Shreekumar Varma partitions the writer in him into Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. If Mr Hyde weaves in brilliant, lucid passages, Dr Jekyll steps in, unscrupulously scissors it and fits it into the mould. The writer, who has three novels and a play in different stages of realisation, will be swinging between being Jekyll and Hyde fervently these days. Varma, known for his poignant, verdant prose, is attempting a “fast paced, quick read” too in one of his upcoming novels. More action for Dr Jekyll.
However, in his latest offering, “Maria's Room” from Harper Collins, Varma is Mr Hyde to the hilt. Set in Goa, the text evokes a landscape with conviction and paints Goa miles away from the postcards. Rain has played havoc here. Goa is dark, gloomy and sulking, where “the road overflowed” and “landscaped walkways and trimmed greenery” were “all puffy and wet.” His Goa picture surfaced from an off-season visit to the tourist destination.
“It was a gloomy Goa, completely different. People were their natural selves, leading real/normal lives and that fascinated me,” says Varma on a visit to the Capital to promote the novel. The beginnings of “Maria's Room” are strikingly similar to the author's life experiences. Varma's protagonist Raja Prasad, also an author, finds the story in his mind increasingly scuttled by Goa. That's what happened to Varma too. He calls his novel still in the making “The Third Monkey” an “unfortunate” one, as it's right to be his next novel after “The Lament of Mohini” was usurped by “Maria's Room' and a few more in the pipeline. The storyline of “The Third Monkey” of a young guy from Mumbai searching for his roots in Kerala and an aging professor is similar to the tale in Raja Prasad's head.
About blurring the lines between the real and the fictional, Varma says, “Sometimes, accidently, you come into contact with the real. But once you get into the story, it just flows.” It was Goa's growing grip on him that made “Maria's Room” imperative, “Once, before I had published “Lament of Mohini”, I had visited Goa, went to a church and a temple with Mahalasa as its deity. I had thought then, if ever somebody publishes my book, I will give a copy here. Four to five years later, when I was heading to Mumbai for the launch of the novel, I spent a few days in Goa. It was raining cats and dogs and that's the beginning of the book (“Maria's Room”).”
Apart from a few personal experiences, Varma says, he has severed Raja Prasad from himself as much as possible. “I have deliberately kept him different, in appearance and habits.”
Many identities
A novelist who thrives through his many identities — of a playwright, poet, children's writer, columnist and teacher, Varma and his works often make it to the corridors of recognition. “Maria's Room” was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize, while his play “Midnight Hotel” was long-listed for The Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award. It is triumphs at competitions which set Varma, a journalist and publisher till then, firmly on the writing path.
“I visualised what I would like to watch as an audience,” Varma says about writing plays. The author is comfortable with any genres of literature as it is about giving a story in mind a framework. “Once an idea starts, it is only about taking the story into a genre.” Varma spots stories everywhere. “It works in myriad ways. Something triggers and if it lasts long enough, stays with me, and then I see what it can lead to,” he relates how a speck spreads its wings into a play, poem or novel.
