‘I take time, and ask my characters endless questions’
The Sri Lankan author and journalist’s determination not to become cynical carries over into her characters
1 How did the idea for the winning story I Cleaned The-- take shape?
It came to me very suddenly and very clearly one day when I was watching one of the domestic workers in my home carry away a bucket of soiled nappies for washing. The nappies belonged to my newborn son, and seeing this woman attend to this particular task made me ask myself: Who is the child’s mother? You, or the person cleaning his — ? After that it was a matter of painstakingly bringing the story to life, sometimes just one solitary sentence at a time.
2 You’ve used two storylines in I Cleaned The--. In the second one, we see Ishwari telling the story of the first storyline to Rita. But she keeps parts of the story to herself. Why did you do this?
We talk a lot about storytelling, the importance of storytellers in society and so on, but very little is said about storyhearing. I think that storyhearers, true listeners, are a rare breed. When we say stories have the power to heal, what we’re really saying is, we have a deep human need to be heard, without judgement.
Rita is a story-hearer. And, in a sense, she is the real protagonist of this tale. She coaxes a painful truth from Ishwari, who has probably never talked to anyone else about her life. Rita turns a tragedy into a comedy just by being the kind of listener who can laugh at something terrible. When I sat down to write this story, I knew I wanted to capture the kind of conversation between two women that I might never be privy to in real life. I set out to imagine that bond, that sharing, from beginning to end. So, in my mind, Rita’s relationship with Ishwari is the main frame of the story. Everything else is background.
3 Have your years working as a journalist shaped your writing?
I have a very vivid memory of my first day as a reporter, at the United Nations (which was also my first day ever as a journalist). I had just been introduced to a senior British correspondent and when he heard I was Sri Lankan he said: “Oh, I was one of the first journalists in Ban Ki-moon’s helicopter going to the North after the war” (referring to the end of the conflict in 2009). I was quite taken aback by his flippant tone, as though Sri Lanka was just another notch in his belt. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I think I decided then and there never to become that journalist. I was determined not to grow cynical or lose empathy. And I do believe that carries through into my fiction. I take time with my characters, try to understand their motivations. I ask them endless questions. I’m a storyhearer first, a storyteller second.