CULTURE ‘I’M WRITING FROM SITA’S POINT OF VIEW’
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni talks about her journey as a writer, her next book and more
Just like her character Draupadi from The Palace of Illusions, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a strong, buoyant and poised woman. She remains connected to her Indian roots, despite living in the US for over 30 years. The 57-year-old author who has written 16 novels, latest book being called, Before We Visit the Goddess.
Born and brought up in India, Divakaruni moved to the US for graduation, and settled there. She started teaching literature. “I started writing after my grandfather passed away, because I realised my heritage was important to me and I was forgetting things,” recalls Divakaruni. She went for workshops, wrote poetry and then moved to fiction, as she liked telling stories about people and life.
However, writing books comes with its own set of challenges. She takes 2-3 years to write each book. The research for the next book starts even before the earlier one has published. “Some books took longer like The Palace of Illusions (which is a retelling of Mahabharata with Draupadi as the narrator). I read many versions of Mahabharata, and did research on the period. But I always knew that I would like to write from Panchali’s point of view,” she says. Her next task was to give Panchali’s character a modern yet timeless twist.
In her novels, she has highlighted various aspects of the Indian society, from arranged marriages to caste system to gender bias.
“You don’t notice these things when you’re part of the culture, but when you’re removed, you do notice it,” she says, adding, “Women are conditioned since childhood. They are seen as shadows to men. I wanted my women characters to be the centre of my novels and let the men revolve around them.”
For her next novel, she will write the Ramayana from Sita’s point of view. She says, “I have started my research but it will take time.”