Hindi novelist, short-story writer, and recipient of the International Booker Prize, 2022, Geetanjali Shree believes that there’s always a room for hope even in dire times. “I am not an expert on world politics but I would like to think that this is also a phase. Other things are not over, we are not over, and we will come out of this. I don’t think we have gone silent and we won’t,” stated Geetanjali while speaking about her book in Hindi, ‘Hamara Shahar Us Baras’, which is now translated in English, ‘Our City That Year’ (Penguin India), by Daisy Rockwell, at Literati bookstore, Calangute, recently.
‘Our City That Year’ is a novel is about three close friends—Sharad, Hanif and Shruti. It talks about the rising communalism in the country amidst the background of demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. Geetanjali who was in conversation with journalist Seema Mustafa mentioned that she grew up in a very pluralist environment and reading writers like Krishna Sobti, Bhisham Sahni, Khushwant Singh, to name a few. But then there was a change in society when she was in University and after that. “It worried me, obsessed me and I thought whatever it is I have to write this book. If I do not have the clarity, I have to write it with the confusion and it became a book about that—confusion and communalism.” She also emphasized that literature is not about an event but a phenomenon.
She wrote this book in 1998 and its translation was published in August 2024. But, the topics she has raised in the book are still relevant. She further adds, “It (the book) refers to bigoted people, fundamentalists of various groups, but I think more than bigots it is about the secularists and the need for them to look at themselves, what their failings might be, what they are not seeing and what they can do about it. One of the things that this writing did to me that I realised how convinced I was about the things I valued. How much reason there was to believe in it and that for me was a huge strength.”
During the conversation when Seema asked whether writers are not attacked beyond a point compared to journalists, activists, and students, for questioning the authorities, she said that now anyone who has an opinion and deals with words, does live in fear as we are living in dire times. But, she said that compared to journalists and activists, writers operate in a different way. “Unlike journalists, activists, who have to be upfront, take a step forward. Writers exercise politics differently by taking two steps back, her desire is to retreat. Get into the space of quiet and meditation, to understand. Therefore writers are not easily seen or heard. Also writers write in a convoluted manner but there are writers like Premchand who said you can’t do ornamental literature. I believe as writers you are not trying to answer but raise questions.”
Geetanjali who won the prestigious International Booker Prize, in 2022, for her Hindi novel ‘Ret Samadhi’ (2018), translated into English as ‘Tomb of Sand’ (2021) by Daisy Rockwell, became the first translation from a South Asian language to win. However, she feels that there is not much awareness about South Asian and other languages in the west. It needs to be rectified and it may not be possible with winning one International Booker Prize as it is a huge gaze.
While speaking about her writing process, she said that she used to have a routine but not anymore. And also she is a slow writer as ‘Ret Samadhi’ took around nine years to write. She spends around four to five years to write one novel.
Geetanjali who has written five novels: ‘Mai (Mai: Silently Mother)’, ‘Hamara Shahar Us Baras (Our City That Year)’, ‘Tirohit (The Roof Beneath Their Feet)’, ‘Khali Jagah (Empty Space)’, ‘Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand)’, and five anthologies of short stories in Hindi, maintained that she is not sure why she chose to write in Hindi. “I did not formally learn Hindi but it is the language closest to my bones,” she said. For her writing is also an intuitive process as she believes that book actually does write itself.
On a concluding note when asked what message she would like to give a 20-year-old youth of today, she while quoting Pakistani writer, Intezar Hussain said, “Whatever happens we need to carry on what we do. You have to uphold the values. You are the makers of the future. Hope is that people are still speaking. Writers like Perumal Murugan who had decided not to write. But then he started writing again and that’s hope.”
(Arti Das is freelance journalist based in Goa who writes about art, culture and ecology)