'I don't keep diaries, memories just flood back'

“If you write the truth, you are a rebel,” says acclaimed Hindi novelist Mridula Garg, popularly known for questioning societal stigmas in her literary compositions.

- PANKIL JHAJHRIA

In her novels, Chittkobra, Anitya, and The Last Email, along with essays, plays, and her memoir Ve Nayab Auratein, Garg has written without fear of consequence. However, the author points out that her writing is often not planned. “As soon as I know the first word, the first sentence, I start writing. I don’t keep diaries. All the memories flood back when I write,” she tells TMS, speaking about the movie Qissa Be-Lagam, directed by filmmaker and poet, Sangeeta Gupta, keeping the writer at the centre of her project.

The film took nearly a decade to complete, beginning with footage of Garg receiving the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2014. Gupta, who has known the writer for over 20 years, deliberately chose not to create a conventional biography. The title ‘Qissa Be-Lagam’ — literally “untamed tale” — is a representation of Garg’s fierce independence and refusal to conform.