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Exclusive Interview with Rimi B. Chatterjee: Author of ‘Black Light’

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Rimi B. Chatterjee is a novelist and academic. Infibeam.com caught up with Rimi B. Chatterjee, the author of Black Light, The city of Love and Signal Red. She spoke to us about her work, life and more in an exclusive interview with us. This is what she has to say-

* What inspired you to write this book?
- Many things, but one of the most significant is probably the life of my aunt Ashima Chatterjee Ghoshal, who was an artist forced to give up her dreams.  The main character’s story is very different from hers, but the central experience of not being able to realize her potential is the same. Also the five inset stories are about times and incidents in history that really fascinate me: early Buddhism, early Islam, the history of Jharkhand, the spice trade, stuff like that. You can probably see the seeds of City of Love in Black Light.

* How long did it take to finish this book?
- I wrote the first draft in 2000. It was enormous: more than 150 thousand words. Over the years as I sent it out to publishers and agents and accumulated a pile of rejection slips, it got shorter over uncountable revisions. But the central thread of story is unchanged.

* Tell us in brief about the Black Light experience.
- I wanted to create a mystery story that wasn’t the usual whodunit, but was about one of the lesser known crimes: the killing of talent or genius in those who have no power to change their fate. This crime occurs all around us, in the most unlooked for places: in the children who serve tea in the local dhaba, in the maidservant who wipes our floors, in the housewife who goes home only every Puja, in the clerk who recites Sudrak in the bathroom. Medha is an emblem of all the weird people who have to kill the best part of themselves to earn a living, fit in, be mothers to their children, avoid beatings, grow up, be left alone. Speaking as one of them myself, I felt I had to stand up for the tribe.

* What brought you to create Medhasri Sen’s character and how close is ‘Medhasri Sen’ to you?
- That’s a tricky question. Every character created by an author is essentially created from the author’s own self, or what the self sees: what else is there to make people out of? However, she isn’t me: she’s not symbolic of me, and the choices she makes are not my choices. You could say she’s an untravelled road that I did not take. Also I used to draw a lot as a child, but less so as an adult. I tried to find an artist to do the five drawings that appear in the book but I couldn’t get anyone, so with great trepidation I drew them myself. I’m not completely pleased with the results, but the readers must judge for themselves.

* Some details of your childhood?
- I grew up in the south of England and North Bengal. I only came to Calcutta after school. Many things which come naturally to people in this culture I had to learn consciously at a later age. But I feel Indian until someone says “Apni to foreigner.”

* Your strength as a writer?
- I like to stretch myself: I write books about things that matter to me. I like challenges. I’m not easily satisfied. This sometimes makes my books a little hard to read for the average person. But I’m working on simplifying my style, and letting the story speak for itself. I see myself primarily as a storyteller.

* Any critical incidents in your life?
- Well, one that will always hang over me is my being diagnosed with cancer five years ago. That has been very hard, and one never really recovers from it. I used to be very active physically but now find I can’t do all the things I used to do.

* What are your life goals?
- To write all the books in my head. There’s plenty more where this came from. Which means finding the time in between looking after the house and dogs, teaching, mentoring students, sitting on committees, writing scholarly articles which I promised to finish ages ago, all the stuff that gets in the way.

* What are the responses by your initial readers?
- Very good. My first two published books were on rather more obscure topics. Signal Red was about defence science, corrupt government and futuristic weapons and The City of Love was a historical romance about the quest for enlightenment, the spice trade, piracy and the discovery of India by the Portuguese. Black Light is mostly set in the present and deals with ordinary people, though it does have five inset stories set in different times and places, as I’ve mentioned already. The story is probably one of my most accessible, and people are responding to that.

* Name a few of your favorite books which are very close to your heart?
- My favourites change depending on what I’m writing at the time. Currently Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, Philip K. Dick’s Ubik and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake head the list.

* Who is your favorite author?
- Well, for consistent performance and sheer exuberant fun (with meaningful bits) I have to pick Terry Pratchett.

* Infibeam is promoting your book at the national and international level. What is your view on this initiative?
- Excellent. Carry on.

* Any recent incidents which make you think deeply?
- I’ve been following the Chandrayaan data stream with great interest. Part of my next book Antisense is going to be set on the Moon, so I’m doing research for that now.

* What is your next project?
- I have two big ones in hand. The first one is a graphic novel called Kalpa: Shadowfalls. The script for that is nearly complete: I’ll be working with artist Kailien Singson to develop the artwork. Kalpa is set in an alternative time when the British have been kicked out of Indian in 1857. Bengal is ruled by the descendants of Wajid Ali Shah. It’s a very beautiful, corrupt, strange and deadly world. The other project is my novel Antisense, which is at the preliminary writing stage (ie the stage where I endlessly write and throw away drafts of my first chapter.) That will be set in the year 2667, and takes place on the Earth, Moon and Mars.

I’m also working on helping out with a bunch of graphic short stories for a new magazine called Project C which I’m helping to launch. It’s going to be all comics, and should be ready to hit the stand by the end of next year.

* Any message for your readers and upcoming writers?
- For my readers, all I would say is, enjoy the books. For writers, well, I’ll give them the advice I give myself: revise, revise, revise. My creative writing students at JU are sick of hearing me say that, but it really is the only way to get good. Oh, and try out your stories on people who are constructively critical: what authors really need are beta-tester readers who will give them the straight dirt about their work. If you aren’t lucky enough to have one of those in your pocket, become your own worst alpha and beta tester.


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Posted by Naresh Koshti on 22 September, 2010 10:34:00 AM IST #