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Journalism of Courage
Age?
He turns 37 in July. Not quite a child prodigy, but since he was only 34 when his first novel Red Earth and Pouring Rain got him the Commonwealth Writers’ Debut Novel Award, he has the tag of a whiz kid.
So what’s the whiz kid up to these days?
His second book, Love and Longing in Bombay was released a few months ago and most recently, he was featured on the cover of The New Yorker along with umm… about a dozen other writers from the sub-continent.
Like…
Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry, Ardeshir Vakil and of course, the grandfather of them all, Salman Rushdie.
What happened? Was the clash of egos louder than the clink of wine glasses?"The conversation was mostly about money, publishing and the book industry." After lunch, however, talk was abandoned for some good old-fashioned fun. Ardeshir, Vikram and a few others headed straight for London’s taverns.
Isn’t it ironical that most of these authors write about India even as they are based abroad?
Vikram who teaches creative writing at George Washington University, Washington DC says he’s in Mumbai each year for a three-month vacation. n And, how does he cope with the shuttling? Does he have permanent jet lag of the soul?
Well, F Scott Fitzgerald too needed to go to Paris to write about America. Vikram feels that expatriate writers find it easier to put their material in an imaginary landscape when they are abroad. "Coming back to Mumbai is not any conscious effort to re-connect with India, and the texture of writing remains the same." n While Westerners find his characters exotic and Indians accuse him of romanticising the East to sell to the West, where do the twain meet?
"Like filmi music, I take my inspiration from everywhere. What results can be either grate on the ears or lift the soul, but it is Indian for this very eclecticism." n Vive la difference. Are Indians taking over the English language now?
"While the global village may be the buzzword of the moment, the East-West or North-South divide exists and will continue to exist. Writing in English is akin to playing someone else’s game while at the same time you’re trying to revolt."
So, do revolutionaries rest?
No. Even during his holiday he is working on a screenplay. He is also in the midst of his third book. The new work follows the further adventures of a character in Love and Longing…, a pensive policeman named Sartaj Singh. "I want him to explore Bombay more." n Did we hear him say BOMBAY!? Or hasn’t he heard of the Shiv Sena and the name change?
"When I was writing Love and Longing… that’s what it was called. In any case, the job of a writer is to portray the real life of the city, not bureaucratic realities."
How satisfying is this writer’s job, as he calls it?
"It is always good to try new tools and move in new directions, as in Love and Longing…, whose material demanded a different treatment from the rollicking epic contained in Red Earth…." He has nothing against magical realism. But Indian writers must begin to break away from a genre that slots them under the `Rushdie’s children’ tag.
What is he most likely to say over dinner and drinks?
"What is the latest hot gossip going? Who is sleeping with whom?"
And least likely to say?
"Let’s discuss the works of Jacques Derridas!"
