‘A writer’s job is to point out beauty remaining in the wounded world’
After a gap of almost nine years, author Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi has come out with his latest book The Rabbit & the Squirrel. We caught up with the author who explained the gap between his last book and latest, shed some light on his creative process and even had some wise words for up and coming authors.
Every book has a story to its creation, so what is the story behind The Rabbit & the Squirrel? It was a gift I made for a friend – she was leaving the country, and I wanted her to have something to remember our private, magic hours. The published form of this gift, The Rabbit & The Squirrel, that was to say thank you to the readers of my fiction – for standing by me.
Your last book came out in 2009, why was there such a long gap? Was it because The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay was supposed to be your last book?
I was doing other things – I was curating shows, travelling. What leads up and into a book is experience, that dusty bank of conversation, voyage, affairs. One draws from this, as well the idea that sometimes life is more interesting than the art we make from it.
The Rabbit & the Squirrel is beautiful, illustrations by Stina Wirsen make it even better. How did you end up collaborating? Stina is as intuitive an artist as she is skilled. I had only to read The Rabbit & The Squirrel out loud to her for her bring these characters to life; we spoke about little scenes and she would immediately respond with such soulful presence that I recognised what makes her a great artist: her imaginative sympathies are diverse and profound. She came to my work with such humility and grace that all I might do is bow before her genius.
Love and friendship are common strains through your works. If you had to write on anything else, what would it be?
I’d write more on complexities and nuances of the sexual self, how this changes and shifts. I’d like to write more about gender, how we will inhabit a world that transcends binaries of male and female. I’d like to write about how modern India, and this fundamental, largescale failure of morality in our everyday lives. Perhaps a writer’s job is merely to point out to the remaining beauty in the wounded world.
I write about friendship and love as these are the animating cornerstones in my life. Without them I think we’d all be a planet of lemmings, waiting to jump off a cliff because we didn’t seem to get the point of it all.
Any wise words for young authors looking to make a mark?
Read more. See more art – visit museums, study how painters use light, how video artists work with music they score. Try and figure what you can bring to your medium. But read more. Toni Morrison. Michael Ondaatje. James Salter. Don’t date someone who doesn’t read: they won’t know how to pay attention to your quietness.
See more art — visit museums, study how painters use light, how video artists work with music they score. Try and figure what you can bring to your medium. But read more. Don’t date someone who doesn’t read: they won’t know how to pay attention to your quietness.
SIDDHARTH DHANVANT SHANGHVI AUTHOR