QUEEN’S ROAD: Bhaskar Ghose is a noted Indian writer and novelist who has recently released his fourth book and second novel, Parricide. The novel tells the story of a young man, Ravi, who, having been abused as a child, grows up to hate his father and after a huge fiasco over an arranged almost-marriage, leaves for Oxford.
Years later, once Ravi is back in India, he is surprised to hear that his dying father wants to meet him. What follows is a dark twist in the traditional coming-of-age story, where the young protagonist must learn to be the bigger man before he lets his hatred utterly consume him. As Ghose describes it, “The story in a nutshell can be described as the redemption, at some cost, of Ravi Kumar.”
Ghose says it’s an idea he “just came up with,” as his own childhood was as far removed from Ravi’s as possible. He goes on to talk about his parents, who were both extremely loving, and raised him and his siblings with great affection. “I just wondered, you know,” he explains, “looking at the families around me, how they love each other… what if that love was replaced by hatred? I also wanted to bring in the idea of rejection. There’s often too little acceptance in people’s lives.”
When asked about how he came to start writing, he admits that his original creative outlet was theatre, and it was only once he felt that he was too old and didn’t have the energy that being involved in theatre demands, that he gave it up in favour of writing. He tells the story of how he started out being very keen on acting since he was in college, and continued to be an active member in a theatre group while he was working. “We used to rehearse after work - which means we would start at eight in the evening and go on till around 12,” he says, “but it was wonderful and I had a lovely time! Nobody cared who was what. We were all just there for the love of acting.”
Writing, however, is something he’s been doing for the past 17 years. He started as a regular columnist for newspapers. His first book, Doordarshan Days, was a non-fictional account of , as the title suggests, his experiences while working with Doordarshan.
Since then, he’s written another nonfiction book about his experiences at the IAS, and a novel titled, The Teller of Tales, about two IAS officers and their friendship over the years.
He says that he’s definitely not done writing, and even as his latest book is being launched, he’s thinking of ideas for the next one, although he’s in no undue rush. Says he, "There are just ideas floating around. They need to gel, come together, and become something interesting enough to write about. I don’t see it being completed before a year… at least!”
In response to being asked about what influences his writing, he seems quite happy to explain, in very grandfatherly tones, about how he grew up during the days when the British Raj was drawing to a close, and has therefore been influenced at a very young age by both the very Anglicised pre-independence era, and the resolutely desi India that asserted itself post independence.
“We all have two very different worlds inside us,” he says, referring to his generation that lived through that upheaval. He goes on to mention that he’s also heavily influenced by the authors he reads and names Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Ian McEwan, Michael Ondaatje, and Hilary Mantel as some of his favourites.
“I’m also very influenced by people,” he adds, “and what motivates them to do what they do. Some people do so much good. And others do so much evil. I’m very interested in understanding how some people.. just ordinary people are motivated to do so much good, just because they care.”
He says that as an author, his most interesting experience has been the challenge and excitement of creating characters who are fleshed-out and believable, to the point where they end up almost becoming real people in his mind.
He chuckles when asked what he would like his legacy to be, and simply replies, “I just want people to read my books. Writing is about communication, in its most articulate, insightful, and intense form. And the greatest thing that could happen to any writer is for their work to be read.”
On the final question, about what advice he’d give to young authors, he refused to respond, stating very earnestly that as a relatively new author, he didn’t feel he was anyone to be dishing out advice.
All he would say is, “If you feel like writing, if you have the urge to write, never, ever suppress it.”