There’s a sentence in Aatish Taseer’s new book, The Twice-Born: “Those in whom tradition was most intact were often the least able to speak of it.” The sentence appears to capture the mood of the young Indian standing at the crossroads of traditions and modernity, trying to define his/her identity.
Most Indians who have been raised at homes that followed ascetic lifestyles while trying to adapt English education, and imbibe practices of the West, will perhaps be able to understand the essence of Aatish’s acutely perceptive, urgently relevant, but deeply individual narrative.
In the book, the writer chronicles his stay in Benaras, where he is in quest of the twice-born Brahmins — first born in flesh, and again when initiated into their vocation — they are devoted to sacred learning. Through out, Aatish encounters Indians from big cities, small towns, villages, and from different cultural backgrounds, and tries to find answers in Benares — the city that seems like a window to an India that is internally fractured as the writer’s own continent-bridging identity. Born to a Pakistani Muslim father and an Indian Hindu mother, and married to an American man, Aatish weaves his tale while telling the stories of the twice-born Brahmins and travellers he meets during his sojourn.
There seems to be a sense of conflict and urgency in the book even as you are trying to find an identity...
It’s not a personal quest for identity. What I am looking at is my condition as a sort of historical entity, a person who has grown up in a certain way in India behind whom a kind of line has been drawn. A line of modernity, of Western influence, of a break from tradition. So it is not a personal quest in that sense. It’s using the personal to enter the cultural and political realms. If there’s a sense of urgency, it’s the idea that part of the country has been brought imperfectly into a kind of modernity. Everyone is in a process of transition. Part of how we negotiate that transition is going to decide our future as a country.
There is an allusion to the current political fervour in India throughout the narrative.
For someone like Modi, whom the world sees as a politician dealing in the politics of populism, revivalism and to some extent revenge as well, the image of Benaras was also important. He saw how the symbol could be re-purposed to serve modern politics. The mechanism I became interested in was how the collapse of tradition was feeding a new politics of populism. I hadn’t gone to Benaras thinking I would write about politics. But when I was there during my first visit, the fact that Modi chose Benaras as his constituency, made me realise that there was a profound connection between what I was looking at, and what was occurring around me.
Do you think there is a desire among Indians to reclaim their past?
Yes, absolutely! People experiencing a certain kind of modernity have felt themselves bereft of the past. People will always need those connections again. There is a movement towards it.
How challenging was it to shortlist the people you would feature in this non-fiction work?
There were almost two dozen to thirty persons I spoke at length to. It would take a long time before I could realise someone was interesting in a way that suited the book. What I was really looking for was people in whom I could see a reflection of my own concerns.
How did you record your conversations with the two-dozen odd people you met?
I used to follow Naipaul’s method of taking longhand notes in a yellow pad. But since phones came equipped with recorders, it became so much helpful. Even for this book, I had the recorder going side-by-side and I transcribed all the interviews.
How does a regular day in Aatish’s life pan out?
I wake up at about four or five in the morning. I write for about three hours, till 8 am. Then, I take our dog to Central Park for a walk and I am home by 9. Then, I work for a few more hours. I stop by lunch time, and do some kind of strenuous exercise. Then, I read for a few hours in the afternoon and try to recollect what I had written in the morning. In the evening, I take a look at my work again. By 8 pm, I cook dinner. I watch some TV with my partner, and I sleep by 10 pm.
What are you reading currently?
I am re-reading Guerrillas by VS Naipaul. I’m also reading Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories and I am reading a Hindi novel, Sara Aakash.
HarperCollins India, Rs 599.
ayeshatabassum@newindianexpress.com
@aishatax