A little bit crazy...

...a whole lot sane. Actor and writer Koel Purie Rinchet gives us an insight into the friendships that made her and her novel Clearly Invisible in Paris.

- Stuti Agarwal

There is an air of ebullience about her as she walks in, the sway of her black dress screaming effortless style, as if it is something she just threw on and perfected on the go. The skittish smile that dances on her blushed face as she talks about the happenings in town and orders her coffee (a latte, none of that soy and almond milk nonsense please!) is at once assuaging, the short fringe she sports adding the oomph that one expects of a Parisian woman.

It is hard to keep your eyes from scanning the person that is Koel Purie, her black nail paint, the choice of many rings that she has on, the light freckles across her face. But as soon as she starts talking to you, she has all your attention—no, not in a self-important way, but in one that immediately wants you to be friends with her.

Koel’s affable and fun, that’s for sure. But, more than any of that, she’s reaffirming in a way that friends can be, and proficient at pulling your leg like only old buddies who have known you a long while are. There’s no wonder that her first novel, Clearly Invisible in Paris, ebbs and flows with the relationship between four women, deeply entrenched in their friendship, that makes the heart of the book.

Robert McKee once said, “Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.” And if Koel’s is reflected in this book that traces the life of the characters Neera, Rosel, Violet, and Dasha, and their hunt for identity in the city of love, her’s is a life of the strongest, most life affirming friendships one can hope for, starting in her childhood.

“I am now scared when I think about my daughter pulling off the things Shalini and I did.”