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On a fantasy trail
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CHAT Priya Sarukkai Chabria on her latest book, “Generation 14”
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Photo: V. V. Krishnan
Of clone culture Priya Sarukkai Chabria in New Delhi
Hardly a week passes by without a book launch these days. At least in Delhi. But it no way means availability of a good range of literary genre to our readers. Particularly in Indian writing in English. And herein, author-poet Priya Sarukkai Chabria&
#8217;s new book, “Generation 14” becomes important. Pune-based Priya’s “Generation 14” is a science fiction of time travel variety bordering on the genre of political satire and fantasy novel.
Her protagonist is a 14th generation clone tagged 14/54/G living in the 24th Century. She, unlike her counterparts, has a memory chip by default. Much as it becomes disturbing for her, it reels back in time through recurring dream-like situations.
In New Delhi for the launch of her book, published jointly by Penguin and Zubaan, Priya says it took her almost eight years to complete it. “I have been fascinated by the subject of cloning. Also, with our fast-paced life now, with an overload of information about everything, certain questions came up in my mind. Like, how does the information overload affect us? Do we have time to think? Do we know our commitments to others? Do we know our love?” elaborates Priya. One thought led to another and a lot of research later, the book is ready now.
Though Priya has already penned two novels and many moving poems, this is the first time she has tried out a science fiction. Though no names come to her mind when it comes to talking about writers that might have influenced her she says, “It is mostly films based on that genre”.
Priya calls her narrative, “a book of speculative possibilities”. Being a poet, her lines are evocative, her style lyrical. Fascinated by our fables where all living beings talk, Priya, on her pages, has given voice to a fish living in the waters of Varanasi in the 11th Century, a parrot in the 1850s, a figure of a little boy in the Ajanta caves, etc. “This is to talk about our forgotten voices, how they lived, what they thought,” explains the author.
The publishers will have a special launch of Priya’s book at the ongoing Delhi World Book Fair.
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