“Any experience that makes you stand still, makes your heart move, can make you write,” says an enthusiastic Ishita Deshmukh as she answers questions at the launch of her novel Heart Quake in a calming ambience at Palais de Mahe on Wednesday.
Her debut novel, Heart Quake revolves around the emotional crisis undergone by two lovers at the time of the Bhuj earthquake that shook Gujarat in 2001.
During the book launch and interaction hosted by the People for Pondicherry Heritage, the author while replying to a query said, “Several novels that revolve around a distress situation often take a political crisis as backdrop but Heart Quake revolves around a natural calamity which is a theme that is rarely taken up”.
Ishita penned this novel in her school days when she was asked to write with ‘love’ and ‘calamity’ as themes. With just a few months past the Bhuj earthquake, she chose her work to revolve around it.
Talking about her book, Ishita says she always wanted to keep it an emotional journey for her readers and for that she needed strong characters to pull through the emotional ebb and flow.
Thus, her female protagonist, Sonal, a strong modern day woman, is more of a reflection of herself, the author says.
“I am not a feminist but I was never meek or submissive,” the author added while responding to a question from the audience.
In fact, Ishita says she didn’t want the run-of-the-mill kind of a narration with a male protagonist. She wanted the whole story to be narrated through the eyes of Sonal.
It has been a long journey for Ishita from writing her book way back in 2001 to getting it published 17 years later. The essence of the book hasn’t changed though, she says. Though other elements have been added and a broader outlook taken than being confined to love, the innocence has been retained, the author adds.
The book can be expected to be an emotional trip with strong characters sailing their way through the natural calamity.
Second work
Ishita is currently working on her second novel which revolves around family traditions. On when the book can be expected to hit the stores, she chuckles and says “A year or two. I write only when I feel like it. It will be out soon.”
Heart Quake was released by Lalit Verma, President of Aurodhan, who fondly reminisced about Ishita during her school life at the Ashram where, he said, she was one of the best students.
