THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Mystery, magic, friendship, secrets and even an intriguing water spirit. One could say writer-poet Megha Rao’s recently-released book Our Bones in Your Throat has everything one needs in a coming-of-age novel set in the hallowed halls of a college campus. “The book has elements of magical realism, and it revolves around two young women who become friends in an unconventional way in college.
They realise there’s so much politics and it’s hard for them to tackle that, so they team up. But in the midst of all this, there is also a water spirit and a rumour leads them to a forbidden part of the campus where they start realising things are not what they seem,” shares Rao, who hails from Kerala.
The book centres around the friendship between Esai and Scheherazade, who are obsessed to find the truth behind the drowned woman haunting St Margaret’s. “The whole premise revolves around how much of a rumour is real,” Rao explains, hinting at the book’s deeper exploration of myths and history. One such historical reference is to Katharina Kepler, the mother of the renowned astronomer Johannes
Kepler, who was accused of witchcraft, mirroring the societal tendency to vilify those who defy norms.
Our Bones in Your Throat is not just a work of fiction; it’s a reflection of Rao’s own experiences and observations. The book delves into complex themes like childhood trauma, gender, and the politics of art. “None of the women in this book is perfect – they’re deeply flawed. It’s important for women to tap into their shadow selves, which these characters do,” she notes, challenging the often one-dimensional portrayal of women in literature.
The book also tackles the darker sides of college life, from bullying to the destructive power of rumours. Rao candidly shares that some of the book’s most intense moments are drawn from her own life. “I don’t think I could ever write completely detached from my own experiences. For example, in the book, a boy threatens the female protagonist with an acid attack – something that actually happened to me in college. Many of the experiences in the book are personal,” she shares.
The poet is coming to the city as part of her tour not just to release her book but also perform an exclusive poetry set. “One of the characters in the book is a spoken word poet,” she shares. “I’m going to be performing some of the poems that she performs in the book. Not all the poems are in the book because it’s a novel and you can’t really cram too much into it. Most of the content in the performance set won’t be in the book. These are the poems that, if I could have written them into the book, I would have.”
For Rao, the transition from writing to performing wasn’t straightforward. “As a literature student, the poetry I was initially exposed to was by old white men like Shakespeare. I couldn’t relate to them. Then I came across Sylvia Plath in second year of college while going through a lot personally. I got obsessed with poetry because so much of it came from the heart. It was real, honest, raw, and above all, vulnerable, which was important to me,” she recalls.
(The poetry session will be held on August 11, 4pm at the Just BLR, Brigade Road)