Chillzee Featured - 11. Bindu Vinod

In this month's featured section we are featuring Bindu Vinod!

Bindu Vinod has written many serial stories (Puyalukku pin, Manam virumbuthe unnai, Kamban emanthaan, Vilaketri vaikiren, Nee thanaa (on-going), Kathal nathiyena vanthaai (on-going) and Verenna vendum ulagathile (on-going)) and short stories (Kathal kathai, Itharku peyar thaan kathala, Yathumaagi, Thozhiya en kaathaliya, Enakku piditha padal and Kannile enna undu) at Chillzee in the pen name Aadhi, Vinodarshini and Vinodha!

Chillzee : Our website is most privileged to feature you Ms. Bindu! Is it fine if I address you as "Bindu"?

Bindu : :-) Bindu should do!

Chillzee : Why this "kolaveri" name changes? Is it to attract readers?

Bindu : No big reasons Shanthi. Chumma, just like that :P

Chillzee : So 'Vinodha' will be your id from here on?

Bindu : Yes, yes :-) Actually I avoid using my name. When I decided to change and use one of my pen names for myself, I had three options in front of me, Vinodarshini, Aadhi and Vinodha ;-)

Aadhi should have been the popular choice! Vinodarshini would have been the perfect choice as I coined this name 4 years back from by husband and daughter's name :P

But I decided to go with Vinodha, the name derived from my husband's name. If you have read KJ's Pallaviye saranam, you will know that in that story the hero writes stories in a pseudo name Pallavan derived from his wife's name. I decided to follow the same thing ;-)

Also Thenmozhi and Nanthini as Aadhi and Vinodarshini are very popular! I don't think I can shoulder their charisma! So that's another reason why I preferred Vinodha. :D

Chillzee : That's really good to know! So, tell us about you.

Bindu : There's so much that I can boast about me but "Nirai kudam thalumbathu" solluvanga so scissoring out the required :-)

Chillzee : I was not aware that you are so humble and modest!

Bindu : ha ha ha! No I am not :-) I worked at Infosys Technologies Ltd as "Technical Manager" until few months back.
My family consists of three people, my husband, daughter and me. You can remember the "Triad"

Chillzee : That's good to know! So tell us about Puyalukku pin (PP). What made you to write that? I know you are a die-hard Ramani Chandran fan. So a story like Manam virumbuthe Unnai (MVU) should have been the ideal choice isn’t it?

Bindu : Now, looking back at it after almost 4 years, yes that's how it looks.

I always had interest in books but never tried writing till 2010. PP’s first episode was my first ever try!

I didn't plan anything... it all happened just like that... I used to travel almost 2 hrs * 2 daily and that gave me more than enough time to day dream... I usually use the time to outline some story in my mind.

But for some reason that 'Shanthi' character induced me to write it as a story.

Though it's not an end to end romantic story you would still see a Midas touch in that story ;-)

Chillzee : What made you name your heroine Shanthi:) ? Is it because of me ;-) ?

Bindu : NPK Shans :D

As you know, the Shanthi character in PP is a very strong and bold character. Before selecting a name for the character, I thought about all my favorite movie characters and the two finalists were Shanthi (Vijayashanthi) character from Mannan and Vaijayanthi (again Vijayashanthi) character from Vaijayanthi IPS.

I was not sure which one to pick... While I was thinking about it, you called me at the same time and I took that as a positive sign and named the character as Shanthi :-) (Aandavan solran Arunachalam seiran style ;-) )

From then on, Shanthi is my default heroine name. If I don't feel like thinking of a new name, I use the name by default!

Chillzee : What about Arvind? That's also repeated in many stories isn’t it?

Bindu : Remove the characters 'a' and 'r', and add a 'o' before 'd' :-) You should know why it's my hero's default name :P

Chillzee : Wow, I see! So, you have a story for every character name also?

Bindu : Oh yes, I do :-)

Chillzee : Can you share some examples with us?

Bindu : Sure sure! Nizhal nijamagirathu is one of my favorite movies. As you might know, Kamban emanthan is a popular song from that movie. Obviously my third story Kamban emanthaan (KE) got its name from the song. Though Shoba's character is the main limelight in that movie, I like Kamal and Sumithra track very much. They play Sanjeev and Indu in the movie :-) Now you know from where I got names for MVU lead pair. Should I say more?

Chillzee : No! That's very very interesting! Ok, before we move onto MVU, one more question on PP. You mentioned that you had no idea that you can write till you started with PP. So how did it feel to see your story online?

Bindu : Hmmm... I think first few episodes didn't give me any special feeling. That's mainly because at that time Chillzee for me was the site for very few people i.e. our friends circle. I didn't realize that people other than our friends also read stories here!

I think it was the 4th episode and there was a delay and Shoba commented asking for an update...

That was the first comment I got from someone out of my friend's circle.

That was so very special! I think she said something like my writing style is good! It's difficult to explain how I felt, it was really too good :D

Thank you very much Shoba for that!

Also that's when I started writing PP with more enthusiasm...

Chillzee : Comments do encourage and motivate isn't it?

Bindu : Absolutely! There's no doubt about that. These comments are the drivers for any author’s success and it gives a motivational spirit.

Chillzee : Ok, Tell about Manam virumbuthe unnai (MVU)!

Bindu : I really don't know what to say! The way the story was received was awesome. I never dreamed anything like that!

I should really thank Thenmozhi for the way she handled it all for me! I don't think I could have managed it myself!