There is an attempt to suppress women in all spheres, especially in our sub-continent. Men also dominate the literary world. When will this situation change? What can women do to become writers and survive in this fight?
Of course, there is reason to say what you are saying. But I think we need to remember two things -- one that not just in the sub-continent but the world over, odds are stacked against women, obtrusively and unobtrusively. Look at what the literary surveys show of comparatively little readership of men for women's literature, etc; and two, in this world full of inequalities we are always anyway negotiating our space and creating ways to go forward even in this iniquitous world. So, in fact, women writers are in plenty and willy-nilly get acknowledged because they are too good to be ignored! Some of the most creative minds are women, even in the subcontinent.
Women themselves are also quite actively working to set this skewed position right. Further, in the middle of all that is skewed a recognition by many -- men and women -- that art and literature involve artists and writers, not men or women!
With that caveat, I agree again that there continues to be systemic discrimination, sometimes overt, sometimes covert.
In an interview for the Booker Prize, you said that you don't like the intrusion into your private life and hoped that things would change over time. What do you say now? Have you gotten your place back?
Not quite, but I will! The world is too much into celebrity and hype around achievements, but they tire of one and move to another! What will sustain is a more genuine world of those engaging with literature with sobriety, and that I will always value. Nor will that militate against my need for privacy.
I want to hear about your shift from the teaching profession and entering the world of literature.
That was a short-lived phase and more about having a practical viable career, so it was not difficult emotionally to leave teaching. The issue was more about how writing will sustain me in practical terms, but I was happy to take the plunge.
After these days, do you think the history classroom misses you at some point?
Oh no, I was never made for the history classroom. Though no experience leaves you untouched, and I think I learnt in it and that is an asset as good as can be.
History continues to teach outside the class too!
What are you most looking forward to at the Dhaka Lit Fest in 2023?
Meeting other writers and furthering acquaintance with a part of the subcontinent so near and yet so far. Just looking forward to my world opening up into new vistas.
How do you think Lit Fest can strengthen global literary ties?
I think it is a huge thing that lit fests are about celebrating books -- books are about love and humanity, and literature binds and does not divide. It is a most beautiful thing to bring us together and bring cultures into close happy contact. That would only lead to more dialogue and more culture and extend our sensitivity and vocabulary about life and peoples and the world.
