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Take it from an IITian!

GEETA ABRAHAM JOSE talks to Nandini Nair about her debut book `By The River Pampa I Stood'

PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

WRITING HER FIRST LOVE Geeta Abraham Jose

"The Syrian Christian community was uncharted territory till Arundhati Roy put it on the literary map. But I decided to write about something I know. I know what's happening in this community." Taking advantage of the topicality of Kerala, Geeta Abraham Jose ventured to write `By The River Pampa I Stood,' published by Srishti Publishers and Distributors. Based in Dubai, she was recently in the country for the official launch. A post-graduate in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, she started writing the book in 1995, when her husband moved to Dubai.

An engineer and professor she asserts that literature is her first love. She took up engineering only because she scored good marks! Writing was her way of unwinding at the end of the day. Her daughter would sit beside, watching her. Today, her daughter in senior school hopes to write her own book soon.

She is bashful of the rejoinder on the cover of the book, "A novel by yet another IITian!!!" "It is not an IIT story," she insists, but admits she sent the book for publication, inspired by fellow IITian Chetan Bhagat's success.

While she desists from calling the book autobiographical, she says she has taken stories from older people in the family. "For me an old person is a store house. When a grandmother dies, I feel sad at all the stories that have died with her."

`By The River Pampa I Stood' is the story of a grandmother and granddaughter and the tangents of their lives. But Jose's aim is to show, "though times are different, mindsets have not changed, especially when it comes to marriage."

Optimistic view

But her beliefs and book betray an optimistic view. "You cannot step twice into the same river for the waters are continually moving on," she quotes. While preferring to stick to the "Queen's English", the book does use different Malayalam verses to recreate the ambience. Songs of the workers and children's rhymes are occasionally woven into the text.

The river Pampa has been a constant in Jose's childhood. Memories and legends are associated with it. The book, she hopes, will also promote tourism in Kerala as she describes in detail the beauty of the backwaters.

Having moved to Dubai, she immediately responds that it's the greenery and gentle pace of life in Kerala that she misses the most. Undecided on her next book, she plans to explore the differences between expatriate life in Dubai and life in India. "But I still need a plot for that," she adds.

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