Achievers
Books
Business
Calendar
Community
Controversy
Cuisine
Eateries
Education
Enterprise
Faith
Good Samaritans
Health
Infotech
Media
Memories
Movies
News Archives
Opinion
Specials
The Arts

A dollop of reality

Nitish S Rele

For a debut novel, An Obedient Father really bucks convention with its boldness. But as novelist Joyce Carol Oates put it, Akhil Sharma, an investment banker residing in New York, is indeed "an enormously gifted young writer".

Sharma is no novice to the world of fiction though. He has written stories that have figured in Oates's The Best American Short Stories anthology, the O Henry Award Winners anthology, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The Quarterly and Fiction.

An Obedient Father, recently released by publishers Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is the story of a corrupt official in the physical education department of the Delhi school system. Ram Karan lives in one of the city's slums with his widowed daughter Anita and eight-year-old grand-daughter Asha.

Karan picks up bribes for his boss which are funnelled into the Congress party. But the protagonist's troubles start when he sexually molests his young grand-daughter. Twenty years ago, he had repeatedly raped Anita. His daughter, realizing that her father is preparing to commit the same crime, decides to take action, with mixed results for everyone involved.

Novelist Bapsi Sidhwa describes it in these words: "Charged with life, the passionate characters in An Obedient Father continue to haunt the reader long after the book ends. Akhil Sharma's writing has astonishing range and power."

Nitish Rele caught up with the busy Sharma for a short conversation. Excerpts:

How did a native of New Delhi land up in Edison, New Jersey?

I'm a native of Old Delhi. My family first came to Queens. Then, as part of a larger diaspora of Indian immigrants to the suburbs, we ended up in New Jersey. Suburbia bored me and I tried as soon as possible to get into a big city. I have lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and, now, New York.

Investment banking and novels? A strange combination. How did this chemistry get going? Is investment banking something you plan to keep doing?

I have to eat, so I have to have some job other than writing. The chemistry is logical in my mind because I'm interested in a realism that incorporates not only the day-to-day life, but also the forces that create the day-to-day world.

How did An Obedient Father come about? Are some of the characters in the book, notably Karan, from real life? Someone you knew?

The characters are not from real life. The book came about as a series of scraps of ideas and conflicts, which I tried to figure out.

This indeed is a bold subject for a writer, especially a writer of Indian origin, to come up with. How do you think the Indian reader will react? Or do you believe that the Indian community won't even read this book?

I'm not sure what the Indian reader will think. People in India have said that they are quite impressed by the accuracy of the day-to-day life I have presented. I am glad about that. The reviews have been generally negative. Mostly, people have found the book too grim.

American reviewers have all commented on the humour and irony in the book. I think Indian reviewers are so up close to the subject matter that they are unable to see what non-Indian reviewers keep praising.

Do you think Indian writers in English have finally come of age and are receiving the recognition they deserve in the West?

Indian writers are receiving a lot of attention. It is wonderful to see India (an incredibly important part of the world) being described by wonderful smart sensibilities. I am sure there will be even more good writers of Indian origin who will begin writing books. I don't think we have come of age therefore, because I believe the best is yet to come.

What is a typical day in the life of Akhil Sharma?

I get into work by 8.30. I work until 12 at night. From 8.30 to 5, I am on the phone just trying to meet the demands of my clients and my immediate superiors. From about 6.30 on, I can do the work that has piled up over the day. The work can be anything from developing financial models to preparing and offering memorandums, to getting presentations for soliciting business ready.

Tell us a little about your personal life. Are your parents here? Are you married?

My parents live in NJ. I am engaged.

What are your hobbies?

I like learning about cities and the physical spaces that people live in.

What's next for Akhil Sharma? Have you started work on the next book? What will it be all about?

The next book will be set in the US and deals with the wave of immigration after 1965.

Next: Alleged sex offender doc awaits trail

Tell us what you think of this report