Party with Lalli

Kalpana Swaminathan’s collection of short stories celebrates her 20 years with the sharp sleuth

May 16, 2018 02:01 pm | Updated May 17, 2018 01:47 pm IST

For Metro Plus-Writer Kalpana Swaminathan in New Delhi on Wednesday,2006.Photo:R_V_Moorthy

For Metro Plus-Writer Kalpana Swaminathan in New Delhi on Wednesday,2006.Photo:R_V_Moorthy

Kalpana Swaminathan’s Murder in Seven Acts (Speaking Tiger) is a delicious collection of seven short stories featuring her sharp sleuth, retired police inspector Lalli. When we spoke for Greenlight last year, Swaminathan mentioned Lalli’s next outing would be in a collection of short stories. After the harrowing, horrific Greenlight,Murder in Seven Acts is gentler in tone reminding me of Agatha Christie’s The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding .

“Yes, writing Greenlight was harrowing — and now, after Kathua’s horrors, even more disturbing,” Swaminathan says. “The central question in the book is, what do we condemn when we protest against violence? Is it the act? Or the aggressor? Or the societal justifications for a morally-abhorrent act? Five years after writing Greenlight , I’m still pondering that afresh every week.

“Certainly, Murder in Seven Acts is by design a gentler book. I had planned it for 2017. The first Lalli book came out in 1997, and I thought it might be fun to have a party. So seven stories that attempt to capture the flavours of living with Lalli.”

Lalli has appeared in short stories as well as full-length novels. On which form she prefers, Swaminathan says, “Any successful piece of writing is a conversation between writer and reader. Writing a short story is like a chance encounter — a brief, but the panoramic glimpse that invites the reader to explore between the lines. So it should have texture and heft, and yet be porous enough to sustain the reader’s imagination. That makes it a far more intense exchange of thought than a novel. I find a short story has stayed latent for years before it gets written. I have changed within that time, but the story hasn’t. I like that.”

“I also like the concealed world it reveals to me, leading on to a novel — like the last story in this book which pitched me into writing a novel I had been dodging for years. I don’t like having to cut down diversions, though. So writing a novel is so much more fun.”

The author and surgeon chooses The Sixth Pandava as her favourite story in the collection. “It speaks of what concerns me deeply — the abnegation of intellectual enquiry, and the inertia of reverence. Two toxins that have paralysed us. Will we ever recover?”

Though the collection was published after Greenlight , Swaminathan says the stories are “placed before Greenlight . The events in Greenlight change a lot of things for Lalli. I hope you’ll read about that.”

The stories are set in different worlds — high fashion to mean hovels and Lalli is at home all of them. “Both worlds have a common denominator — people. Lalli is fascinated by the curiosities people reveal, no matter what their background. Besides, she loves beautiful things, whether in the heroics of survival in a slum or in the frivolities of outrageous design.”

Saying she chose seven stories for the “rainbow, maybe?” Swaminathan talks of the last story, Threnody . “It perhaps doesn’t belong here, because it is not about murder. And yet it does belong because of its other curiosities.”

Swaminathan, who also writes non-fiction with Ishrat Syed, says, “Ishrat and I enjoy playing literary detective, like, why is the food so awful in everything the Brontes wrote? Or why did PG Wodehouse invent Roderick Spode? That sort of stuff. When we were writing The Secret Life of Zika Virus, we stumbled on the source for a very popular murder mystery, which led us into the curiously concealed life of that writer……Hence, reactively, Threnody .”

Swaminathan says Lalli “next ventures into something I know nothing about — music. How on earth am I going to manage that?”

When asked to comment on the title, Swaminathan says, “Ah, I thought I’d keep that to myself, but since you asked... the play is the thing. So draw up your chair, park that nourishing brew, that crunchy snack at your elbow, and pick up Murder in Seven Acts . The curtain rises, enjoy the show!”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.