Twinkle Khanna, an author who has always soared past the noise of convention with conversations, columns and opinions that cleared the clutter and sparked dialogues. Mrs Funnybones did it not just through words, but also with actions. At 49, she completed her Master’s Degree in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London - lived upto the title of Mrs Funnybones, navigated the pressure of being funny on all pages of her books, and found inspiration for her columns from everyday life.
During the lockdown, Twinkle Khanna “learned a lot of technical skills” after she enrolled in two courses at Oxford with a beginner’s course in life writing and an advanced course in fiction. “And I thought, well, I'm 49. If I don't do this now, when am I going to do it?” She found the right time to pursue further education when her daughter was in primary and her son was in the University. "I applied to a bunch of universities. I got rejected by two or three. And I luckily got into Goldsmiths, which was my first choice,” she says. And it changed her way of writing fiction. “The way I approach my column, the way I write the column, the skeleton, my first draft - it's exactly the same because I had already spent so many years doing it that I think my process was pretty complete when it came to approaching the column. But the way that I approach stories and novels completely changed,” she adds.
Twinkle believes that her columns come from interacting. She says that her columns are highly dependent on local flavors. “I can do fiction when I'm away from this environment, when I'm away from India, but the column is dependent upon local flavors. What are people saying? What are they thinking about right now? What's happening in Delhi? What's happening in the Bihar elections? What's going on, I guess, all around me?”
But what is it exactly that sparks an idea for Twinkle? She shares a personal incident, stating that it’s the everyday life that ignites fresh ideas for her. “There was a domestic dispute between two of my staff members where one thought that the other was bullying him, and I was just looking at it, and I've gone back and I've taken notes. Will it appear in a column? Maybe it will appear in a column when I'm this mediator and I feel like I'm in some village and I'm this wise old lady who's telling them about, you know, how both of you are such great people. So, I need that. I need India to write this column. I need to be immersed in our culture and our, you know, in all the fabric, the colors, the language to be able to write this column,” she says.
The author is also widely celebrated for her pen name, ‘Mrs Funnybones’, for bringing wit and humour to her vision of life. However, maintaining humour is not a cake walk. Twinkle admits that there’s also pressure to be funny on every page of her books. And the pressure is partly the reason why she chose to take a sabbatical from writing fiction. “I felt that there was pressure externally; there was pressure internally to be funny on every page. And that was partly also why I took a sabbatical from writing fiction. I went and I did my course. And then I wrote Welcome to Paradise, which was about loss and grief, and I didn't have the desire to be funny on every page. So I wrote stories exactly the way I wanted them to be. So there was a lot of, I think, internal pressure, I would have to say, more than external. But I don't succumb to it anymore,” she shares.
Wit, humour and sarcasm go hand in hand with Twinkle Khanna! And she’s all set to level it up with Mrs Funnybones Returns, a much-anticipated sequel to her bestseller! The preorders of ‘Mrs Funnybones Returns’ are open, and her readers cannot keep calm to grab their copies soon!