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Surgical precision
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Kalpana Swaminathan, writer and doctor, talks about how she cooked up a storm
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There has to be research, because that way the writing comes easy, else it is not okay
DOCTOR OF LETTERS Kalpana Swaminathan PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY
Nothing like a stormy monsoon afternoon — the kind where day is indecipherable from night, the rain drums on every surface available in a percussive symphony, and rivulets run down the window panes, while the roads outside are gushing rivers — to cosy up with a mystery story and a cup of steaming coffee. Kalpana Swaminathan, author of "The Page 3 Murders", the first of the Lalli Mysteries, recently launched by Roli, goes a step further.
The mystery she serves up is not only shrouded in unrelenting rain that rocks a seaside villa cut off from civilisation, but accompanied by a full-fledged banquet too. It's a banquet whose dishes have associations with every period of history and every part of India. That might not be so special.
Aren't fiction writers supposed to have good imagination? What's special about this banquet is, it can actually be cooked, and all the recipes were tried out by the author and her friend Ishrat Syed. "Ishrat did all the non-vegetarian cooking and I did the vegetarian cooking."
What's more, the villa in which Swaminathan's Page 3 crowd lives through the nightmare — not everyone makes it though — was designed by the author's architect friend, complete with interior decoration and remodelling. So Lalli's creator is obviously not into cardboard characters and uni-dimensional situations.
In fact, she takes so long setting the scene and introducing the characters that one almost becomes impatient for the lethal shot to be fired. The attention to detail is on purpose, says the author, a practising surgeon who relies a lot on her laptop to make her dual professions run smoothly. "I did set out to write that kind of book. I enjoy reading a book where the characters have assumed some significance."
Besides, she points out, the typical paperback mysteries one carries on train journeys may appear to be a `read and throw' experience, but actually are products of dedicated research, and not all characters or situations from mystery stories are forgettable. An admirer of Agatha Christie as well as the original master of the English mystery, Wilkie Collins, especially his novel "The Woman in White", she remarks, "Most of us know a smattering of things, but when we write it down, we need to know more. There has to be research, because that way the writing comes easy, and if the writing is not coming easy, it is not going okay."
Lalli's character
Lalli, who originally appeared as a character in Swaminathan's short stories printed by Orient Longman, is a retired policewoman, whose superannuation has done nothing to diminish her capabilities as an incisive, intuitive detective. Her niece, the narrator of the novels, is an aspiring writer. The dimensions of the aunt and her multiple facets dawn on her gradually, as she documents the gruesome developments of the tale.
Building a villa, cooking a banquet, decoding Bharatanatyam and selecting a classical raga to convey her chosen mood must have done well to fill in the free time between sessions in the operation theatre. But the Mumbai-based doctor is ready with more. Five more manuscripts, to be exact. Due in March 2007 is "A Gardener's Song" (as yet a working title).
Swaminathan, whose Lalli series is a solo effort but who has earlier co-authored a number of scientific articles and "A Compendium of Family Health" with Syed, explains that the next mystery Lalli investigates is in a diametrically opposed setting to the first. This one is literally in her backyard, the Mumbai housing society she resides in.
Time for more murder and mayhem?
ANJANA RAJAN
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