Fractured bonds

A historical fiction novel set in the colonial era that traces A fragile and turbulent relationship between a father and daughter

Lavanya Shanbhogue Arvind spent seven years in financial services, got thoroughly disillusioned with it and decided to give it all up to write. “I did a life-changing Masters in creative writing (from the City University of Hong Kong) and began my writerly journey about six years ago. My short story, The Crystal Snuff Box and the Pappadum, won the Commonwealth Short Story Special Prize (2011) for the Commonwealth theme, ‘Women as Agents of Change.’ I’ve had some success with the short story form; I’ve been published in a few national and international magazines,” says the author who has been writing ever since she was 13 years old. “I was raised by my maternal grandmother, an English teacher who was instrumental in inculcating the reading habit in me,” she adds.

Her forthcoming debut novel, The Heavens We Chase will be published later this year. “The book is set in pre-partition India under the British colonial rule. The story not only brings out the contradictions of a fragile relationship between a father and a daughter, how the father always controls her life, but also brings forth the struggles that the daughter goes through in order to make her identity. The daughter tries to find her own place of solace, a place where she will find love, acceptance and respite from her father,” shares Lavanya.

What makes the book special is the fact that there are two protagonists who share a very turbulent relationship. It’s a story where both narratives are equally important. “One of the protagonists, Satya is what one would call a Brown Sahib or a coconut (brown ‘outside’ and white ‘inside’), that is, someone who is sympathetic to the colonial cause. As the educational inspector, his job is to promote Western ideology in education. So, it’s Pythagoras instead of Panini, Galileo instead of Aryabhatta, Aesop’s fables instead of the Jataka tales, Shakespearean kings instead of Emperor Asoka and so on. But both his children are part of the larger freedom movement. While his daughter Saraswati sings patriotic songs, his son is arrested under a charge of sedition. Saraswati is naïve and vulnerable yet rebellious and strong in her own way. Born with six fingers on her right hand she’s convinced that she’s abnormal and unlovable. She accompanies her father on a school inspection to Lahore and falls in love with a man 19 years older than her but he disappears and she’s certain that her father has something to do with it,” says the author who enjoys both reading and writing historical fiction.

Emphasising on the need of a writing routine, Lavanya writes anywhere between 500-800 words every day. Currently working on her second novel, Lavanya tells us that it is an inter-generational story about three women (a grandmother, mother and daughter) who’re affected by religious fundamentalism. “I am also working on a collection of short stories written entirely in second person,” concludes the author who is currently pursuing a Masters in Women’s Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.