On her India tour to promote her new book Independence, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni had a heart-to-heart talk with members of YFLO Kolkata at the session Be Free, Be You, moderated by Karuna Ezara Parikh on January 25. The affable author who is known for her portrayal of strong female protagonists in her novels brings to the fore a story of three sisters — Priya, Damini and Deepa Ganguly — who chart their new course in life as India is liberated from the shackles of the British during the tumultuous period of 1947.
The lively discussion started with the genesis of the novel and Chitra said, “Independence was the result of two major things. One was the stories that my mother and grandfather, who lived through this period, told me, and the other one was the book on Maharani Jindan, The Last Queen. The book is set in the 1850s when Punjab was treacherously and violently taken over by the British... it was a very sad time in our history and I needed to write about a victorious moment when the British are forced to leave India. So, I wanted to write a positive and triumphant story. I want people to remember how we became India.”
Shilpa Sethi, chairperson of YFLO Kolkata, said, “I have been trying to get her on board for a long time. Every month I used to email her and when she told me that she is coming for the lit fest in the city, I got super excited. Harper Collins also helped me arrange this special session.” She added, “The Palace of Illusions took my heart and I love how she brings out women’s perspectives in her stories. My sister Astha Jain Jhunjhunwala and I are avidreaders and great fans of Chitra and her stories.”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The author who moved to the US early in her life also informed that she started writing as an exercise to capture memories that were fading. “I started writing as an act of forgetting things. My grandfather was the big storyteller in my life and it is through him that I learnt about Ramayana and Mahabharata hence I wrote The Forest of Enchantments. Once I couldn’t remember his face and hence I started writing to remember things. I initially started writing for myself,” said Chitra who would spend her vacations during childhood at a village near Kolkata.
Talking about the strong theme of empowering women in her novels, she said, “Eventually empowering women became a reason for my writing. And I realised that to empower women I don’t need to show them as perfect superhumans. That portrayal is very dangerous. We all have our flaws and the three characters in Independence also have their flaws.”
The session also veered on the songs that form an integral part of the book which can be accessed from a QR code thoughtfully printed inside the book. “I wanted to honour these songs sung by Tagore and Nazrul,” explains the author before she patiently signed books for her fans.