Denied Histories

You could have chosen to set Solo in India…
I could have,but much has already been written about this country. I wanted to talk about a country which has been wronged by history. Bulgaria appealed to me in many levels-its chequered history,its vibrant culture. Sofia,the capital of the country,drew me in.

But you have never lived there have you ? Do you think the fact that you weren’t talking about your own country made you more objective?
Maybe it has. The truth is that I didn’t want to sentimentalise the history of the country. I will find it very difficult to write about India in a similar tone.

You also stop short of overwhelming the reader. There are many scenes in the novel which some writers would have used to extract the maximum emotional response from the reader…
I had no such manipulative designs. Maybe,that’s the kind of writer I am. I will tell you what I wanted the readers to feel. You know the feeling when you wake up after having a prticularly vivid dream and try and make sense of it? That’s the response I wanted.

A book like Solo warrants exhaustive research. Can you tell us something about the process?
I remember being in Bulgaria and deciding on the basic premise of the novel. I narrated it to a publisher there just to find oout if Ulrich’s character is plausible or not. He told me that I had just narrated his father’s story to him. I think a place like Bulgaria will produce many Ulrichs.

Do you share the passions of your protagonist- music and chemsitry?
I’m passionate about music. I play the piano. But chemsitry is something I discovered while conducting research for this novel. Ulrich talks about the possibility of polymers in the novel. He finds it fascinating. I too shared his excitement about somethings so new and brilliant. That’s what I like about chemistry. It challenges the limitations of human mind.

You are a proponent of what is called ‘Indian writing in English’,yet none of your books are set in India or talk about Indian characters…
When I meet my other writer friends like Kiran Desai and Pankaj Mishra,we try to find out what we stand for. These are interesting times,people are bored with the same old interpretation of Indian writing in English. You know, the burden of colonial past.
Adiga’s book is a good case in point. I wouldn’t want to discuss its literary merits of it but the fact is that White Tiger talked about the India we live in,not a land of memories.

Have you started work on your next novel?
Yes,but it’s still too early to talk about it now.