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Journalism of Courage
Paediatric surgeons-turned-writers Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed,known to their readers as Kalpish Ratna,challenge the age-old belief that writing is a solitary exercise.
Paediatric surgeons-turned-writers Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed,known to their readers as Kalpish Ratna,challenge the age-old belief that writing is a solitary exercise. Only,as it turns out,they don8217;t think of it as team effort. We are a single brain shared by two bodies, says Swaminathan.
However,before making their debut as joint writers,they had to resolve the issue of the byline as Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed sounded quite a mouthful. Ishrat came up with our pen name Kalpish Ratna,created out of our first names Kalpana and Ishrat, says Swaminathan.
From columns,they moved on to book reviews,becoming the books editors with The Sunday Observer in 1996. Though Syed,who spends part of his time in the US,interviewed writers like Michael Clayton and Umberto Eco,their focus has been on Indian authors.
As writers,their biggest influence has been science,which infuses most of their writings. Kalpish Ratnas first book,A Compendium of Family Health,was a quick referral on health issues,which came out in 2005. Its basis was their belief that as doctors their duty is to make people understand their body and health. Science happens in life,not in some remote laboratory, says Swaminathan.
Mumbai is their other muse. The city inspires us. It is the city we grew up in,that we know best. It is the city in our DNA, say the authors of Uncertain Life and Sure Death,and The Quarantine Papers. Through these books,they uncover Mumbai,its history,life and lost heritage. Their latest book,Once Upon A Hill,about Mumbais Gilbert Hill,looks at its geological origin,coastal rock formation and the loss of this natural resource due to stone mining. The trigger for this was Syeds daughter Afaaf,who wanted to know what the large stump of basalt in Andheri was. When we told her it was a hill,she was not convinced, says Swaminathan.
The two also switch between genres from fiction to nonfiction,from scientific books to books for children. Our fiction derives from the interstices of our nonfiction. One seams into the other, says Syed.
Even as they remain deeply passionate about literature,they do not see their primary career in medicine as an impediment. It isnt as circumscribed as that surgeons by day and writers by night,or vice versa. We have a joint practice. We work together and we talk of everything that interests us. Our conversations become research,our research becomes narrative,our narrative becomes our stories, says Syed.
In spite of their convincing voice together,they also pursue different interests. Swaminathan is the creator of the popular Lalli detective series,and the next book in this series,The Secret Gardener,is scheduled to release in 2013. She also writes short stories. Syed has a keen interest in photography. His photographic project Palimpsest The Erasures That Made Bombay was showcased in an exhibition The Persistence of Memory last year in Mumbai.
Their next work as Kalpish Ratna will bring back the protagonists of The Quarantine Papers,Ram and Ratan,next year. This will be followed by Twice Upon a River,a story of Mumbai told through two of its rivers.
