Tales Of Yesteryear

Author and poet Mrinalini Harchandrai on the emotions and transitions of her debut novel

- Mrinalini Harchandrai

GRAZIA: What made you decide to set your debut novel, Rescuing A River Breeze, in the Goan liberation time? MRINALINI

HARCHANDRAI: I found it intriguing that the British had left in 1947 but the Portuguese were still around for several years after. Also, it is a rather dramatic event in our history, which I thought wasn't explored very much in fiction. I found that the word liberation itself is fraught with divided opinion. For some it was a 'liberation', and for others a 'botheration'. I prefer the more neutral and technical term annexation. The fact that there are three (or more) viewpoints that echo right up to the present time with regard to a single event is interesting to me.

G: How was the process of going from poetry to novel in terms of process, and what conscious changes did you have to make?

MH: The way I see it, a poem and a novel are divergent in form as much as a fresh-water well is different from the ocean. However they both employ parts of my brain that use metaphor and allegory, lyricism, playfulness, truth slanting, and empathy. These are tools that easily facilitate the slide across the two. Margaret Atwood, who straddles both these forms (among others), once said that the disciplines evoke entirely different personalities, and I think she meant within her. If I were to think of it like that, my poetry personality would be more of a longjumper who doesn't sometimes mind a blindfold for takeoff and my novel personality would be a marathoner stopping every once in a while to commune with a butterfly.

G: Your central character is based on your mother's experience as a girl during this important historic time. How did you translate her experience and fictionalise it without compromising on its reality?