What made you write In a Better Place’?
I wrote the book because I had something to say–– about the lives of doctors and immigrants, about belonging, allegiances, ambition, economics of life, what drives us to different places and how we make peace with the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
How much time did it take for the idea to translate into a book?
I wrote the first draft, perhaps 50 percent of the story, 12 years ago when I returned to India from the UK. I wasn’t working for six months and I hurriedly jotted down my impressions, experiences and characters in my head, into a tentative story line. Then I joined Medanta Hospital and got drawn into a busy clinical practice. The whole story went into cold storage.
I would take it out now and again and tinker with it–– maybe add a little and put it back again––very uncertain about its fate. I may have added another 20 percent during these periodic leafings through the manuscript. Finally, I approached the publishers with what I had. They saw some merit in the book, but then Covid took over two years of our lives. As a pulmonologist, I was in the eye of the storm. In any case, in 2021, I had three months when I had gone to the UK to settle my daughter into college. That is when I managed to write the remaining 30 percent of the book in its current format.
Sudha, Girish, Jai and Sanjay are all doctors, but they have very distinct personalities and different goals. How did you flesh out these characters?
Each character is developed in a specific way––an idealist, a pacifist,a pragmatist and an angry young man with a good heart (respectively). Regardless of their personalities, doctors, by and large, are fiercely ambitious, hardworking and determined to achieve their goals––and these four doctors are no different. After the first draft was done, a friend advised me to take out each character, immerse myself into him or her, and add the finer details.
How much of your personal journey has shaped this book?
My personal journey has influenced the entire narrative–– the timeline and geography are similar to my own. Characters, events and inferences are derived or imagined.
A remarkable feature of the book is its attention to detail. Be it describing a complicated surgery or accessing rights to an ancestral land in a village in India. How did you achieve this?
There are two key aspects to this––the first is the influence of books and reading. My sister and
I grew up in a house crowded with books. Secondly, as a medical practitioner, I am a witness to human lives and stories that are constantly unfolding around me. Whenever something strikes me,
I note it down and these jottings have helped me crystallise my initial and raw impressions, and eventually found their way into this book.
What were some of the toughest aspects of writing this book?
As the manuscript was written at different times by different versions of me, I found the writing
style to be uneven.
Threading together these varied parts of writing into a smooth narrative was difficult.
Will you be writing more books?
Yes, I would like to talk about doctors during Covid times, about healthcare and health inequity, which is my passion.
By: Dr Bornali Datta
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Pages: 389
Price: Rs 266