As she got ready for her first book, an admittedly nervous Nickunj Malik confessed that it was her first event of the kind. Yet, her tryst with writing is a far more comfortable one. The journalist-turned-author recently released “Tale Spin”, an anthology of her articles published in the Jordan Times. The articles, laced with humour and a keen eye for the occasional oddities of our society, have found multiple admirers, including the likes of the Beckett prize winning playwright Farroukh Dhondy, who has also written a foreword for the book. Emboldened by the presence of literary heavyweight Sir VS Naipaul, the Nobel Prize winning author, at the launch, Malik says that the next step in her creative journey shall be the genesis of a novel.
“This particular book is a trial book, I wanted to write a proper novel but I wanted to teach myself how to go about publishing a novel,” she says. As the book gathers buzz amongst bibliophiles and critics for her themes and writing style, Nickunj is pleasantly surprised. “I am surprised because I didn’t have any ulterior motives. I find humour is considered sometimes very trivial and frivolous but I think it is serious business. I think we as Indians laugh at others but can’t laugh at ourselves. Women, especially, are overshadowed by their spouses' professions. I may be a banker’s wife but I am also a trained journalist. It is thus very important for me to retain my identity, which led me to dabble in writing.”
Her writings seem anecdotal, a personalised rendition of tales that she has discovered or subtleties observed in the society. “Columns have to be personalized for people to relate with them, to empathize with them. I am also a mother and a wife. During our growing up years, all of us go through a rebellious phase so some of my columns were written for my daughter. Some of these were like the letters Pandit Nehru wrote to his daughter, and some were nostalgic, about my own childhood.” As someone who keeps readers engrossed with stories of her own, she must have a storyteller whom she cherishes the most, one wonders.
“My grandmothers were not educated so their story telling was all verbal. They would tell us stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata. I used to argue with them about certain parts of the story and they would provide their own interpretations. So, definitely, they were an inspiration and among my favourite storytellers”.
Released by Ocean Books, “Tale Spin” is one book which the readers might enjoy for its dose of humour and a nostalgic insight into the everyday lives of Indians.
