Crossing the thin line

What happens when infidelity crosses path with fuddy-duddy, old-fashioned values? Jaishree Misra's latest release 'Secrets and Sins', which will be out on stands soon, talks about the same, making it a sprightly read

Jaishree Misra is out with her secrets again. This time in another compelling 400-page fiction, her sixth, titled Secrets and Sins. Every page unfurls the author taking a few tottering steps to deal with the protagonist Riva Singh's trysts with reality and innermost desires. MiD DAY caught up with the UK-based author as she stepped in the country on the first leg of her launch tour.

What's your take on infidelity?
It happens! And is therefore as valid a subject in contemporary fiction as any other. Having said that, I don't think it's a novelist's job to moralise on any issue. Hopefully what I've done in 'Secrets & Sins' is explore the issue inside out, show how easily people can get drawn into unthinking affairs, expose the highs and the lows and the possible fall-out. Despite not wanting to take a moral stand, I was conscious, however, that the issue is dealt with rather sympathetically in the case of the main protagonists, Riva and Aman.u00a0u00a0

Guilt leading to family values takes front seat rubbishing real love, of course with the whole gamut of ups and downs. Do you really believe that following the untrodden path of giving in to your deep dark desires could be fatal?
Not at all. As happens in the book (and in life, I guess!), some people are merely luckier than others when it comes to following their desires. I had a male friend who had just read the book email me to say how sorry he felt for Aman, especially because Riva appeared to have come out of their relationship, not just with her golden image intact but also with her marriage oddly improved by it. As a matter of fact, my very first book, 'Ancient Promises' also deals - albeit differently - with the issue of adultery but, in that case, the female protagonist does follow her desires through, seemingly going against everything family and society expected of her. Life generally does not offer a neat formula for any issue, and nor, by that same measure, should books!u00a0

How much of you can be found in Riva Singh, since she's also a famous writer in this novel?u00a0
It all started with my publishers in the UK asking me to write a love story with a Bollywood superstar as one of the protagonists (this because Bollywood is now quite a well-recognised concept in the west and people are getting rather curious about it). Now, because I know almost nothing about the world of cinema, I decided to cast a novelist as the other half of the love story because writing is a job I do know something about. Essentially, I was halving my research requirements by doing this. Of course I was aware that readers would wonder whether Riva was me and, at my launch in Delhi (last week), I joked that 'Secrets & Sins' could be seen as the untold story of Shah Rukh Khan and Jaishree Misra (well, a girl can dream, can't she?). Alas, it's nothing of the sort and Riva and I share very little. We don't even share a writer's life because she's a full-time writer and, until recently, I was juggling novel-writing alongside a full-time job in London. Besides, she's a much-acclaimed Orange prizewinner but, again, a girl can dream, can't she.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

How come a name like Aman Khan? Was it a deliberate choice as Bollywood is agog with the Khan brigade, so it could easily sound a bell to a reader sitting anywhere in the world?
Absolutely. Even Sharmila Tagore, who launched my book in Delhi, said, "He had to be a Khan!"u00a0u00a0
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The thrills and spills of finding your lost love outside marriage is a subject dealt with over a million times, in Bollywood, Hollywood and other cinema as well as other genre. What was that one force that kept you going in dealing with this not-a-novel theme?
You're right, it's an age-old theme in books and movies. Which I took as a challenge. But what I was particularly interested in exploring was the idea of decency, which can be seen as a rather fuddy-duddy, old-fashioned value. We live now in an age of feminism and go-getting individualism, where we are taught to go out and grab with both hands anything that we have set our hearts on. But I wanted to know if most people - when faced with a moral dilemma like Riva's - would end up doing the 'decent' thing. That to me is the essential theme of the book.u00a0u00a0

What gives you the highs and the lows? In writing and in life?
In writing, the biggest highs come when readers appear to love a book and email me from all over the place (Russia, most recently!). I'm less bothered about reviews, although it's obviously terrific to get good reviews too. The biggest highs in life are more difficult to define. I'm rather a boring family type, when all is said and done. I'm also in the process of setting up a residential facility for developmentally challenged adults along with a few other parents and this has recently been a huge thrill because the Delhi government has given us a building on three acres of land to start us off and, suddenly, we're making fantastic progress after many years of head-banging-on-brick-walls.

How long did it take you to write the book?
Well, I was contracted by Harper Collins in the UK to give them three books in three years. I've been spot on with my deadlines so far - 'Secrets & Lies' came out in August 2009, 'Secrets & Sins' in August this year and I'm presently madly trying to meet my September deadline for the third in the trilogy so it can come out in July next year, in time to catch Britain's summer holiday market. You do the sums but remember that, alongside the writing, authors also have to do the publicity hoopla, which can really cut into writing time.

Do you think it calls to be made into a film just like Riva's book finally gets an offer for a film?
Without a doubt, yes.u00a0
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Did you ever think of changing the plot to getting Riva and Aman happily together forever after as an ending?
And Joe and Kaaya continuing with their romping sessions till eternity and Ben dying a silent death?u00a0

Don't give away too much of the plot! But, to answer your question, I'm a real sucker for happy endings and always struggle with myself if I feel I can give a character a better deal than he/she is getting in my book. I'm afraid I don't make a very vengeful god so you'll rarely find one of my characters coming to a vile and bloody end.u00a0

Book: Secrets and Sins
Publisher: Harper Collins
Author: Jaishree Misra
No of pages: 400
For: Rs 299
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