Seek depth in the familiar

New Release

Log on to rediff, check out the headlines, and then move on to indiauncut.com. Which is exactly what I have been doing from a long time. So, it was almost like meeting an old friend, when I met Amit Varma, he of the indiauncut fame, when he was in Bangalore for the launch of his debut novel. We could talk about literature, cricket, journalism, or blogs. Which we did. About IPL version 2, about how it gave opportunities for domestic cricketers, and how the purist in him initially didn’t take IPL that seriously. There, we had struck a chord!

As I settle down to chat him up on his debut, that inevitable question comes to mind: Another blogger turns novelist. Before I can ask him that, Amit Varma whips out his card, and tells me, “see, I am a novelist first, and a blogger next. I have always wanted to be a writer.” The blog is incidental. Yeah, but was the blog a sort of preparation? Possible, he says. In fact, Varma started off with advertising, worked with MTV and Channel V, and then on to journalism, writing for such publications as The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal. He was the managing editor of Cricinfo. He won the Bastiat Prize for Journalism 2007. Business Week also listed him among India’s 50 most powerful people for 2009.

His blog of course, is among the most visited blogs, what with his witty observations and those WTF links. (If you read indiauncut, you know what I mean). So, when you first read My Friend Sancho, you are already familiar with that Amit Varma touch, and tend to expect more of that. But then, while the blog becomes a favourite peg (and perhaps, an easy one) for most journalists to base their evaluation of the author and his work, Varma explains that the two are not quite the same. With My Friend Sancho, he explains, he is seeking to bridge the gap between popular literary fiction, (the airport books) and the heavy literary tomes. My Friend Sancho is set in Mumbai, where Varma lives, incidentally. So, was it a conscious decision? “Abir just happened. I had started writing once before, wrote 2,000 words, and abandoned it. But this time, it just flowed,” Varma says. Writing requires a lot of discipline, he points out, and adds that he will not be looking at journalism again. He is already working on his second novel, which according to him, will be bigger and more ambitious than his debut. The conversation then veers towards the cover of his debut novel, and the contest that Hachette India, the publishers and Amit Varma ran on his blog. There were several entries, and of course, the current one, designed by Prem Kishore of the agency Hungry & Foolish Creative Products eventually made it.

Incidentally, My Friend Sancho was also longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize for 2008. Which brings us to the question of Asian writing. I point out that there seems to be an explosion of Pakistani writing in English, and Amit Varma agrees, reeling off names such as Daniyal Mueenuddin. Conflict, perhaps, is a reason. And in India too, Varma adds. So, what does Varma read when he is not writing? Anything from Italo Calvino to Haruki Murakami. In fact, Varma could well be on his way to becoming a writer in the Murakami mould. “Take a particular character, have things happening to him, and then, the drama happens,” tells Varma, when I ask him how he went about his novel.

Murakami’s books take one on a similar journey. “Seeking depths in the familiar,” was a phrase Varma used while explaining the plot of his novel. (which by the way, cannot be slotted easily, Varma quips). Well, if that is indeed what his genre of writing is going to be, then there is great hope for good popular literary fiction in India.