In her third book, “There's Something About You” Yashodhara Lal tries to address several important questions, and while her books position themselves as love stories with the required happy ending, she also tries to create these love stories around unusual but realistic protagonists, with problems her readers can relate to. Her second, “Sorting out Sid”, had tackled divorce. In “There is Something About You”, Lal handles issues of body image, commitment and self-esteem, among others.
Excerpts from an interview:
A little about your new book...
This story is about a girl who finds herself in a lot of trouble at the beginning of the book when she gets fired. She’s a little bit complacent about the corporate world. She never saw herself as a high flyer. She has not had any close relationships and she’s fine with that. She’s got dependent parents and for that reason, losing her job is a big blow. She’s the only one in the family who earns, her father has Alzheimer’s disease, she believes she doesn’t need anybody. She has weight and self-esteem issues but she’s not accepted any of that. She thinks she’s fine as she is.
Trish is an unusual protagonist. Why did you choose her?
I think there are plenty of pretty and smart protagonists. I just thought it would be refreshing to get into the mind of a character who is different. The previous one I wrote was getting into a man’s head. I enjoy coming up with different characters, who have problems but are still very relatable. They are everyday people, they have their flaws and aren’t always very self-aware. So a lot of my writing is about discovering those imperfections, coming to terms with it and finding yourself.
How was the process of writing this book and finding its plot?
Actually, this book was written a year ago over a three month period. I wrote it very fast, while I was on a break. I wasn’t very sure where it was going to go. The territory felt very new to me. But when I sent it to my editor at Harper Collins India, and this is the chief -editor Karthika, she wrote back saying it was “wonderfully, marvellously, joyously good”.
The plot itself was an amalgamation of many things. I picked up evidence from observation, and experiences we ourselves go through. I believe there is a part of me in every character. I think I can relate to each of them, whether it’s Trish or Sid in my previous book.
The book is about many things, issues that Trish has with herself and the outside world. Essentially, though, it’s a love story. Why did you choose to make that love story the central aspect?
I’ve always thought of myself as a humorous fiction writer, but my editors have always picked out a very strong theme between the central man and woman character. The first book male protagonist was me and my husband, so it was largely an autobiographical novel. In the second, while Sid was going through a divorce, there was also a love interest, a single mother. Now there is Sahil as the primary character opposite Trish. It was my editors who told me that it was the relationship which was holding the book together really well. And so we made that the primary story. At the end of the day my publishers see it as a love story. And who doesn’t like a love story. We decided to position the book as a fresh romantic love story for this Summer.
What other themes have you thought of working on?
I am very interested and fully intended to start writing a book soon on the corporate world and the office. You know how one tends to get very caught up in this cocoon of the word with its own politics and issues and its own toxicity? The things that go on in a work place are actually fascinating.
