“India and Germany are not friends; they are pen pals. The reason being that when you look at all those Germans who have been fascinated with India and have done enormous works on India, most of them have never been to India. Take Max Mueller for instance, he never came to India, yet India occupied most of his life. I feel India and Germany keep writing these long and profound letters to each other as they prefer to keep the other as an admired projection as opposed to having a close relationship,” says author Ilija Trojanow over a breakfast of hot appams and coffee at Maurya Rajadhani.
He pauses and adds: “That was to be the introduction to my speech on ‘India from a German literary perspective' at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Department of German, University of Kerala, which was unfortunately cancelled due to the demise of the Governor of Kerala.”
India is not a new country to this author who has lived in Mumbai for five years and has written numerous reportages and essays on India. In fact, Ilija has written two books on the country: Along the Ganges and Confluences: Forgotten Histories from East and West . If the former is on the ecological decay of the Ganges, the latter, which has been co-authored with Indian writer Ranjit Hoskote, emphasises that the lifeblood of culture is the confluence of dissimilar and even contrary elements.
Written in one voice
“ Confluences… could be the first Indo-German work that has been written in one voice. Ranjit and I discovered that although we belong to different backgrounds, our views on history are similar. We feel that every explosion of great culture is a result of hybridity and that everything we regard as classical is nothing but a hybridity that we have forgotten.”
Research, says Ilija, plays an important role in most of his works like Along the Ganges , Confluences… , Autopol (about the political aspects of the new media) and his latest book Eis Tu (on the endangerment of nature), for instance.
“Research is the table on which I serve a meal. I go on researching until I am convinced that the table is solid and cannot be shifted. Also, if people get upset about the thrust of your book, they will try to find a thread of mistake. For example in the German translation of Confluences… , there was this one mistake, where we mentioned a certain German mathematician had invented something. It is half a sentence, but using this small mistake, someone tried to tear apart the whole book.”
And it was research for his book The Collector of Worlds , which is based on Sir Richard Francis Burton, that brought Ilija to Mumbai. “I took to Mumbai like a fish to water. My friends say I must have been a Mumbai walla in my previous life.”
Calling in life
Writing, he knew, was his future. “I knew from the age of 15 that I would be a writer. Not just because it was where my talents lay but because it was a way I could influence readers and society,” says the Vienna-based author who enjoys researching, thinking and reading.
So, what does he enjoy reading? “I like complicated novels: big tale, many characters, many twists and turns. I also read things I need to read to keep up to date.”
New projects
The author who attended the Jaipur Literary Festival, is impressed with how the youth of India is interested in literature. He is currently working on four projects. “One is a novel, the second a collection of short stories on Mumbai, and as for the final two, it's hush-hush.”
Mind your language
S itting at the rooftop restaurant at Maurya Rajadhani, the author admiringly takes in the view. The author who has been to Kerala “a few times but never got around to visiting the places,” says he finds the English language speaking skills of Malayalis decreasing. “It is a pity, as I feel it is important for people to be bi-lingual, and English being one of the languages."
