DR. SHAMBHU SHARAN SHRIVASTAVA (M.D, F.A.M.S)
He is a medical professional who has served as an academic director, professor and dean at many medical institutions in India and abroad. He has strived for deliverance from the rustic system of imparting knowledge about drugs through dedicated teaching and research. Dr. Shambhu has visited many European nations to study the Quality Control and Assurance process in drug manufacturing. He is also the author of ‘Toils Unsung’, a classic, which has set him apart as an avid crusader of truth and integrity in the service of sick and diseased, and also those who are deprived of the fruits of sweats, toils and tears. He is a regular contributor on social media platforms calling for reciprocal integration of ‘Right to Work, Worship of Duty and Love for the Country.’
DR. (MRS.) MADHURI SHRIVASTAVA (M.A, PhD)
She has been a most remarkable educationist and amiable professor in private and constituent University colleges. Dr. Madhuri received accolades for her path-breaking treatise, ‘The Role of Governors in the State of Bihar.’ An outstanding teacher, she has trained her children to attain commendable heights in medical and technical institutions. She has also helped hundreds of girls of underprivileged stratum to complete their University education and become employed. She has campaigned relentlessly to inspire admirable creativity in women.
TBE: Can you tell us a bit about your book ‘Providential Dictates: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap’ and what inspired you to write it? I find the title very interesting, what it means and how it is employed?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: Our book “PROVIDENTIAL DICTATES” incorporates memoirs, emotional stories, political commentaries as well as poems in Hindi. The title of the book is resurrected out of tragedies which appear to be destined and the few beautiful characters reaped what they sowed in life.
TBE: Where’d you get the idea to do a collection of short stories instead of a full-length novel? How did you settle on the short-story form—or did it settle on you?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: The book is a garland of multiple characteristics: Social, for example, marriages, widows, castes; Reservation in jobs; Political demagoguery and Administrative aberrations. All these cannot be interlaced into one full-length novel.
TBE: Why, or how do you think stories are able to create that kind of reaction in people, where they touch something viscerally inside of us that relates to our own past?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: Most stories which emerge out of trysts with destiny do touch humans viscerally, as emotions and sentiments constitute our internal reactions. We feel as if such events have occurred amidst our own families and neighbours.
TBE: Did you have any goals for this collection when you wrote it? Any particular theme you want to explore?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: While describing administrative and moral stories our goal was set. We intended to expose truths. We expressed them such that the public would be convinced of clandestine actions as not being “PROVIDENTIAL DICTATES”.
TBE: Do you remember the first story you ever wrote and what it was about, going way, way back?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: Remember writing first story on ‘Recurrence of Kalaazar’, a deadly disease, in The Times of India, in the early eighties. It exposed how non availability of a drug, called Pentamidine, imperilled recovery of patients.
TBE: What’s more important: characters or plot? What triggers your story ideas: a character, a setting, plot or dialogue?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: Certainly, stories find a trigger in plots and ideas. But characters and ideas, mingled with rusty experiences, do help in decorating stories.
TBE: When you were writing in the early days, were there other writers you consciously modelled your work on, writers you cherished?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: We did not model our pen creditably on other writers, but our sensitivity to Charles Dickens and Munshi Premchand have certainly shaped our views and thought process as a writer.
TBE: Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title? How was your experience with Leadstart?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: The publishing process has been smooth and least surprising. The Leadstart publishing house has acted as a most cooperative and courteous agency.
TBE: Ultimately, what do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Dr Shambhu Sharan Shrivastava and Dr Madhuri Shrivastava: All conscious readers will derive an assurance that the man himself is no less a culprit behind personal misfortunes and we must refrain from believing that “PROVIDENTIAL DICTATES” are the malefactors behind human misfortunes.
