Aditi Krishnakumar works in the finance industry in Singapore, where she lives with her husband and daughter. She has a master’s degree in English and published her first book, A Whole Summer Long, in 2012. She was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award in 2014 for the manuscript, Ergo Sum (later published as The Magicians of Madh).

Ms Krishnakumar had also won the award in 2016 for the manuscript, Codex: The Lost Treasure of the Indus, which was published by Scholastic Asia in 2018 and shortlisted for the Singapore Book Award in 2019. She has an undergraduate degree in mathematics, physics and computer science, an undergraduate degree in law and a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Her recent book, Murder in Melucha, is set in the fantasy world of The Magicians of Madh. In an engaging interaction with Sharmila Chand, Ms Krishnakumar talks about writing, hobbies, books and writers.

How did you get into writing?

I’ve wanted to write since the day I figured out that books didn’t just appear and people actually made them. Of course, I started out writing a lot of things that, for very good reason, have never seen the light of day. I met Sayoni – my editor at Duckbill – at the SABA ceremony in 2014.

How did you decide the subject of your book?

I love fantasy – that was why I wrote The Magicians of Madh, the first book in the series. I thought that if I wrote more books with the same characters, I should explore different places in the fantasy world. A few people said that they’d like to see a sequel set in Melucha… and it seemed like a good chance to have a go at writing an old-fashioned murder mystery with snakes.

What disturbs you most while writing?

These days, it is social media. It’s so hard to resist the temptation, and a second of checking a notification turns into half-an-hour of scrolling through Instagram. Sometimes, I have to resort to turning off the Wi-Fi just so that I can get some writing done.

What helps you most while writing?

That I know – I really know – that if I could choose to do anything, it would be this. Writing has its frustrations. Usually, when I’m about halfway through a book, I feel like it’ll never make sense, and that I should burn it all (shift-delete it, these days) and never write again. But there are also moments when I feel the joy of being able to do what I love. They make everything worth it.

Your favourite book...

That’s such a hard question. It keeps changing – depends on what mood I’m in and what I’ve been reading lately. Recently, I re-read The Once and Future King (by T H White), which I’ve always liked.

Your favourite author...

If I absolutely had to pick one, it might be P G Wodehouse, but it’s a hard-fought battle. Wodehouse is so delightfully funny.

Are there any hobbies that you pursue?

I’m learning to play the piano. It’s fun – low-stress, since I’m pretty unmusical and don’t have any expectations of myself.

If you were not an author, then...

I work for a hedge fund, so I guess it’d be that. But if I were to choose something altogether different, perhaps I’d want to be an artist… or a mathematician.