KOCHI: Biju Antony’s Shadows Lie starts off with the story of the death of a woman. On the same night, a man of the house would be found hanging on a tamarind tree inside the sprawling island in Kollam owned by one feudal family that also lived there.
As a teenager, Biju grew up hearing these stories - of ghosts, secrets and a clandestine affair which were real incidents that took place within Biju’s home in the 1950s. He was especially intrigued by his great grandfather’s alleged love affair with a woman which took place within the egg-white polished walls of his ancestral home. His first short story was based on this subject, titled- ‘Ghost of Martha’. Since he was not satisfied with it, he developed it into a full fledged novel. “I was very sure I would tell this story one day. Of course, most of it is fiction,” says Biju. The novel, according to the banker-turned author, took many years to write.
The journey
“When I embarked on this novel, my first worry was whether my main characters, including the two prominent maids in the story, would have enough to do. The story was set within a six-month time frame. I had to ensure they were kept engaged the entire time. One another factor that affected me a bit was the loneliness of writing a book. I couldn’t write more than two pages on most days. I was finding it hard to deal with the loneliness of writing alone,” says the first time author.
To ward off the solitude, Biju started writing in coffee shops and airports where he was exposed to a lot of noise and people. “Of course, there were distractions, but I needed that,” he confesses.
Style of writing
Biju spent many days to create the setting for his novel. “I wanted my readers to know how a Christian feudal family in Kerala lived their life. This is why, my maids would be making ‘avial’ or an ‘orappam’ while gossiping about the landlord and his family. This was important to me,” he said. He spent a lot of time also detailing the house and the surroundings, the glaze of the sugarcane flowers during sunrise and the Chinese nets.
Meanwhile, Biju believes in using a lot of prose in his novel, unlike many authors in India who are trying to keep their language very simple. “I need people to remember certain moments as they are, which is why I prefer not to keep things and dialogues too simple,” he adds.
A huge fan of writer Arundhati Roy and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Biju is happy to have received feedback from friends who told him that there is a slight semblance in his writing to the ‘God of Small Things’ author. Biju, is someone who believes in finishing his book in less than 300 pages. “People are disturbed these days. There are so many distractions that people don’t want to spend a lot of time on too many pages,” he adds. A few filmmakers have already approached Biju to convert the book into a movie. “If things go well, lets see, it will be a very positive move,” says Biju who is also producer Sofia Paul’s brother.
His next book
Right now, Biju is writing his second book loosely based on the mythological character of Madhavi, who is given to three kings as a barter in exchange for 800 horses.
“Even though this has taken its pretext from a mythological story, it is quite personal too. It is a story of love. Imagine how a woman like Madhavi would have felt to love a man she didn’t know and then suddenly give him up along with the baby she had with him for another man! After bearing the children of two more kings, she is forced to come back to her father’s house,” he adds.