Beeban Kidron

Girls from poor families of the 'untouchable,' or lower, caste are 'married' to Yellamma as young as four. No longer allowed to marry a mortal, they are expected to bestow their entire lives to the service of the goddess.

I do read a lot, and I think in recent years the ratio between the amount of non-fiction and fiction has tipped quite considerably. I did read fiction as a teenager as well, mostly because I was forced to read fiction, of course, to go through high school.

I hate auditioning; it makes me more nervous than anything ever, and I always feel like I wasted my time and I could have been creating my own thing. With the Internet, you have so much freedom that 'gatekeepers' make me terrified.