Tender, lyrical and deeply reflective — Seahorse — Janice Pariat’s novel, is a re-telling of story of the Greek sea god Poseidon and his young male lover, Pelops. A chance encounter with art historian and mentor Nicholas Petrou, at Delhi University, leads Nehemiah aka Nem on a journey of pleasure and artistic discovery, also marked by betrayal and loss.
The poised and articulate Janice, who was in conversation with writer Arshia Sattar at Atta Galatta, said Seahorse started as a book of art. “I thought it would be a delicate balance between a novel and a short story. But it grew way beyond that. It moved in so many directions, I didn’t want to rein it in,” said Janice.
With her first book, a collection of short stories, Boats on Land , Janice’s talent as an adept storyteller and a wordsmith shines through. She won the Sahitya Akademi Young Writer, 2013 and the Crossword Book Award for Fiction, 2013, for Boats on Land .
Seahorse is completely different in theme and form. Arshia described it as “deeply, profoundly, and complexly, a love story”. She also observed how the names of the characters are unique. “When as a writer do you name a character?” Arshia asked. “I got the name of Nehemiah from Facebook,” came Janice’s honest reply. “I look through friends’ friend’s lists for interesting names. I was captivated by Nehemiah. It is a Biblical name. It means builder of cities. In my book, I made Nem a builder of new worlds.” “ Seahorse is a book of fluidity of gender and human constructs. Nem is unbound by the constraints of gender and labels,” said Arshia. To which, Janice said: “It is a book about overturning ideas of gendered relationships. I want to take away labels and make readers empathise with the characters as people.” Arshia marvelled at how specific the writer is in describing the places she sets her novels in. “All the places I’ve set my stories in are places where I have lived in. I am a bit ambiguous about South Delhi. North Delhi feels likes its part of the capital, but not really. It’s like a bubble. I wanted Nicholas and Nem to be in a little aquarium. London has always been close to my heart. Bloomsbury is again a little bubble. It’s removed from the rest of the city.”
Rivers find their way into her work frequently, said Arshia. “Of all the elements, I find water the most transformative. It finds its way into my stories. My characters are all about transformations,” says Janice.
Janice said she doesn’t write everyday. “But I think about my writing every time. The small poet’s voice in me hasn’t completely died out. It still lives in me. I like the ambiguity poetry infuses in words.”
Janice’s forthcoming work is a poetry collection: The Memory of place: Shillong and elsewhere .
