The 2019 DSC Prize-winner talks about writing a ‘political book’ and the literary influences that have shaped his work
How confident were you about winning the DSC Prize?
I have been shortlisted five or six times for my current and previous books and never won. Then there was one book, The Householder, for which I felt I would definitely get some kind of recognition but it didn’t make it to a single longlist of any award. So I had zero confidence that I would win the award.
Who were you betting on?
I thought Jamil Jan Kochai would win it for his 99 Nights in Logar.
Coming to the book, why choose a novelist, that too a Hindi one, to tell your story?
I have spent quite some time over the last decade or two reading Hindi fiction and, being a writer myself, whenever I read fiction I am constantly speculating about the impulses that drive a writer’s creative process. As a result, the figure of the writer begins to develop in my mind, especially when I read more than one book by a writer. The figure of Shrilal Shukla developed in my mind in this way, and in this book, I re-examined my relationship with his work through the figure of the novelist Vishwanath.
I read Amritlal Nagar’s Amrit aur Vish where he too frames his story with the narrative of a novelist who is telling a story and I found that a very compelling device. When I decided to borrow that device that’s when I was able to unshackle myself and begin writing Half the Night is Gone.
I recall a fragment of an interview of a Hindi novelist I read long ago, I am not sure anymore who it was. The question was: “Kya lekhak bhi toot ta hai?” (Does the writer also break?) and the answer was: “Lekhak bhi insaan hai, toh zahir hai ki lekhak bhi toot ta hai.” (The writer is also human, so, clearly, the writer also breaks). I think this fragment has been lingering in the back of my mind for a long time.
Your book deals with an old-forgotten world. How difficult was creating an authentic image?
It’s hard to answer this question. Firstly, because there is a presumption that the image created is authentic. Since that world has passed I don’t think it is possible to say with any confidence if the image I have created is an authentic one or if it shot through with the distortions that naturally appear with time. Today we live in a world where everyone is claiming that their version of history is the most authentic, and these claims are made for dangerous reasons.
I don’t want to claim that my version is authentic. It is a version that has emerged from my relationship with the texts, music and movies of the time, of the remnants of past times that linger in the city, of the stories recounted by older people or by people who have collected old stories. What you see on the page is the opposite of history which is supposed to render the past to the extent possible based on available evidence. What you see is one person’s imagination of the past. How difficult was it to create it? It’s like asking someone how difficult was it to live the last five years of your life.
Politics and personal relationships intertwine in the book. Did you set out to write a ‘political’ book?
Yes, I did. But I wanted to approach politics indirectly, through the tools and modes of literature. I believe that if novelists become polemicists, the power of literature is lost. Novelists have to answer the questions raised by their times, but if they answer them in the way everyone else is answering them, then there’s no reason to write novels.
There is a lyrical and poetic element in the book almost as if some music was going on in your mind or maybe in the background while you typed.
I did listen to a lot of music and read a lot of poetry, repetitively, during the years I wrote the book. But when I was actually writing, typing, then I maintained silence. In the past, I have written with music playing in my headphones. But this time I knew very clearly that I couldn’t do that. So I heard the music, then turned it off and sat down to write.
Do your characters come easily to you?
Well, since I am currently trying to write my next book and struggling with it, right now my answer is no! But seriously speaking, sometimes they present themselves as if they were always just standing there waiting for me to turn towards them, and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to figure out what the contours of the character are. But one thing doesn’t change: it is one of the greatest thrills of being a writer to outline a character’s life.
Tell us about your literary influences.
I love Krishna Sobti. I think she is one of the greatest writers of the last hundred years. I also learned a lot from Proust, who is an uncompromising artist of the written word. Shrilal Shukla, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Bashir Badr, Muneer Niazi, Parveen Shakir, Tulsidas, Mirza Ghalib, of course. These are some of the names that come to mind. Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines gave me the confidence to write when I was a teenager.
QUICK TAKES
Of the shortlisted books which one is your personal favourite?
99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai.
What did you do with your first advance?
For my first book, I got an advance of `0, so it was quite easy to spend it.
Which is your favourite season to write in?
I haven’t yet had the luxury of choosing a season to write in. I have shivered while writing, and also sweated, I have written while it was pouring outside. Each has its own flavour.
What is your favourite word?
I suspect it’s ‘lambent’.
What is the funniest typo you’ve ever written?
This is more in the line of ‘most embarrassing error’ rather than ‘funniest typo’. I once mistranslated Ghalib and discovered the mistranslation after the book was published.