A long story

Known as one of India’s most gifted short story writers,Daruwalla first attempted writing a novel nearly two decades ago,while he was still in the police service,but time proved to be a major constraint. “Anti-dacoity operations don’t lend themselves to long fiction and quite honestly,I didn’t have the talent,” he says.

The 72-year-old is surprised by the attention that For Pepper and Christ is receiving. “Not even my Collected Works got me so much attention,though it was a lifetime’s worth of poetry. It was received quietly,” says Daruwalla. “I guess the novel is like the IPL and a book of poems is not much more than a gully match,” he adds with a smile.

Set in the 15th century,For Pepper and Christ (Penguin,Rs 399) is based on Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India for the spice trade,when commerce and exploration were synonymous. In the background,the Portuguese are hunting for a magnificent Christian dominion,ruled by the legendary Prestor John,and competing with the Arabs to further their spice trade with India.

“I heard of a legend many years ago,when I was in England,and it stayed with me. I began writing the book in 1996 but abandoned it midway. Ten years later,Penguin showed interest in the book and

I completed it in 2007,” says Daruwalla,who was with the Indian Police Service and the Research and Analysis Wing till 1980s.

“As a defence analyst,I was closely connected with the Middle East but the root of my fascination lay in my childhood when my father would read stories from the Shahanama. I even wrote a collection of poems about Darius the Third and Xerxes,which were reviewed by the London Literary Review but have yet to see the light of day in India,” rues Daruwalla who revisited Egypt in 1998,fictionalising current events of the time and relocated them to the 15th century.

Daruwalla,who has published eight collections of poems since 2000,is still going strong. He is working on two plays,one about a group of Parsi people who are in a play about the life of Darius the Third and another,tentatively titled Rakhel: A Hindustani play in English,about a woman,who is caught between the seamier side of changing politics during the time of weakening Mughal rule and the consolidation of British rule in North India.