With a previously published work of fiction and two books of poetry, Zuni Chopra — the daughter of film critic and author Anupama Chopra and filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and also niece to award-winning writer Vikram Chandra — is carrying forward her family’s legacy. She has a new book — The Island of the Day Before, a retelling of fairy tales — on stand. And, she’s just 17. t2 caught up with the author in Mumbai to talk about her new book and balancing work and school.
  
If you had to explain the book in a tweet, what would it read?

It’s a compilation of poetry and prose connected by the theme of the modern fairy tale. 

Apart from poetry and prose, the blurb also mentions flash fiction. Was it fun to not follow a particular form? 

I guess I never really thought about it. I gave each story the form it needed in order to be told, but never sat and decided before I wrote it. It was a conscious decision in some sense, because I definitely knew I was writing poetry and short stories, but I didn’t sit and plan each story. For example, one story in the book is only a paragraph long; I didn’t even know that would happen until I wrote it. 

What prompted this book?

I did a summer course titled ‘The Power and Politics of Fairy tales’ at Harvard and that really interested me, because it got me thinking about what many of these fairy tales would look in the modern world, and the kind of template they’d fit into in a world like ours. That pushed me to begin writing these stories and they grew into a compilation that I am proud to publish. 

Fantasy is a genre that clearly attracts you, because your first book was also in this space. What is it about the genre that attracts you?

Fantasy is definitely my favourite genre and within the genre, Neil Gaiman is my favourite author. I think what’s amazing about fantasy is how you can blur the lines between dreams and reality, and go wherever you want and do whatever you want. That’s sort of the point — my mentality is, why write if the universe is going to be the same as ours. When I read about J.K. Rowling trying butter beer for the first time in a theme park and crying, and when you think about all this coming from the incredible mind of one woman, you realise what writing can do.

The book shares its title with a historical fiction by Umberto Eco. Why did you decide to use it? 

Yeah. I chose to share that title because I felt that it was also reflective of what I was trying to do with the book. Within the book, I’m trying to bring back something that people often consider as of the past — fairy tales — into the modern world again. I’m bringing the title that people consider is of a relatively older book to a book that’s now being published in 2018. So, it was a conscious choice to share the title. I also think that the words themselves, The Island of the Day Before, are nostalgia-inducing and a really interesting way of alluding to fairy tales.

You’re still in school. With homework and exams, when do you write?

I’m in the 12th. I wake up early in the morning to write. That’s what I do, I’m not saying it necessarily has to be early in the morning for everyone. I just think it’s important to set a time for yourself that’s for writing, or else you lose the discipline. I try and set aside an hour for the weekdays, but it’s obviously longer on the weekends depending on how much time I have and how much homework. 

How do your teachers and classmates react to you being a published author? 

I guess with pride. That’s one of the really fun parts of my days — I can be roaming the halls, and a teacher would stop me to tell me that she liked my book or an article I wrote for a magazine. (Laughs) It’s really fun. 

What is your writing kryptonite?

Probably when I know I need to write something. I know it sounds weird, but when I was writing this book, for example, I needed to have enough short stories to make it the length of a book. I had set myself an internal deadline, and needed just one more story to match it. So I was sitting there in front of my computer telling myself that I can write a story about anything in the world and I had no ideas. So being told that I have to write something but having no idea what is the toughest thing to do. The minute I tell my brain that I need to come up with a story, my brain goes ‘what is a story, how does one write it, what is language’! (Laughs)

Does writing energise you or exhaust you?

I guess both, like any job would. Sometimes, it’s really tiring — you get a writer’s block and you feel like smashing your computer. Sometimes, you come up with a really fierce line that makes you want to bounce off the walls with joy.  
When your first fiction book came out two years ago, a lot was made about how young you were — there were people on Goodreads who said they didn’t read the book because they thought you were too young. 
It was crazy, what has that got to do with my writing?! 

Have things gotten better now? Are people taking you more seriously?

It depends. I know most people were very shocked to see a 15-year-old author but 17 is much closer to 18, so I’ll be an adult soon. (Laughs) 

Who gets to read your first draft?

It’s either mom or dad but it depends on who I think will judge me less and also what kind of a feedback I want. (Laughs) My dad is super objective and doesn’t mince words. I remember when he was reading my first book, I had to remind him to not be very harsh because I was very young. I also had to keep reminding him that it’s a novel and not a script. He kept telling me to ‘make changes to the script’! (Laughs) With mom, she is more careful about how she critiques my work but it’s not like she won’t. She’ll tell me very gently that whatever I have written sucks.   

Karishma Upadhyay