Kaveri Nambisan on writing from memory, imagination and intimacy
Excerpts from the interview:Why: : How Did this book pass through? A: : Most of my books begin with a character…, not a specific person, but someone in a village in the 1920s. This is what I was imagining in my mind: living in a village, growing up there and then moving out of the village during a period that coincides with the beginning of India’s struggle for independence. And I wondered what would happen to the young man who heard about it… but it was all very vague in my mind. That’s why I first started building that village. And that’s how I thought about parents, and then Devrai came into existence. Making Kesarugattu, meaning mud village, was a very interesting experience… The initial chapters go very deep into the social fabric of rural life and the complexities, frictions and companionship… Why: : wCap Were creative sets you free took?Is it possible gang up universal blueprint of a Villagee or Caste structures? A: : I think they’re particular to each location… A hundred years ago people assumed that this hierarchy was necessary. And when anyone tried to break that hierarchy and do anything outside it, there would be consequences… When people respected the boundaries, castes co-existed peacefully, it was important for the upper castes. And the upper castes have no objection to other castes entering, but they do not want others to move forward...Devaraya himself is a Brahmin, but there is another Brahmin character who is a priest in the temple. And his beliefs are very rigid and he cannot tolerate any intrusion. There is an example in the book where a girl of about nine years old and her dog inadvertently violate something that is sacred to the religion. But its effect is very serious on both. I imagined these stories. But because I work closely with the village people, I have seen the kind of exploitation, injustice that happens. And people think that this is all right, that is not considered injustice. It is like showing a person his proper place. Why: : htoo much Research did you to do? A: : I did very little research. If you know something deeply, you sit back and let your imagination do the work. That means you let yourself go into those houses and sit with your characters. You know, you’re hearing what they think, what they would do. When this whole tragic incident about Devrai came to my mind, it kind of came to me… This is not a historical book, but history is always in the foreground and background and so is caste. We cannot forget these two things in that period of Indian history. And it amazes me that we don’t pay enough attention to this… After I’ve written everything, I’ll usually go back if I’ve mentioned dates or talked about a certain thing in history, just to make sure it’s correct… I felt like the South was overlooked in fiction. Most of our leaders that we know come from the northern and western states. I read about him to some extent, like about Periyar Ramaswami Iyer. There were a lot of ordinary people in the South who dropped out of college, who left their jobs, who joined the freedom movement. Many people were killed, many had to suffer, many had to go to jail. Why: : Iit was fantastic that you managed to take away memories across. A: : My father was in politics and he joined the freedom movement at a very young age. He went to jail. So even though I wasn’t born at that time,…sometimes you would hear him talk about how they were punished, what was done, how the food was. And I have heard how big leaders like Rajagopalachari or Kamaraj and Nehru, when they were in jail, used to take classes for young people. He taught them economics, history, science. They took it upon themselves because they knew that these young people had dropped out of college or left their jobs to join the struggle. And I’ve heard my father say that it was the best education he ever had. So these were the realities that I have used in a different way in the book. Why: : Fiction lends Self to become Great treasury of these historical Description, Use to live Memories, testimony A: : There were a lot of old people at one of my readings in Bengaluru. And many of them came up to me later and said how much of it they remembered. They were telling me things I’d heard about, but they’d lived it, and they loved the book because it brought back memories. Why: : how did you switch like this beautifully between Male and this Female voices? A: : I spend a lot of time with the characters… I really try to place them and I become a fly on the wall… Only then do I understand the natural thing that ‘What will this person do in such a situation?’ I don’t, because otherwise I would impose my views and ideologies on them. That’s why when certain characters do something and I don’t want them to do it, I’ll say, ‘Oh no, please don’t do that.’ But you know that person is meant to do this...I think it’s very important for a writer to be able to deal with gender, not just identify your side of your gender… And when you understand the opposite, then you understand yourself better because both are very closely linked to each other throughout life. I think there’s probably a certain level of asexuality that you have to bring to writing as well as being aware of gender and its implications. Why: what were Topic You districtsis discussed How else did it Get selected? A: : I did not discuss any other titles. A lot of people asked me, ‘Why Rising Sons?’ It seemed as if some people thought the whole story was about men. But I guess I didn’t have any particular reason for anything. Like, I have books that feature male protagonists and I also have books that feature female protagonists. But I feel the story demands something and I do it. And ‘Rising Sons’, for me, was generational because there are so many people in it. It is Devaraya himself who has to rise. He has two sons, he has friends. Getting up and doing something was the domain of men during those years. Women held the fort, many of them stepped into other types of work, but generally it was the men. And I think if you can understand men, you can understand what women go through.
