“Writer's Block? What's That?” Twinkle Khanna

Even as pad man, a film born out of her last book, is still being discussed world over, twinkle strikes with another amusing work of fiction with an underlying quest to understand a woman who is not the so-called right size or age

- Sangeeta Wadhwani

Your last book spiralled into a powerful talking point on taboos about menstruation and led to a global conversation and film. Did you at any point feel a bit of writer’s bloc, sitting down to write another book?

“Writer’s block is a privilege that I have never had the occasion to cultivate due to writing a weekly column and then a bimonthly for over six years. I am grateful that I found a compelling story that went into my last book and became Pad Man but that was not my goal last time and nor is it with Pyjamas Are Forgiving. When you write, you’re playing out the arguments in your head, like, how does the world look at a woman who is not the so-called right age or size; she’s professionally successful, but also single and childless. Is ‘adequate’ the word that resonates? These were some of the things I wanted to exmaine with this book.”

Your protagonist in Pyjamas Are Forgiving is a woman in her 40s who has been abandoned by her husband for a younger woman of almost no intellectual sophistication... how did you get into the psyche of such a lady?