‘This generation is entertained by violence in fiction…’

Things ordinary,draw him,not because they are hopelessly prosaic but when looked at objectively,they turn out to be occasions for some well-meaning humour. “Little ambitions and hopes of random people might not seem significant. But look deeper into their lives,and you’d know how much weight they carry. The knowledge is both humbling and startling,” says McCall Smith. And that’s how,Precious Ramotswe,‘a traditionally built woman’ inspired buy a Botswana resident the author saw running after chicken,came into being.

Which brings us to his most popular characters,Mma Ramotswe and Isabella Dalhousie of the Sunday Philosophy Club. Is it the same curious ‘ordinariness’ that binds the characters to each other and to the author himself? “The fact that they are women does,” he laughs. “I am very comfortable writing about women. When two women talk,unlike men,it’s not about external things and an impersonal approach. It’s extremely interesting listening to two women engaged in a random conversation,” he offers.

But then,despite the lightheartedness,McCall Smith fans are no stranger to his sensitive treatment of human stories. “Every life has its share of small dilemmas,tragedies. I do talk about them,without being overwhelming,” he says. And doesn’t his aversion to licking old wounds,make his characters idealistic at times. Mma Ramotswe does dream about a country without crime,where homes need not be secured by lock and key. “Although it’s fiction,I think at those junctures,it’s I who speak through the character. It’s my dreams of a life devoid of electronic barriers and suspicion that echo in my characters’ thought process,” he explains. “In fact most of my characters do borrow my regrets of giving up intimacy for impersonality in a fluid,so called liberated society,” adds the author.

And it’s the same penchant for things intimate,cosy and small that drew the author to R K Narayan. “The first book I read was The Man-Eater of Malgudi and immediately responded to his style,” he recollects. His Narayan favourite would be Mr Sampath and My Days. “His books are small-scale,but amazingly involved in their respective subjects,” he observes. “It’s difficult to point out what all I have imbibed specifically. Narayan is always there in my subconscious,” he adds.