Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

In this episode, host Vinayak Varma talks to Rashmi Ruth Devadasan and Rakesh Khanna, the directors of Blaft (www.blaft.com), about the kind of books they like to read, the stories they're drawn to creating, and what they want to see more of out there on the bookshelves. Along the way they discuss everything from surrealist children's picture books to pulp comics, monsters, movies, avant garde music, and more.

Rashmi Ruth Devadasan is a writer with over twenty-five years of experience in indie publishing, feature films, and Indian English theatre. With Blaft, she has been part of the selection, editing, design and production of the company's fiction in translation, comic book anthologies, original fiction, and zines. She is the author of Kumari Loves a Monster, a picture book created with the artist Shyam. She is a fan of fungi, moss, lichen, cephalopods, and jellyfish. Rashmi also draws gentle sample collector bots on a cacti-covered asteroid called Succulentious. These can be found on the 'Gram under the handle @kaimaurundai. Her TUK (The Ultimate Kanavu, or dream) is to direct a Godzilla film set in Chennai, where Godzilla’s introduction scene has him looming over Napier Bridge.

Rakesh Khanna grew up in Berkeley, California, of mixed Punjabi and Anglo-American heritage. He is the author of Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India and the editor of The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Vol. 1 and 2. Sometimes he edits mathematics textbooks. He is also interested in marine invertebrates, palaeontology, demonology, combinatorics, and banging on things to see what they sound like.

Follow Blaft on Instagram @blaftpublications and on Bluesky @blaft.bsky.social

Visit www.blaft.com to buy their books.

--

Happy Accidents is a series of in-depth conversations with seasoned creative practitioners on process, mastery and authenticity in the age of AI.

Visit www.happyaccidents.co.in to subscribe, get updates, and find social links.

Find Vinayak Varma at www.mixtape.in and instagram.com/moralpanicbutton

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

In this episode, Srinath Perur tells Vinayak Varma about the varied experiences and writing experiments that underpin his acclaimed career: starting with acrostic poetry and pornographic college newspapers to songwriting for the stage, academic research writing for his doctorate, using his camera as a visual notepad during his many travels, writing short stories (and winning short story prizes), translating fiction vs. non-fiction, making (and writing about) music, and much else.

Srinath Perur writes on science, travel and books among other things and translates from Kannada. He is the author of If It's Monday It Must Be Madurai, a book on travelling with groups. He is the translator of Vivek Shanbhag's Ghachar Ghochar and Sakina's Kiss, and Girish Karnad's memoirs This Life At Play. He lives in Bengaluru.

Srinath isn't on the socials, so go find him IRL at whatever local literary event he might next attend. And read his books and essays!

--

Happy Accidents is a series of in-depth conversations with seasoned creative practitioners on process, mastery and authenticity in the age of AI.

Visit www.happyaccidents.co.in to subscribe, get updates, and find social links.

Find Vinayak Varma at www.mixtape.in and instagram.com/moralpanicbutton

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

In this episode, writer and artist Kuzhali Manickavel talks to Vinayak Varma about her journey from Canada to Bengaluru via Chidambaram, how her writing has been darkly absurd since her early childhood, why process continues to trump convenience, and what goes into her burgeoning visual arts practice.

Kuzhali Manickavel's collections, chapbooks and zines are all available from Blaft Publications. Her first novel is A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School available from Angry Robot. Her work has also appeared in Granta, Strange Horizons, Rolling Stone, Agni, Subtropics, Michigan Quarterly Review and DIAGRAM.

Find Kuzhali at www.kuzhalimanickavel.com and kuzhalimanickavel.bsky.social.

--

Happy Accidents is a series of in-depth conversations with seasoned creative practitioners on process, mastery and authenticity in the age of AI.

Visit www.happyaccidents.co.in to subscribe, get updates, and find social links.

Find Vinayak Varma at www.mixtape.in and instagram.com/moralpanicbutton