Kaveri Nambisan – In Conversation with Deepa Mishra
Kavery Nambisan, a surgeon by profession and a novelist, says that "it is life that feeds literature". Like leaves growing to a tree in the natural process, the desire to write germinated in her naturally. She started writing because she liked, she says, to see her name in print. After the favorable response received for the story published in the children's magazine Target in the 1980s, she felt encouraged to go on. Rosalind Wilson the editor of the magazine Target commented that "Kavery has a rare gift of telling stories". Widely read in Kannada and English literature she has been greatly influenced, as she admits, by Mahatma Gandhi and Thoreau "who have inspired me in my medical work as well. I admire their directness of approach, the ability to address every issue in a simple and truthful way."
As a writer Kavery mainly deals with deprivation of Indians who are below the poverty line. As a surgeon, she prefers to work in rural India where poverty is more visible. Thus, she is directly witness to the suffering of the poor which she clinically portrays in her novels. Commenting on her own writing she admits, "I deal mostly with patients who are already under considerable financial stress. Learning about their life, being a sort of adviser and friend has been a privilege that can not be measured…Yes, it has influenced me as a person, - therefore my writing".
Further, she says that she uses observation and imagination to weave stories. .Even though her novels are peopled by the poor, their poverty portrayed is not meant to provide pleasure to the "haves" at the cost of the "have not" as it is usually done in the movies Slumdog Millionaire, and Adiga's novel The White Tiger. Kavery, on the other hand lays emphasis on how such character think of the privileged, "Do they hate us ?". Her novel the story Must not be told primarily aims at highlighting the pains and pangs of the poor. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Thoreau, Kavery admittedly is an idealist and realist.
Kavery Nambisan's novels include The Truth About Bharat (Almost), The Scent of Pepper, Mango-Coloured fish, On Wings of Butterflies, The Hills of Angheri, the story that must not be told.
This interview was an opportunity to interact with her and to get to know her views first hand. She was prompt with her response in a customary down-to-earth, and unassuming manner.
Deepa: Tell us something about your childhood, especially in Coorg. Did your parents in any way inspire your writing?
Kavery: I have very clear memories of childhood from the age of three. Those years of my life continue to feed my imagination. My parents were simple, good people. My father was a Gandhian and politician who never gave up his principles for power or money. Later, in my teenage years and afterwards, he was in high cabinet positions but he did not let us children ever feel that he or we were in any way special.
My parents were not literary in any sense, but I think it is life that feeds literature, so in that sense, my parents influenced me, and therefore my writing.
Deepa: How is that you decided to become a writer?
Kavery: I was and still am a loner by preference. It does not mean I don't like company; but generally, I'm quite happy being by myself or with few people at best. I always loved reading. In my early years in Coorg, I read avidly in Kannada and later in English, when I learnt the language. I did not actually decide to become a writer, I only wrote a few pieces when I wanted a break from my work as a surgeon and then found that I liked doing it.
Deepa: To what extent does your background of medicine help you as a writer? And do you feel that it is an added advantage for someone with a different professional background to pursue creative writing?
Kavery: I find that having a job/career worked fine for me. Surgery is a very different field – of precise knowledge, training and learning certain skills. It is team work. Writing is where I use observation and imagination (in solitude) to weave stories.
Deepa: What sort of relationship have you carved out between the parallel programmess of social service and writing? Do you find them mutually complementary?
Kavery: As a doctor, what you call social service is simply my job. I never thought of myself as wanting to do anything other than be a good doctor. Now that I also write, I know that my colourful experiences in the surgical field have helped my writing. I deal mostly with patients who are already under considerable financial stress. Learning about their lives, being a sort of advisor and friend, has been a privilege that cannot be measured. Yes, it has influenced me as a person, and therefore my writing.
Deepa: Is there any specific person who has encouraged you for your writing?
Kavery: Readers mainly, but also an excellent children's book editor, Rosalind Wilson who worked for 'Target' magazine in the 1980s. She liked my writing and would often tell me that I had a rare gift for telling stories. My husband, Vijay, too, has been a terrific influence.
Deepa: Who are your favorite writers? Has your writing in any way been inspired by these writers? Is there any specific book that shaped your writing life?
Kavery: I am inspired by a handful of writers: Dostoevsky, Kipling, Robert Graves, Thoreau, Gandhi, George Orwell. I think Indian writers Ismat Chugtai, Girish Karnad and Mohammed Vaikom Basheer have influenced my writing; I admire all these writers very much.
I have learnt different things from each of them. Particularly, Mahatma Gandhi and Thoreau have inspired me in my medical work as well. I admire their directness of approach, the ability to address every issue in a simple and truthful way.
Deepa: In today's world of experimental writing your endeavour has been on a realistic track. Is it something deliberate or just situational? And are you going to shift to experimental fiction any time in the near future?
Kavery: It is not a conscious decision. Before I write a novel, I struggle to hit the right tone of voice and if I find it, I go ahead with the writing. There is no other plan of action or writing in a certain way. I think because of this, each of my books has a different style, if that's what one wants to call it.
Deepa: One finds you a critic of established Indian traditions particularly as regards women. However, it is believed that the Indian system in many ways is supportive of women. Has it ever occurred to you to create a balance between both dimensions?
Kavery: I don't know what gave you the idea that I am a critic of Indian traditions. I'm well aware of its positives, but being a realist, I'm not carried away by any sanguine notions about a woman's status in India, nor by the 'happy family' picture that is often romanticised. I worry constantly about the oppression of those without power or a voice of protest, be they women, children, men or animals. I hate the inequality and injustice that exists. It is certainly not only a woman's thing.
Deepa: How do you handle one of the most important aspects of Indian writing in English i.e. ".Indianness" in your novel?
Kavery: Indians are generally multi-lingual and so we think in several languages. I'm very much a gut-level writer. That is, I put down my thoughts quickly as they come, so the Indianness is bound to be a part of what I write. Looking back, I find that I use a lot of Indian words.
Deepa: Which novel of yours is very close to your heart?
Kavery: Each one in its own way. I guess I have favourite characters from my own books, because I really like people and their idiosyncracies. So there is Bharat, Nanji, Cachera Machaiah, Megha Dasi, Paru Aunty and Uncle, Budhi, Simon, Thatkan…
Deepa: One finds a glimpse of yours in the character of Nalli in The hills of Angheri. Was this novel in any way inspired by your real life experiences?
Kavery: Yes, indeed. Nalli is after my own heart, there is no escaping it. Her personal life is different from mine, but the surgical situations are taken from my own life or what I have observed and later fictionalised.
Deepa: Do you stick to any specific time or schedule for your writing?
Kavery: I don't have that luxury. It is always time snatched here and there, between my surgical career which has been very demanding and my personal life which has always been a quiet one. I work best in the early hours and never in the evenings. I am just too tired by then.
Deepa: How does Mr Vijay Nambisan, who is also well known writer, react to your work?
Kavery: Ah. He's such a good writer, with a perfect command of the language and with good knowledge of other languages. I'm a shabby sort of writer, I need to go back many times to correct grammar, spellings etc. So I get it from him, which is okay. We criticise each other and it brings out the best in each of us. Most of the time!
Deepa: Your latest book the story must not be told has been inspired by slum life. It is also a fact that quite a few well publicized popular works - whether literary or cinematic - have been done of late on similar concepts. Have you in a way tried to capitalize on the current readers' sentiment?
Kavery: I know. The movie Slumdog Millionaire and the novel The White Tiger were both making news at the time when my novel was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2008. I still haven't seen the movie, I have since read The White Tiger. I think my novel is very different. I have lived amongst the type of people I describe in the story…, my surgical life has brought me into close contact with such people. The main thrust of my novel, besides the lives of the characters, is how Simon tries to find out what these people (who live in slums, in this case) think about privileged people like us. Do they hate us?
Deepa: What message or advice you would like to give to the new generation writers?
Kavery: Write only if you love words, love language and understand the power that they have on your readers. Stay true to your muse. Read everything, read widely and when you find your favourites, read them again. Write without feeling self-conscious.
Tennyson in, In Memoriam tells "For words, like Nature, half reveal/ And half conceal the Soul within". But in this interview Kavery Nambisan pours out her feelings in "full-throated ease". It appears as if "her heart is on her lips".
Top | |
