MATCHBOX

KD: What’s the primary responsibility of a woman to maintain a homeostasis between the mind and her body when chaos is something most women have to acquire in her day-to-day life?

S: You’ve raised an interesting point. It makes me wonder how many women are actually aware of the chaos around them. When you have been submerged in something for centuries, you no longer see it as something disruptive and chaotic. It becomes the order of things. That is the tragedy.

For women to find that homeostasis, they must first have the knowledge and the ability to comprehend that the very notion of women requiring a separate route to reach this goal is itself a fallacy. Women must understand that they have equal right and equal duty towards themselves.

We have learned differently during the past few decades, but this knowledge still is beyond the grasp of ordinary women, like Mamma in my novella, unlike the woman who lays on the red oxide floor lost in contemplation even as she remains a voyeur.

Once women possess the knowledge, they will also understand that the responsibility to maintain homeostasis between the mind and the body has the same weight and authority, the same right and same quality, as that of men, no less.

As humans we pursue happiness, which comes from a balance of spiritual, psychological and physical needs fulfilled. The process of acquiring this balance is the same for both genders, without discrimination or gender tags, and therefore the hurdles are also the same. Women need to realise this. There are no separate paths for men and women. That wall must be smashed.

KD: By your observation, how is the literary community, or to be more precise, readers of the present time approaching woman writers of India?

S: Aren’t we becoming too west-centric these days in our literary thinking, especially in the Indian-English literary scene? As a girl, I do not recall women writers in any of our regional languages being cloistered as “Women” writers. Writers were writers. A Gulshan Nanda book, the stuff of Bollywood movies, did not carry the intellectual weight of work by Mahadevi Verma or Shivani, etc. I don’t remember our mothers and locality aunties, who read voraciously and listened to the radio as well, and nor our fathers and uncles and granddads etc. judging a writer according to his/her gender.

I need to point out here, that while the published work was not dissed or lauded based on the writer’s gender, most women who wrote often faced unsurmountable pressures, and very little support from community or family, as they struggled to balance their creativity with their responsibilities.

The writers writing in English, and Shashi Deshpande comes immediately to mind, did face discrimination and condescension; often being ‘waved away’ as women writers. And, yes, all the English books we read, somehow managed to impress us with the writer’s gender.

These days, we first look at a writer’s gender and then the work. There seems to be a notion that if a writer is a woman the work will be of a certain “type.”  This is a western attitude. Which was one of the reasons why I switched to “Shikhandin.” I felt it best suited my thinking and the way I write and what I write. I am comfortable in my gender-fluid writing persona, even though in my personal life I am proud to be a woman. Another thought here, honestly speaking, if you remove the names from the books, can you really tell the writer’s gender from the text?

KD: In a market of big presses, why did you approach a small press like Red River? Also, what do you think is the MVP of small presses operating in India?

S: Thank you for asking. I did not approach Red River. Rather, they approached me. I accepted gladly, because I respect Dibyajyoti Sarma and Sucharita Dutta-Asane.

Dibya had published my poetry book After Grief a couple of years earlier. Apart from being a talented poet and writer himself, he is also a fabulous artist and it was his sensitive and unusual cover design of After Grief that made me rethink my original manuscript and include poems that would do greater justice to the theme. And here I must add, that the last poem ‘Laughter’ was written especially because of the cover design. Working with Dibya was smooth and open. I count on him as a friend, and respect his professional judgement.

I was familiar with Sucharita Dutta-Asane’s writing, having read her first book and other stories published in journals and anthologies. But only after I interacted with her when she was editor of KITAAB, did I realise that she is not only a gifted writer but a talented editor as well. Working with Sucharita on this novella has been an enriching experience for me. She is meticulous and dauntless in her search for perfection. This is an important quality in an editor, because writers tend to love their own work overmuch. Sucharita is also able to see the micro and the macro in a manuscript, so the story is never lost in her capable hands. To me Sucharita is a friend I cherish, an editor I respect and a writing colleague I admire.

Regarding the MVP of small presses, I doubt it is very different from that of large presses. Moreover, these days, it is increasingly the responsibility of the author. Unless you are a huge literary name, in that case your MVP is already made in gold.