Hazia’s Reflections

I was supposed to do my book reading at an event with Kunal Basu, renowned Indian author and Oxford Marketing professor, yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, my company’s management retreat was initially planned this weekend. Sigh! Anyway, I caught the author at another session to introduce his new book, The Japanese Wife, yesterday morning.

The collection of stories was written over a period of 10 years. My favourite is Grateful Ganga, which featured a Caucasion woman’s ‘affair’ with a married Indian man she met on the plane -  she was on the way to dispose her late husband’s ashes at the great Ganges River.  Interestingly, he ended up inviting her to stay at his house, with his wife, children, father and brother - all living under the same roof. LOL!

Kunal shared his excitement in writing about the unknown, the startling contrast between reality and the surreal worlds that he created. In his stories, magical things happen in the lives of ordinary people. He said it had something to do with the chemical imbalance in his head. LOL! Being an actor, his reading was dramatic and lively. I noticed that he’d give the jist of the story before he started reading.

What struck me most was that he paints the most beautiful and vivid settings. With his poetic language, reading his stories was like listening to an enchanting music. I’d normally laze through, rather than rush to the finish line. I asked him a question about his settings, whether he recall from memory, take notes at the exact places or simply, create from imgination. To my surprise, he writes from imagination, plus research smartly of course. He said a sense of place is important to him. He’d write about a place before he even go there. And he has been praised for giving the best picture of Kuching (before he set foot there). Distance helps as he flips back and forth. Wow!

His theme centred around human compassion, understanding the unfamiliar, love for the other is a great virtue. He said he writes to please himself, not for a specific audience. However, he hopes readers would enjoy his writing too. He has had bad book review before, he find bad reviews better than no review. At least, someone takes the trouble and time to read and analyse. Authors just don’t want to be ignored. How true. See the horrendous review here: http://www.neelmukherjee.com/articles/view/76

I can’t wait for a film based on The Japanese Wife to be released to an international audience:)