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Happily ever afterwards...
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Rootlessness is not to be pitied. It can be an advantage to a writer, London-based author Jaishree Misra tells ANJANA RAJAN in New Delhi, where her latest novel has just hit the book stalls.
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Jaishree Misra in New Delhi. Photo: Anu Pushkama.
JAISHREE MISRA, the London-based author of bestselling novels "Ancient Promises" and "Accidents Like Love and Marriage" is in the ever-expanding list of Indian authors writing in English, putting India on the map for an English speaking world hitherto oblivious to literary activity in this country. Perhaps it would be unfair to include her in the general mass of Indian go-getters, the headline-hitters, the India-as-seen-through-foreign-eyes representatives, because she says she takes no pride in such epithets as `global citizen', remarking, "I shy away from such words."
Born into a Malayali family, she finds herself "quite rootless," but adds, "As far as writing goes, it's probably an advantage to not belong anywhere. Salman Rushdie described it as stepping out of the frame. That applies to me. I am an outsider everywhere."
The relatively unwavering transmission of tradition in her family probably stopped with her grandmother, she recounts, as her parents moved out of Kerala. "My own family are quite steeped in rituals," she says. "More than my brother in Africa, I've held on to rituals." She feels this is possible "by taking on a chameleon ability, to become someone else" - whether in clothes or lifestyle - according to where she is. But her latest work of fiction, "Afterwards", published by Penguin Books, India, and recently released in New Delhi, was launched soon afterwards in Kerala, so, rootless or no, her origins beckon.
Yet living in London has its attractions. "I like the mix of cultures, the mix of languages. You're sitting in a bus and you are almost startled to hear English. I like London because you don't feel like a foreigner. Almost everyone in London is." Besides, she adds, "All that art and culture is there at my feet."
Employed by the British Board of Film Classification, she points out that while one of the reasons she got the job is her knowledge of Hindi and Malayalam - "We get a lot of Hindi and Malayalam films" - language is not the sole criterion. "We are there to reflect the cultural sensibilities of the South Asian community, what audiences feel about the films. It's my tiny contribution to the fact that we live in a multicultural society."
As for the popularity of Hindi commercial cinema abroad, "It's not a sign that we are going mainstream," she says practically, but merely a reflection of the growing Asian Diaspora. As part of her job she initiated a project involving people of the Asian community whose voices are rarely heard. "I go out and meet different groups. We've had very energetic discussions, though I've only done about five or six events so far. I call it my diversity project."
She describes her present novel as being "about bereavement and death, about reconciliation and absolution." To ask a woman whose first person narrator is a man, how much of herself goes into her character may seem laughable but the novel does take place in Kerala, Delhi and England, and Jaishree admits, "I don't think you can escape yourself entirely, though we all think we can." Yet, while conceding that the writer's emotions do colour the character, she feels she also has the ability to "pull characters out of the air."
This author goes to some trouble to ensure the authenticity of her characterisation. Whether publishers' suggestions or readers' reactions, she says, "I tend to listen very carefully." She gets readers to go through the first draft, and in the present novel, made sure to get suggestions from male readers, since she was writing in the male voice.
Jaishree Misra's next work is a historical novel. That is afterwards into an uncertain future. For the present, it is "Afterwards".
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