An author’s mind is a mystery. Within its nooks and crannies hide characters from books past and storylines from those yet to come. They lie in wait to ride the waves of a stream of thought or the trails of a theme that will lend them structure, plot and a book of one’s own.
For such minds in constant clashes of conversation with themselves, writing may come as an unravelling of knots, of thoughts unspooling into words — talking to the world while simultaneously attempting to understand the mind from which they came.
Trisha Das’s mind works thus, as My Kolkata found out during a video interview with the author following the release of her latest novel, The Grand Samara (Bloomsbury India). Measured and confident, Das spoke about her beginnings as an author and some of her earlier works, besides going into details about the novel of discussion.
Themes of identity and belonging seamlessly find their way into Das’s writing
A wanderlust, not always by choice, characterised Das’s childhood and adolescence. She grew up in West Africa, attended a boarding school, and then continued her studies in both India and the US. “I struggled with the concept of home pretty much my whole life,” says Das. “I soon realised that family, friends, belonging — it was those ephemeral things — that make my home, not the physical place I’m living in.” It comes as no surprise, then, that the themes of identity and belonging seamlessly find their way into much of Das’s writing. The protagonist of The Grand Samara is in a constant tussle with what she thinks a ‘home’ entails, making the author’s and the character’s beliefs on home come full circle.
Speaking about the origin of The Grand Samara — a distinct departure from her earlier mythology-based novels — Das mentions her mother and grandmother, from whom she picked up her affinity for romance novels. “I remember going to my grandmother’s house during my holidays, where someone would come weekly from a lending library… In those days, you didn’t have Kindles, and lending libraries were the best way to read more. All three of us would pick up about eight to 10 Mills & Boon books and read them over the course of a week.”
Das notes that romantic novels are often underrepresented and dismissed as being second-string literature — something that essentially lacks substance. “I think romcoms need to be highlighted and not just brushed off. Everybody talks about the heavy literary giants — we are all fans of Yuval Noah Harari — but people shy away from giving due credit to the romance authors that are really rocking their boat,” she says, emphasising on including romance authors into what constitutes good literature.
‘A romance novel had always been lying dormant at the back of my mind’
A fan of the romance novel, Das’s childhood and adolescence were marked by ‘Mills & Boon’ and novels by Georgette Heyer
The Grand Samara, however, wasn’t Das’s first attempt at writing romance. “When I was immediately out of college at 21, I attempted to write a romance novel. Unfortunately, I hadn’t backed my work up on my computer, and when I was some 150 pages deep, the device crashed. I lost everything. I was heartbroken… I lost my confidence completely.”
That incident shook Das’s resolve enough for her to put her dreams of being an author on hold. She worked in the news and TV industries for a while before moving on to make documentary films. It was only in the mid-2000s that she resumed her book writing journey in earnest.
From Ms Draupadi Kuru: After the Pandavas and its sequel, The Misters Kuru: A Return to Mahabharata, to the standalone Kama’s Last Sutra, Das’s initial books are centred around the Mahabharata and its characters. “I had these mythology stories inside me that needed to get out. But a romance novel had always been lying dormant at the back of my mind. After The Misters Kuru, I felt like I had said everything I wanted to say about the Mahabharata. That’s when I decided to revisit my romance novel. This book (The Grand Samara) sprang from me naturally, and I’ve got two more romcoms lined up after this. It’s safe to say that I’m going to stick to the romance genre for a bit,” shares Das.
‘My book pays homage to Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy’
The Grand Samara traces the life of a young girl, Samara, who has taken her first steps into adulthood, her experiences with Indian middle-class households, the constant pressure that comes with being a girl of marriageable age, and the inevitable juggling of careers and domestic expectations.
Das’s writing in The Grand Samara has a subtle yet strong undercurrent of feminism, juxtaposed with micro-aggressive patriarchy, a lot of which is perpetuated by female characters. “I try to show society as it is. The women in my books are often byproducts of their own internalised misogyny. A lot of them don’t understand what feminism is, and it isn’t really their fault,” says Das. Speaking about The Grand Samara in particular, she adds, “I wanted the book to be sympathetic towards but also critical of female perpetrators of patriarchy. That is what the book is trying to achieve in a funny, romantic way.” Romantic comedies with an underlying message are also most suited to the big screen, and Das feels that of all her books, The Grand Samara is the one she envisions being adapted into a movie.
The Grand Samara was inspired by a book by one of Das’s favourite childhood authors — Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy. “When I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, Heyer was wildly popular in India. My grandmother, my mother and I were all loyal Heyer fans, and I have inherited my grandmother’s bound Heyer books…. One of my favourites in this collection is The Grand Sophy. The Grand Samara is an attempt at paying homage to this great writer who held my hand through my childhood and teenage years, and gave me a lifelong love for romance.” Alongside Heyer, Das’s list of favourite authors includes Jane Austen, Margaret Mitchell, Sonali Dev, Indu Sundaresan, Ali Hazelwood and Helen Hoang, among others.
‘Inspiration is for amateurs; professionals get the job done’
“The women in my book are often byproducts of their own internalised misogyny,” feels Das
For aspiring writers and novelists, Das’s advice is simple — make writing a disciplined practice. “A lot of people wait for inspiration and a magical feeling to come over them as a signal to start writing. But writing, the way I look at it, is very much a craft and a practice. You have to treat it as a job, create a routine where you sit at your desk for the same time every day or week, and practice this craft of writing. It is only then that you get better at it,” feels Das. “I have a note at my desk that says: ‘Inspiration is for amateurs; professionals get the job done.’ You have to write, no matter how uninspired, tired or stressed you’re feeling.”
Throughout her journey, Das remains committed to writing her stories as they “want to be written”, trusting her characters to guide the narrative without filtering for a specific market. “I think that every book has a will,” she says. “Write authentically… write as the words want to be written. Your audience will find you.”
In a literary landscape that increasingly favours market-driven narratives, often with the assistance of algorithms, Das’s approach is a poignant reminder of the power and resonance that comes with organic storytelling.
