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Writer Chandrahas Choudhury admits to looking at a dwarf with interest. Though he has never interacted with someone with similar physical attributes...

Writer Chandrahas Choudhury admits to looking at a dwarf with interest. Though he has never interacted with someone with similar physical attributes,the sum total of arched eyebrows,smirks and curious stares that the author finds a dwarf fielding when he walks down the road,might have been of some help when he wrote Arzee The Dwarf. Its the story of a man in Mumbai who is just 35 tall and feels out of tune with the society. He wants to be counted as just another normal human being,but the immediacy of his physical appearance makes things difficult for him, says Choudhury,in city to unveil his debut novel at the Oxford Bookstore.

The story,which unfolds in Mumbai in 2007,tries to bring together social paradoxes with the dichotomies of a dwarfs existence. Arzee,his protagonist,is a half-Hindu,a half-Muslim projectionist at a standalone Mumbai theatre. This mixed religious background was important to emphasise how Arzee was slowly losing faith in social and religious institutions, says Choudhury,who studied in Delhi and Cambridge University before moving back to Mumbai.

The writer in Arzee The Dwarf (published by HarperCollins India) also tries exploring the role of cinema in our lives. Cinema,for several of us,almost acts as a refuge. We watch a film to see our dreams come true. The cinema hall for Arzee is also a sort of escape. And since as a projectionist he is usually perched on the top of the hall,he for a change can look down upon the world in almost a role change of sorts, says Choudhury.

Though Choudhury wants his readers to decide if his representation of Mumbai runs into any of the literary clichés associated with it,he intended Arzees city to be dark and a little stifling too. I tried to look at the city from Arzees point of view, he says.

The book took Choudhury four years to complete,but he didnt spend a greater part of it on research. I think research for fiction is a little overstated. It takes the flavour off your imagination. But I did make the rounds of cinema halls to get the technicalities of a projectionists job right in the book, he adds.

While he says it wont be long before hes back with his second work,editing a compilation of write-ups by authors about their favourite cities is keeping him busy.

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Shortcut to Life

Writer Chandrahas Choudhury admits to looking at a dwarf with interest. Though he has never interacted with someone with similar physical attributes...

Writer Chandrahas Choudhury admits to looking at a dwarf with interest. Though he has never interacted with someone with similar physical attributes...