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A trip to the Upstairs Club
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Want to talk to those gone by? Pick up a copy of Gautam Mukerji's "Upstairs Club", coming soon at a stall near you. RANJANA NARAYAN tells us what to expect.
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Gautam Mukerji reveals a thing or two about his book in New Delhi. Photo: S. Arneja.
IT SOUNDS really eerie. An Upstairs Club, where people who have left their bodies, meet and mgle with those gone by generations ago, where characters from favourite stories spring to life and strike up a conversation, where the protagonist goes back in time to see his own past incarnation. Chaos reigns at the Club with "ex-humans" managing the show, and the protagonist, who is a "visitor", politely turns down several invitations to join the proceedings. That is because he is not really dead, but is fighting for his life at a hospital. He finds redemption in the end when he survives the trauma - to live.
In Gautam Mukerji's first novel, "Jigsaw in the Upstairs Club", the jigsaw unfolds piece by piece with myriad characters and incidents, both past and present, through which the protagonist tries to unravel the confusions in his life. The pieces gradually fall into place with an understanding of events and the reasons behind it.
For Gautam, the CEO of e-Lexicon, writing has a cathartic effect. "For a man, it is almost like giving birth. It is arduous, demanding, there is a feeling of not being in control, of being adrift on a big sea. There is a probing of the psyche, a delving into the subconscious, and then it starts to flow."
"Jigsaw in the Upstairs Club" was written in 1998," reveals Gautam. And it is not his first either. There is another novel written earlier, "A Raj novel, like M.M. Kaye's `Far Pavilions', with villains, kings and queens." His wife, Pritha, felt "Jigsaw... " would be appreciated more by people, and so the decision to publish it.
"The subject matter of the novel is contemporary, and the style is present-day. It is based in the late 20th Century with a good deal of the `70s influence. The young people are the target audience, and it is written with a lot of attitude," he says. The novel, being published by Amala Publishing, will be out in June. The cover, designed in bright yellow with a strip of orange, is sure to catch the eyes of browsers at bookstores.
Gautam's office cubicle has small pictures of Feng Shui fish on the wall. "I feel it is good to get whatever help one can," he explains when asked if he actually believes in them. His writing is influenced by Buddhism that he practices, according to which "whatever happens to a person is a reflection of him, and his environment. But at the end of the day you become a better person with a realisation of yourself. There is a continuum in terms of Karma, in terms of lives. You live many lives and work, and continue to live many more."
The novel begins with an accident, and unfolds in the "mindscape" of the protagonist, Viraat Trivedi, who is unaware throughout that he is fighting for his life in a hospital. It moves back and forth in time, with flashbacks and forwards, and there are bits when "time merges".
For the moment though Gautam Mukerji is looking ahead.
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