JANICE IN WONDERLAND

The Nine Chambered Heart attempts to delve into a young woman’s heart through the people she has loved and lost

Janice Pariat walks up fast to the first floor of the cafécum-bar in Delhi’s Khan Market. It’s evident from the sound of her boots. She is heaving. She is carrying many bags. She sits and orders her coffee. She likes it black. She does not stop smiling.

Fresh off the launch of her latest novel, The Nine Chambered

Heart, the Sahitya Akademi Award winning author and poet says the idea for the book came to her on the streets of London. It was late evening. She was walking with someone who she thought she would have a long-term relationship with. “I wondered how would it be to look at the world through love,” she says. Then she pauses.

In her book, characters remain unnamed, and so do the cities. There is a deliberate attempt to break away from geographical anchorage. What is offered is a glimpse into a young woman’s life through those who have loved and lost her. And those she has loved and lost. Pariat says that it was important for her to write a “contextless book” because she does not see the world in neatly labelled boxes. “Compartmentalisation can be convenient. Limiting too.”

As someone who comes from a mixed British, Portuguese and Khasi heritage, Pariat, originally from Meghalaya and now based in Delhi, is all too familiar with being categorised. Most often, she’s called a “Northeastern writer”.

“This really upsets me,” she says. “Why does everyone, including a writer, have to be contained in her/ his geography, gender or sexual orientation?” Though she may be called poet too, Pariat thinks that’s overstating the case. “I have friends who are poets. I might put down something that has the essence of verse. But the craft… Well, I do learn a lot from poetry, but take comfort and recourse in prose.”

By now, the café is full. Waiters have got active. She says she should leave, that the many bags need to be filled. Janice Pariat descends the stairs.

Soundlessly.