INTERVIEW

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a celebrated author of bestsellers like The Palace of Illusions and The Mistress of Spices among others. Recently, the acclaimed writer launched her new book, Before We Visit the Goddess, in New Delhi. In January, Divakaruni also had a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2017 on her book. Guardian 20 interviewed her in Delhi around the same time. Q. It is often difficult for readers to switch from a particular book to another as soon as they finish reading one. Certain dialogues and images remain with you. Is it equally difficult for writers to start writing a new one as soon as you complete one project? A. Once I finish writing a book, I take about two weeks just to clear my head. During that time I read other things — writing that is different from my past book but a little similar to my new project. In this way, I get into the mood for my fresh project. I start researching early. I then focus on outlining the first scene. The first scene is always very important to me and I have to get it right. Q. How much t i me does it take you on an average to complete one book? A. It takes me about two to three years to finish writing a book, depending on the research and depending upon how complicated the book is. Before We Visit the Goddess took me two-and-ahalf years. Similarly, The Palace of Illusions took me over three years. In fact, The Palace of Illusions is to be made into a film by Aparna Sen. Q. Since you talked about research, could you tell us about the kind of research you conducted for Before We Visit the Goddess? A. This book revolves around three generations of women’s lives. The life of grandmother Sabitri that is set in a time before me, so I had to a lot of historical research. I looked at old pic- with it. Yes, it is a good way of thinking about the past because we all carry certain demons from the past and hopefully this book gives a way to many people on how to get rid of those troubled times. One of the things that the readers will learn is how important it is to communicate with their family. Having said this, I feel that it is not easy to converse with family because when there are strong feelings, there is also a lot of defences. We don’t want to share our problems for we may be judged/ scolded. That’s why mothers and daughters have difficulty in communicating. I hope that by reading about these characters, readers will begin to think about their own life and how they communicate with their loved ones. This book is about heritage, both positive and negative. I hope the readers will also start thinking about heritage; about what they gained from previous generation and what can they pass on to the next. One of the important questions in the book is: what does it mean to be a successful woman and what is the price of that success? Q. You started writing poetry first. Please elaborate on your shift from poetry to fiction? A. I have always loved reading fiction. As I was writing poetry, I began to see that I became more and more interested in stories. My poetry started becoming very narrative. I felt I needed a larger medium where I could develop the story, show the characters changing — and so I moved to short stories. Then I needed even a bigger canvas where I could give a