Writing needs writers; sometimes it may help writing to have a residency too. “The idea came from my long years in academia in Canada, where research and writing grants were widely available to academics,” says Pushkar, who goes by one name and is the director of The International Centre Goa (ICG). He is talking about the ICG scholars-in-residence programme launched in 2020.
The ICG was born of a shared interest of the now defunct Planning Commission and the Goa government in 1996. Says Yatin Kakodkar, who is an industrialist and also president of the board of trustees of ICG, “It is an ideational institution. From the very beginning, we have looked to writers, whether journalists or academics or others for public lectures, seminars, conferences and book discussions to provide a public forum for dissemination of diverse ideas and perspectives.” He continues, “We felt we needed to deepen the engagement and the residency programme was born from that thinking.”
Pushkar adds, “I also discovered that there were no residency programmes of the kind I had in mind.”
The leap from mind to a plan on paper and from paper to beyond is quite the effort, especially when it comes to working out the dos and the what-not-tos. “I wanted to make the residency programme uncomplicated and less bureaucratic. It helped that as an academic, I understood what someone working on a book needed in terms of resources, facilities, and physical and personal space,” says Pushkar.
Books published by authors while residing at the residency
The ICG is in the suburb of Dona Paula in Goa. Abhishek Choudhary who was writing his book Vajpayee: The Ascent of The Hindu Right 1924-1977 when he was selected for the programme in 2021, talks about the scenic beauty of the place, the “wide open spaces”, the mornings spent cycling, the concerned eye of the host, and how all of it adds up to the cause at hand. Choudhary says, “It’s primarily about what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls the ‘state of flow’. About whether or not you feel comfortable in a certain space and how that impacts your work and its progress.”
There have been years when more than one scholar has attended the residency at the same time. Choudhary’s tenure coincided with that of Amrita Shah’s who was writing The Other Mohan In Britain’s Indian Ocean Empire. But it is not uncommon for a scholar to be by himself for his chosen four weeks at Dona Paula.
In 2022, Dinesh C. Sharma was the scholar in residence. He was writing his book Beyond Biryani: The Making of a Globalised Hyderabad. Sharma says, “At that point, I had already done my primary writing. The core research was done and a draft of the book was ready. The residency gave me the time to restructure it.”
Dinesh C. Sharma
Sharma, who has written several books to date, had not been part of any other residency before this. “There are very few of them in India, only three or four to the best of my knowledge,” he says.
The scholars in residence for the 2024-25 programme were Gautam Pemmaraju and Sanjoy Hazarika. Pemmaraju was at the time working on his book on the Communist and philosopher Manbendra Nath Roy. Hazarika was still writing Lalthanhawla and The Shaping of a Mizo Identity, which too is yet to be out.
Gautam Pemmaraju
Says Pemmaraju, “The residency was very helpful and timely for me. I had a large amount of documentation to work with. Archival documents, notes… I was able to use that time togo through my research material and figure out what to do next.”
He continues, “The most valuable thing about it was that I could take myself out of my regular context… I intentionally chose the monsoon period. There was no commitment to deliver anything at the end of the period. The only requirement was that you work on your writing. The fellowship provides you the space to work. I could isolate myself and just focus on my writing.”
Hazarika says, “I needed to stop travelling and focus on the book because I was not getting the key elements. I needed to read and start crafting the structure. I took this time to go through my detailed notes from interviews and archival research. Then I started writing. At the end of the break, I had written about 35,000 words.” He talks about the “magnificent monsoon weather” and the long and expansive balcony with its writing spots which aided the “immersive experience”. “There should be many more residencies like this,” he adds.
Not enough residencies, seems to be the common refrain. A stray visual comes to mind. Dashami evening. Durga and her children are leaving a neighbourhood pandal one by one. Each borne on a different truck. Saraswati is aboard one that is way behind the rest. The fanfare and celebration, the band party and dancers seem to march on ahead of her, close on the heels of Durga, Ganesh, Lakshmi.
The success of the ICG scholar-in-residence programme has led to the launch of a new residency programme by the V.M. Salgaocar Foundation.
Dattaraj Salgaocar is owner and managing director of the V.M. Salgaocar group of companies. Salgaocar, who is a founding life trustee of the ICG, tells The Telegraph, “My father, a self-made man, placed immense value on education, having sacrificed his academic aspirations to support his family at a young age. To him, the blessings of Goddess Saraswati were as important as those of Goddess Lakshmi. This belief has been a guiding force in our family’s priorities and endeavours.”
The V.M. Salgaocar residency has just one rider — applicants are required to be working on a Goa-focused book project. The pick for 2024 was Murali Ranganathan for his book Discovering Print in Goa: History and Historiography over Five Centuries....
Salgaocar adds, “By supporting writers delving into the history, culture, and various fields related to Goa, we aim to enrich both knowledge and cultural understanding.”