Deeba Salim Irfan, whose debut book “Urma” was released a couple of years ago, is ready with the next one. Titled “Ladan”, it is a message driven, women’s fiction about an Iranian Ladan (from “Urma”) and her best friend, an Indian, Devika and revolves around how the former’s life is deeply affected by the latter’s fight with cervical cancer.
Making it clear that she will always write women-centric novels, the author, in an e-mail interview, says, “I love being a woman. I celebrate that and want to share that with others. That’s the genre I love to read and I want to write what I would eventually love to pick up and read.”
Deeba is also categorical that she intends to convey through her next book that cervical cancer is completely curable though early screening and detection is a must and that now there is a vaccine for it as well.
Interestingly, it was what she witnessed during her routine hospital visit that triggered “Ladan”. It started with a detailed discussion with her doctors followed by an intensive research for more than two years. Terming the research “serious”, the writer elaborates, “It was two pronged, one was the medical side in terms of various stages and where I wanted my protagonist to be and treatment options for her for which I had many rounds of discussions with gynaecologists and oncologists. The other side was to do with the emotional aspect of a person at a young age suffering from cancer for which I read countless accounts of people. This affected me a lot.”
According to Deeba, cancer per se amounts to death sentence for a common man and when she stumbled upon one that can be completely cured she decided to take it up. What intrigued her was that if it was curable why was the morality rate so high with a quarter of the world figures in India? Even though much is being done by non- government organisations and medical professionals, the reason for the alarming figures, according to her, is, “It is largely sexually transmitted. It is curable if detected early through the screening process. That would happen if women went for screening. And it’s a vicious circle. People do not talk about it. The basic issue is the taboo of not discussing sexual issues and the general social hypocrisy.”
Through her work of fiction, she intends to spread the word and deliver the message to her readers.
Despite dealing with the much feared disease, the writer emphasises, “My story is not a dark story. It is a story of courage, faith and survival under the wings of strong and real friendship. Beside the serious message there is a lighter note as well, that of love. Love as perceived frivolous, love as perceived a plaything and love as perceived as a soul enriching experience.”
The owner of a boutique agency, who writes at night, in all humility wishes, “If I am able to make a difference to even one woman’s life, I would have succeeded in what I am striving to achieve.”
Though toying with a few other subjects for her next story, Deeba is still undecided. But she is definite that “whatever the subject, my protagonist and all women characters will be strong, as for now, I want to write only about them.”
