Life, in myriad colours

Poetry, says Paintal, who is an electronics engineer by qualification, comes naturally to him, and the love for writing began decades back with verses.

Author Inderjit Singh Paintal with his book, ‘Pilgrims of Sorrow’, in Chandigarh. Sahil Walia

Colours find new shades in Inderjit Singh Paintal’s words, as his first book, ‘Pilgrims of Sorrow’, which is a collection of seven short stories, has each story named after a colour voicing an emotion. The characters traverse through the prisms of their lives, humming hopeful songs and finding solace and redemption amidst pain and sorrow, which the author calls a ‘pilgrimage’.

Mumbai-based Paintal was here at Browser book store, on the invitation of the Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS), and talked about how writing the book was like meditation, with bursts of inspiration making the flow of ideas, thoughts and words an effortless process. Poetry, says Paintal, who is an electronics engineer by qualification, comes naturally to him, and the love for writing began decades back with verses.

Stories came to be a part of Paintal’s life as he began hosting a show on radio, based on translated stories by various authors, “the feedback was positive, and I began telling short stories that I penned down a few years back. These touched the hearts of many people, and I decided to compile them as Pilgrims of Sorrow,’’ shares the author, who has also been scriptwriting for documentaries and penning lyrics. Describing himself as impatient, Paintal says the stories are connected to colours, with each colour expressing an emotion. “I was brought up in the days of terrorism in Punjab, and lost my father early in life. These situations gave me a glimpse of not only my own sorrow and pain, but also of the people around me. I began to think and reflect why people are at unrest with sorrow, when it’s such an integral part of our lives.

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When confronted with it, there is a sense of awkwardness,’’ says the author. The characters in each short story have undergone a journey, which has had its share of sorrows, losses and pain. Their story is of moving on, facing life with a renewed strength and energy. “People who have been jolted, emerge calmer and look at life in a new light. While the range of characters is diverse, the common ground is healing, and it’s about people like you and I. The reader will identify with their situations and find a piece of their life in theirs,’’ explains Paintal.

So, while ‘Rust’ tells the story of a child in a orphanage, ‘Burgundy’ is a look at two different people who find a connect.The loss of a child, a lonely existence, an executive’s search for peace, the stories, says Paintal, are inspired by people and nature and how life’s natural progression is to slow things down. “I don’t write in secluded corners, but in vibrating noisy cafes, in the midst of life, be it about a man dealing with death. ‘Pilgrims of Sorrow’ intends to deliver light, hope and joy midst all the sorrow through which the characters in these stories traverse the pilgrimage of sorrow,” reflected Paintal, who now hopes to write a novel.

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