‘Novels never feel completed’
On his new book, where the protagonist is caught between twin identities — of being brown in the US and savarna in India — that complicate her life
1 Who or what were you thinking of showing the middle finger to while writing this novel?
Haha, great question! The title comes from a medieval Jain retelling of the Ekalavya story recounted by Wendy Doniger in The Hindus: An Alternative History. In this version, it is Arjun who cheats Ekalavya of his thumb. Drona becomes angry with Arjun upon discovering this, and offers the blessing that a Bhil warrior will be able to shoot arrows without his thumb, using his index and middle finger. The phrase suggests unusual or unexpected strength that is rudely disruptive of established power, and it has a literary implication in the novel.
2 Megha seems to represent a certain type of American desi academic – the Fabindia-loving capitalism basher networking furiously at the Modern Language Association Convention in Chicago, and holidaying at Neemrana Fort Palace. You seem to have had a lot of fun writing this book.
Well, yes... but Megha is also a bit lost in this world, no? She’s been to very good schools, but she also inhabits a world where literature, particularly poetry, occupies a precarious place, notwithstanding its underground appeal. And privileges of race and labour alter depending on where you are and how your skin colour merges — or does not merge — with the background.
Also, a culturally privileged and imaginative articulate person can be quite out of sync, even cornered, in a world dominated by networks of material power and wealth. I think Megha realises the irregular relationship between the imagination and material power quite early in the novel. It’s confusing, and always unpredictable.
3 What kind of effort did you have to put into writing Megha in the US, and Megha in India? They seem like two different people.
A brown person’s life is radically different in the US and in India — the experiences, the privileges, the identity itself feels changed. Her racial marginalisation shapes a kind of poetry for Megha in the US, and once she is in India, in a relative bubble of privilege, her artistic voice is stunted for a while. That is also why Poonam is such a crucial presence for Megha, for political reasons that are also deeply personal.
4 The publisher has not marketed The Middle Finger as a queer love story. Why is that? Queerness is very much a process of exploration in this novel. The unexpected magic of Megha and Poonam’s relationship is at the heart of the novel. But it is a relationship that develops when no one is looking. Their social difference makes a consciousness of this relationship difficult, though they reckon with this as the novel comes to an end.