The world at her feet

Debutant novelist Megha Majumdar on writing a politically-charged modern Indian tragedy that-s making Americans sit up and take notice

In India, writer Megha Majumdar-s searing debut novel, A Burning Penguin Random House, is still a day away from release. But in the US, it-s already a winner. The New Yorker has described her "brief, brave novel" as a "tale of competing dynamism" and The Boston Globe called it "propulsive and ambitious." By Thursday, Majumdar-s debut that released globally on June 9, had already made it to the Top 12 in The New York Times bestseller list for print hardcover. And to think, this is just the beginning.

But, the US-based writer tells us in all modesty that she wasn-t preoccupied with how the book was going to be received. "The great challenge and great freedom of writing my debut was the knowledge that the world wasn-t waiting for my book. Nobody cared if I wrote a book or not. I began from a position of knowing that. I would need to invite a reader in; I would need to show them the stakes and urge them to care about these characters. It called for a disciplined writing practice, and it called for various craft solutions in the process of writing. Once you have that discipline, that willingness to sit with yourself, you have what you need to get going," the author shares in an email interview. Majumdar-s discipline seems to have won her more brownie points than usual.

It-s not rare for a debut to be the centre of attention in the publishing world. Everyone-s watching and waiting, of course. But, when it exceeds expectations, it does something extraordinary for the author and the book. It becomes something that will never disappear, just like Jhumpa Lahiri-s Interpreter of Maladies or Arundhati Roy-s Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things.

Majumdar-s A Burning is set in modern-day Kolkata, a city she was born and raised in. Her book is the story about three characters, whose lives intertwine after a bomb blast on a train that kills hundreds. There is Jivan, a young, Muslim girl from the slums, desperate to rise above her circumstances; her opportunistic gym teacher—we only know him as PT Sir—who is drawn to a right-wing political party; and Lovely, a transwoman who is learning English from Jivan and has dreams of making it in the movies. The plot unfolds right at the beginning, when in a reckless moment, Jivan who has witnessed the blast, makes an ill-thought comment on Facebook. Before she knows it, she has been accused of executing a terrorist attack; her life now hangs in balance, and it-s only PT Sir or Lovely who can redeem her, or maybe not. Jivan-s story is emblematic of how bold and rash opinions on social media, never augur well. "I think it was the accumulation of reading the news and observing what was happening that fuelled the novel," says Majumdar, who works as associate editor at Catapult, an independent publishing platform, in New York City. "Part of what-s interesting to me about social media is that it-s sometimes seen as this free terrain, this region where one can say anything, that it-s somehow apart from real life. But for many people who are vulnerable in their daily lives, that vulnerability carries over into social media. The constraints that act upon them in real spaces act upon them in virtual spaces too. That-s what I wanted to look at through Jivan-s story arc," shares Majumdar.

Not everyone seems to be a victim of this necessary, addictive evil in Majumdar-s novel. "In Lovely-s case, it lets her take matters into her own hands. Social media allows her an avenue upward, a chance to rise, where the old systems didn-t make room for her. I think the dichotomy came about quite organically as I wrote the book."

Majumdar took about four years to write the novel. For research, she says, she read ethnographic works, and watched a lot of local news clips to get "a sense for places where I couldn-t go. But so much of this book feels really personal to me".

That-s also because the book is set in her home city. "I loved writing about Kolkata," admits the writer. "…Although this is in some ways a fictionalised Kolkata. I loved writing about the fruit seller with guavas at the corner, the jolt of a bus where you watch the city pass by out the window, the jokes and humour and spirit of making do with scarce resources and within systems that don-t always serve us."

Majumdar-s book doesn-t steer away from discussing the current right-wing political climate in India; the dangers of Hindutva are visible as one sifts through the pages. But, Majumdar says, she didn-t feel the need to censure. "I have written the novel I wanted to write. If somebody disagrees or objects, they are free to write their own novel."

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