Expressindia.com
Seth Piece Shamik Bag
Kolkata, October 17: His height betrays his stature, and Vikram Seth, meanwhile, finds no comfort from the sofa. Thus, the compulsive traveller, and author of course, who had previously included readers on his wide-eyed hikes down California, Tibet, China and England, decides, but naturally, to walk. So, we walk — down the corridors of the fourth floor at Taj Bengal hotel, left, right, dead end, right, left, dead end, back. And we return to Seth's family history.
Two Lives, his latest tome that comes as a incisive romp across cultures, periods, events and lives, would not have happened had mother Leila Seth not suggested the idea of writing a book on Shanti, Seth's uncle. Everybody knows that. It would not have happened had Aunty Henny's 2nd World War-era letters not been discovered and handed over for Seth's perusal. Everybody knows that too. And the 500-odd pages would not have been written — for the book pivots around the letters — had Uncle Shanti discovered it around the time when he destroyed most things connected painfully to the memory of his deceased wife. Seth seems to have missed that. "Yeah, that's interesting. Had Uncle found it, the letters may have gone up in smoke. So, it is a turning point of the book, but more as an act of omission than commission."
Family history, around which Two Lives revolves, admits Seth, is tricky territory. How much to include, what to exclude, are some of the questions that keep cropping up on enough occasions to warrant Seth to write about Uncle Shanti in the book: 'I don't know if I want to write about someone so close to me.' After 11 rounds of interview with Shanti, going through the Henny letters and being personally convinced about the need of a book that "chronicles two very interesting lives", Seth finally did end up writing. He can't speculate though how Shanti would have reacted had he been alive when the book came out, or how his existing family (including Tutu Mama in Kolkata) would take to it. "It's difficult to say if my family will approve of it," says Seth, while we turn another Taj Bengal corner and he offers a smile to a housekeeper. "Towards the end of the book I have written about the deterioration that Uncle goes through, and not just in health. His' was a most fascinating life and I wanted to portray him through the various shades. Also, Aunty Henny's letters talk about choices she had to make under pressure. I don't know how most would have reacted under such circumstances, I don't know how I would have reacted."
In this sepia toned collation of family record, there is Seth himself in the book, a key player in the non-fiction drama, 'Sohnchen, or little son' for Uncle Shanti, 'my husband's nephew' and later 'my nephew' for the German-Jew, Aunty Henny. His own role in the book has led to it being referred as "2 1/2 Lives", and even more opinions have been formed about the slot its unique narrative structure deserves — historical account, biographical, autobiographical, genre-defying, or "maybe a book about writing a book" Seth adds to the list. "It was possible that I was suffering from writer's block when Mama (Leila) gave me the idea. So in a way, it's also a book about writing a book," Seth points out. "But why slot? When Golden Gate came out, they weren't sure whether it was a book of poetry or a novel in verse or an Indian writing on America. Ultimately, the book should make compelling reading."
Compelling or otherwise, Two Lives is selling, "19,000 copies in India alone" informs an official of Penguin India, "and in less than a month." Then there is, of course, the vast overseas market. Seth isn't quite sure — other than maybe an appetite for simplicity — what draws Western readers to his validation of Indian family life and virtues, present in his earlier ground-breaking novel, A Suitable Boy, and now this, "where there is no sex, no assassinations, no throwing out the British, not even a glossary of Indian words." For the Kolkata-born author though, having a family of his own continues to be elusive. "Well, that's the way it is," smiles Seth as we near a dead end. "But now if my two nieces, Nandini and Anamika, want me to write children's stories it will be difficult to refuse. Or maybe, I'll write on the one or two ideas I have, or maybe essays or something to do with music. Or maybe..." he adds as an afterthought, "...I need a break."