Better to seek pardon than permission. With these simple words ringing in my ears, I call up Geeta Anand, some half an hour after our scheduled time for a chat. Turns out she is both receptive and patient. Geeta, incidentally, is the Mumbai-based much-feted author of “The Cure,” a riveting book that tells “the true story that inspired the movie 'Extraordinary Measures'.” The movie stars the redoubtable Harrison Ford but Geeta is no mere speck in the distance, or the quiet author who wrote the book and faded into anonymity.
Now a senior writer with the Wall Street Journal, Geeta has done many things in her career. And she has done them all her own way. Once a national swimming champion, now she prefers to make a splash with her pen. It is not every day that you find a journalist penning a medical thriller but Geeta is not your every day woman either. “I set out to write a book that will have a strong narrative, not an academic book that would bore people. I covered biotech as part of my journalistic beat. I wrote on pharmaceuticals too and came across John Crowley on my beat. I wrote a story on him back in 2001, then did a couple of articles later. I found the story rich, fascinating with so much drama, intrigue that I had to have it as a book.”
So her journalistic credentials helped shape the book? “Well, I used the same set of skills, the same channels but while writing the book I had to learn to be slow. I realised it is a different type of writing. When I sent my first draft to the publishers, my editor asked me to make it twice as long. He told me the reader needed to slow down, ponder, reflect. He needed detailing. So I worked on that but I was always certain that the book has to have a certain kind of momentum.”
Talking of details, Geeta has painted with words. She brings out every little piece to the fore, not just the text but even the sub-text, not just the Crowleys' search for the enzyme that would keep their children alive but even the side stories of Barbara and others. Right from John's graduation ceremony to the little reactions of his children to medicines, every thing falls in like the slanting beam of the early morning sun through curtains of your window.
“If the book is rich with details, I have to thank my editors. And also John. He was so open, so receptive, so willing to share everything. In fact, while talking to me he came across as a man comfortable with himself, some one who made a mistake and also owned it up. I saw him as a real character, a real man who sometimes stretched the truth, made mistakes but was always a fine, fine human being.”
For all the wonderful rapport she struck with John, Geeta was not as lucky with Aileen, John's wife, who was not as comfortable talking about her private life. While John probably found his interactions with Geeta therapeutic, Aileen “did not quite want that kind of therapy”, as Geeta puts it. Result? When Geeta sent in her draft to the publishers, they thought she was being harsh on the lady. “They felt I had done great injustice to Aileen. She is a much more private person.” So, there resumed Geeta's search to know Aileen better, and thus restore parity.
Impatient reader
While she was able to draw some more details out of Aileen, Geeta still ensured the book did not get bogged down. “I am an impatient reader. I did not want people to get bored. I did not want anybody to look, read and move on. I wanted them to finish the book. So I kept it simple enough for an average housewife to comprehend. However, it is a simplicity that stems from 20 years of writing on the subject. I am used to writing about complex issues in a simple way.”
“The Cure” with its simple but extraordinary story of a father's search for a cure for his children, and his obstinate refusal to give up hope might be making headlines, but there is more to Geeta than just a much-raved-about book. Back in 1982, she represented India in the New Delhi Asian Games. Then went on to participate in the Commonwealth Games. Today, she might be walking the red carpet for the premier of “Extraordinary Measures”, back then she grabbed all attention with her exploits along with the likes of Anita Sood, Persis Madan, Bula Chowdhury, Khazan Singh and Wilson Cherian. “I remember the times. I am still great friends with Khazan, Anita and the rest. I was just 16 then.”
So, when and how did she decide that the writer's desk and not the swimming pool will be the next stage of accomplishment?
“I was always a good student. I had lots of interest. I regarded swimming as something I was good at, not something I could take up for a career.”
And what a career! A Pulitzer Prize, a book that narrates a true story that in turn inspires a movie! There is more to come yet.
