Interview with Bawa Kaseem of Sillvandu

Bawa Kaseem and I go way back to 15 years ago! Just can't believe it has been 15 years since we passed out of MCA from the 1993-96 batch at Hans Roever College. It can't be! I quickly resorted to the calculator tool in the computer and yes indeed 15 years have come and gone!!

Inspite of feeling sad about the years gone by, I actually feel happy knowing that our friendship has lasted the test of times. Bawa & I used to exchange our handwritten articles to one another for comments for improvement way back when. The way he appreciated one of my simple article - later translated into My First Drop of Sweat - set the stage for my writing adventure.

When we were lost and found after many years thru' Facebook one of the first questions we asked each other was "Do you write these days?" I was very excited to hear about his blog and rushed in to read every single post right away. It was such a treat!

Bawa is very skilled in producing skits, staging dramas, video snippets, poetry, story telling - which all revolves around his creative writing skill. Though he is well versed in English, Malayalam and Tamil he has a special affinity towards Tamil. His blog Sillvandu is one of my favorites; however my huge complaint is that he doesn't write often.

Here is Bawa joining us on the bandwagon as we go around the blogosphere getting to know fellow bloggers up close. I am sure you all look forward to hear him share his side of the story. Here we go... Just from the quote here you see how excited he is to share with us :)

"Questions! Questions! Questions! Never could escape from facing questions..."



?Can you tell us a little about yourself? Please include where you are from.

! Questions.. Questions.. Questions! Never could escape from facing questions. Starting from school days, then in College, then in job interviews and in matrimony interviews, the unexpected and unanswerable ones from my “sahadharmini” (better half), Interesting but unanswerable from my 3yr old… questions questions questions… never could escape from them starting then till today!

Questions makes me nerves, I get tensed, I struggle, makes me to put lots of efforts only to finally fumble. Anyway, lemme try now..!

I am Bawa Kaseem, Queen’s classmate in MCA. I am from a very beautiful place called Nagerkovil, near to Kanyakumari – the southern tip of our great nation India. Little about myself… actually, frankly, the honest answer for this would be “No idea sir ji…!”. But then, I think I always try to be happy and make others also happy! Do I succeed in this or not… is a big ?

? How did you first get involved in blogging?

! I am not an active blogger because I am not a regular writer. But I love writing, so I experiment with writings. Because it is my experiment whenever I happen to write something I used to send it to my friends to get their comments. When I learnt about blogs I thought it is a good tool for my experiment! Because, I can post and get the review for the same in one place (but, not getting expected amount of comments is a different (sad) story).

This is how I started blogging… but I must say this… after seeing so many good blogs and wonderful writings… including yours… I’ve become a good reader than a writer (So, it is not my fault for not being an active blogger?!). I also want to register the fact here that, I am a big fan of your writings/blog. Your ideas are awesome. Keep the good work up my fellow blogger!

? What do you do when you aren’t blogging?

! N/A (This question is not applicable to me as I am not an active blogger)

? How did you come up with the name for your blog?
! Interesting question! Somehow I picked up “Sillvandu” as my penname. Vandu (Bee) used to do “Reengaarams” right (Buzzing sound!) So made the sound of the bee as the name for my blog! Sillvandu Reeenggggg…..!

? What is your favorite post that you have written? What makes it special?
! Hmmm… I guess it would be the series that I am writing now… “Vaanavill Pookkall” (Rainbow flowers) especially the latest episode “Karuppoo”! This will be my favorite till I post the next episode in this series I guess. Conveying the emotions properly to the readers is a big challenge… I guess, I have achieved this task successfully to some extent thru' this story. I happen to get good comments and reviews from some ‘Serious readers’ (meaning, those who keep a standard in what they read), and also from some good writers/bloggers that I admire… including you.

? Any regrets about any of your posts?
! Hmmm… no. No regrets! But I felt bad when I did not get any comments for one of my postings “Duryo & Co Vs Panda boys”!

? Tell us a joke please.
! “JOKE” – told…! See… it misfired! This is what happens when I try to crake any joke. It won’t work well and I end up becoming a big joke myself! Well, let me do one more attempt! [Past history shows I always do better in my second attempts!] ok here we go…

A person gets a job as a journalist in one of the local English daily. He is much worried that his English is not up to the standards. One of his friends suggests him to learn minimum 10 new words from the dictionary to improve his vocabulary. This person takes his friend’s advice and starts learning new words from the dictionary. One of the words he learnt in that process was the word “Pregnant” and the meaning of which, given in the dictionary, was “Carrying a child”.

Days went by… and one day there was a big fire accident in the town and this reporter wrote his report about it… the report goes like this… “It was a devastating scene! The entire building was on fire. A brave fireman boldly entered in to the building and came back pregnant!”

? What can readers expect in your blog? What is it about?
! Since I am not a regular blogger currently readers can expect nothingJ! But if they visit I guess they can get something. It is like a rest area in a high speed highway! Busy riders would just ignore the rest area and keep on driving… those who like to take a break will come in! If they are hungry they can get something to eat (reading stories?!), or can have some coffee (some articles?!), buy some snacks (Poetry or other stuffs?!) or just can spend some time and leave after using or without using the restrooms (writing good/trashing comments??!!). It is specifically about nothing yet it is about everything.

? Is there anything else you want to share?
! Yes… I was looking for an opportunity to tell this and I think this is the right place for that so, I should mention it here… and it is a fact too, is that, of all the articles I wrote till today, the most number of reviews and appreciations I got was for the article about NRI life (“Ikkizhandha vaazhkai”) that I wrote in your blog. So, big thanks to you Queen, for making me write some “serious stuff” (to my standards)!

? Now, if you have a question for me (NRIGirl) this is your chance to ask.
! Are you satisfied now? After making me fumble again in front of everybody by asking questions which I am allergic to from my childhood? “Thrupthiya? Santhoshama?” Ha ha… just joking…!

I always wanted to ask one question to you Queen. I have seen you in your difficult times and I always admired you for the fact that you never allowed the difficult situation or problems or challenges to take away your happiness. I always wanted to ask you how you do that? I guess you will not have any answer for that… because you don’t do anything special to be like that.. that’s you.. this is what Queen is… that’s what her quality is, this is what Queen’s identity is… right?

So, I decided, just to learn this quality from you instead of bothering you with questions. So, I’ve learnt that quality from you Queen. And I am trying to implement in my life too! So, another big thanks to you for that Queen.

Proud to be your friend… my friend! Too many thanks is not good for health. So winding up without thanking you….!