CHENNAI: Amma bi lives a solitary life, in her laal haveli (red haveli) in Lucknow. Her only companion is her mulazim (servant), Jumman. But he doesn’t stay all day with her.
This loneliness is unsettling for 65-year-old Amma Bi. There’s no one else in the mansion to give her company, except for her late husband’s life-size portrait and his 1936-model car. Every afternoon, when the clock strikes three, Amma Bi hears the sound of footsteps in the courtyard, but nobody is out there.
This is the setting of Pankaj Kapur’s debut novel Dopehri, which released a few weeks ago. The veteran actor, director and first-time author was in attendance, with his book, at the Bengaluru Literature Festival, recently.
The backstory
Kapur reveals he didn’t think much about Dopehri, when he wrote it in 1992.
“I have been writing poetry and stories for nearly 35 years. My friend (the late) Akshay Upadhyay, who was a journalist and a poet, read Dopehri and asked Supriya (Pathak, Pankaj’s wife) for a copy. He sent it to Bhopal and Sakshatkar magazine published it.
That’s when I realised I have written a piece of literature that is worth publishing.” Kapur even went on to stage a dramatised reading of Dopehri in India and in other countries, completing over 50 shows. Only when his wife Supriya took it upon herself, did the book get published. The idea of exploring the life of a lonely woman through a story was lingering in Kapur’s mind for a long time.
“It’s a fictional character. I don’t know who inspired me. It could have been my grandmother, my mother or my aunt. Basically, I had this idea of a woman living alone, who has nothing to do, and is afraid of her loneliness. There’s no dearth of money in her life. A lady who has dedicated her life to her family and relationships. She has seen her mother and grandmother do it, and has followed the tradition,” explains the author.
From Dadar to Lucknow
In fact, the thought of putting his idea to paper came about when Pankaj and his wife were visiting the latter’s mother (the late) Dina Pathak, who used to live in Dadar in Mumbai.
“One afternoon, when we were at her place, I heard a sound from the stairs… that’s when I thought, ‘What could happen if a woman lives alone in a flat like this, and every afternoon she hears such sounds.’ This incident prompted me to start writing, and the first words I wrote were, Amma Bi. I set it in Lucknow, and completed the novel in four days, writing in the afternoons and evenings.”
Pankaj says he is yet to decide on another book. “I am a temperamental writer, I am not a disciplined writer. ‘Agar koi khayal mere zehen mein ayega, jo mujhe majboor karega, toh main baith kar likhoonga, jaise maine Dopehri likhi’. (‘If a thought compels me to write, I will write, just like I wrote Dopehri),” he offers. On a parting note, he says, “I just think that if someone has a heart, Dopehri will have a meaning for them.”
The book is priced at Rs 239. Published in Hindi and English by HarperCollins.