and ideas flow in slowly. Another thing is I will eat something sweet or relishing and it would give me some happiness and idea starts flowing in. Another thing is to drink something hot and concentrate on it. When you drink hot milk and feel it go down through the back of your throat, you get a relaxing feel. I also do some cubing to relax my mind. This is what I do Personally.

LiFT: What if your story will be adopted as a movie? Whom would you want to work as a director or actors in it?

Sriramanathan: If my book ever comes into Hollywood or any other movie platform, I would not actually encourage that because I would like everyone to read my book other than just watch it. But if I am ever in such a situation, I would like James Cameroon as the director of the film.

LiFT: Are you working on your next book? If yes, please tell us something about it.

Sriramanathan: Yes, I am working on another book. It is all about vacations I could tell only this much because if I tell you some of it, you may predict the whole book so this is what I can tell you, James Tingly and family go on a vacation.

LiFT: What are your suggestions to the budding writers/poets so that they could improve their writing skills?

Sriramanathan: When I wrote my first book, I had lot’s of ideas because I did a lot of extracurricular studies and I read a lot’s of books. I would say budding writers to first improve grammer skills by filling crosswords in newspapers and finding meanings for them in the dictionary. Then learn how to write a story and in which format it would be the best. Then read a lot of other books so that you get an Idea of how to write a book.

Click here to order Sriramanathan’s Book – James Tingly in the Wingo Radium 100