The Balancing Equation

By Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of edited version published in The Week

For a mathematics professor, normally living in a world of formulae and equations, dealing with human figures and emotions is uniquely strange. Nevertheless, Manil Suri seems to be excelling in his endeavour of painting vivid canvasses of human emotions, story telling and flowing narratives.

Personally, I always judge a book by the pages within its covers and the story in isolation, without being influenced by the author’s previous works or his persona. A story is a story and how best it unfolds and progresses from the first page to the last, is the crux of the matter – the success or failure of the book, and not because a great writer has decided to write another tome. “I had to have a release from the world of Algebra and equations. I decided to be a professor by day and a writer by night,” says Manil Suri, Professor of Mathematics at University of Maryland. Maintaining equilibrium of thought, I wonder? But, the Jekyl and Hyde switch of his personality is probably the reason for the success of his narration.

Manil Suri, incidentally, has just one book to his credit, as an author – The Death of Vishnu, which won the McKittrick Prize, was long-listed for the Booker Prize and the IMPAC prize. Many other nominations did not result in a win. But, that is beside the point, as we are now dealing with a book, which has been in the writing for seven years (seven year itch?) and just released in India – The Age of Shiva.

Manil’s second novel is a sweeping epic that traces the fortunes of a family in the aftermath of Indian independence. The Age of Shiva is the powerful story of an ancient society in transition and an extraordinary portrait of maternal love.

In the midst of a whirlwind tour of Indian Metros, Manil Suri spoke to The Week about his life as a writer.

What led you to writing novels, starting with The Death of Vishnu?

I had started writing a novel even before finalising The Death of Vishnu. That did not materialise and I attempted a few short stories. Somewhere along the way, the first book happened and before I knew it, an epic manuscript was emerging. It finally turned out as The Death of Vishnu.

Why did you take about 7 years to publish the second book?

After the first novel, I sort of became a bit disoriented. For about a year or so, I didn’t do anything. I was letting myself drift along to another novel. When you write your first novel, you give it all you have got. You are not even sure if it will get published. And, when that happens and the book becomes a critically acclaimed novel, you wonder, how you are going to write another one. You have a benchmark to be judged against. You have to re-think on story construction, character build-ups, length of narrative…so many aspects which were not there when the first one was being written.

As a Mathematics Professor, do you construct your book in a precise, calculating manner?

With the first book it was like that. Everything was planned along set outlines and frames. When The Age of Shiva was being conceived, the character of the son, Ashvin was supposed to be the central one. Somewhere along the way, the story got sidetracked by the powerful character of Meera. In that context, it is woman-centric novel.

Why did you base your novel during the post partition days?

It is not as much the partition or post-partition that forms the basis. In the fifties, India was waking up from orthodoxy to modernism. Religious fundamentalism was becoming a political power. The scenario of those days was the right basis for story telling. The Age of Shiva is set in 1955 when the ugly scars of Partition are just beginning to heal. It is more a post colonial novel than a post partition.

What is the 3rd book in the trilogy titled as?

The working title is The Birth of Brahmma. But, as the story develops and the book is completed, it may change.

Apart from India, which other country has had a better acceptance of the first book? Europe or US?

The US, of course. And, the book has sold well in Sweden and Holland. (The Death of Vishnu has been translated into 22 languages).

Apart from teaching Mathematics and writing novels, what are your other passions / past times – which help you to unwind?

Cooking is an obsession. I love to cook for any and everybody. Small, family gatherings to large parties. My favourite cuisine is Vietnamese. Cooking allows me to take a look at life from a totally different perspective. I take on a different dimension from the world of mathematics and writing.

What about your short stories? Are you planning to publish them?

I have published one recently. But, the earlier ones, which were all written before my first book was published, are not really worth publishing. They are mostly random ramblings, which every author experiments with for some kind of artistic release from the serious business of writing a novel.

What kind of readership / audience did you keep in mind when conceiving the second novel?

Actually, no audience. It is difficult, though. Before the first one was published, I didn’t have any audience. Then, post release, the book became popular and a definite readership emerged. This becomes a problem when you are working on the second novel, because you have to keep the already developed audience in mind. But, I shut them out from my mind when I wrote The Age of Shiva. Maybe that’s why it took almost seven years to complete.

While The Death of Vishnu was set in Bombay, The Age of Shiva is set in Rawalpindi, Delhi and Bombay. Which city is the setting for the third?

I wanted the story to be set in the US and India. But, it soon transpired that the whole story is centred around Bombay or, Mumbai as it is called now. The Age of Shiva was set in what was then called Bombay.

You said that the book was written from a woman’s point of view. Therefore, would you expect a majority of readers to be women? Is it deliberate, because, there is a perceptible and increasing number of women who are taking to reading?

It is a fact that in most of the western world, women form the majority of book readers. In India, too, this scenario is emerging.


How do you manage the two identities – one of a professor and another of an author?

I think I took to writing as an escape from the closed world of Mathematics. Probably, I wanted to maintain my sanity. I would sometimes watch a colleague of mine, so immersed in his profession, not concerned about his looks or mannerisms as long as his core activity of furthering his professional cause, was indulged in. I didn’t want to become like that. Writing is a release from the hardcore profession that I am in, of teaching Mathematics. And, it helps in honing my creative instincts. I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing something else other than teaching mathematics.

Title: The Age of Shiva
Author: Manil Suri
Publisher: Penguin Books India - Bloomsbury
Price: Rs. 495


By Nikhil Raghavan / Precious Features Syndicate