AN ANGELIC RETURN

With her fourth novel – a story that contextually explores one's connection to their roots and their history - author Anjum Hasan shares the extraordinary process of writing the ordinary

-  Anjum Hasan

GRAZIA: The story of your new novel, History's Angel, blends the reality of a certain past with the present. How did you arrive at this plot?

ANJUM HASAN: It was a slow process over the five years that I lived with the novel. The past comes with perspective, especially Delhi's past, which is much written about. But the present needed distancing. I think once I got a handle on Alif's voice, the plot took its own life. Personality is more challenging than plot.

G: You've taken some of the most relatable struggles of life, such as trying to make ends meet, aspiring for a better lifestyle, and written about them. How challenging was penning the humanness of it all?

AH: Yes, those things can seem too ordinary to write about. But I think I've been a writer long enough to find no struggle too humdrum. There is the frustration of not being in a field where you're able to make any direct difference to the lives of the strugglers but on the other hand, you see them all too clearly.

G: When telling a story that's a look into a certain living reality, as a writer, how do you balance between being sensitive yet painting a picture that can jolt the readers?

AH: That's a good question, and a hard one. One tries to resist caricaturing however caricature-worthy people can sometimes seem. And yet, neither can their dark sides stay hidden. There are characters in the novel, such as the school principal Mrs Rawat, who are bullies, but even she fervently believes in the religious melas she puts on, and Alif can't ignore that human side of her.