Ravinder Singh, who became the king of romance in modern Indian fiction with I Too Had A Love Story in 2008, is out with his fifth book, This Love that feels Right... (Penguin Books India, Rs 199). Having sold over 2 million copies, the 34-year-old is questioning notions of love and fidelity with this one. t2 chatted up the Gurgaon-based writer.
You’ve made Naina fall in love with her personal trainer, but IRL (in real life) don’t most people detest their trainers?
No, no... it was a realistic scenario. I took up gymming myself, specifically in the mornings, after I gave up my job and took to writing full-time. I started working out in a premium gym in Gurgaon and engaged a personal trainer. I saw that people who came at this time were predominantly homemakers. It was here that I got the idea.
Even before that, I had decided I would base my next book on an extramarital affair. I wanted to challenge our understanding of the notion of forbidden love, and bring it out in the form of a debate. I noticed that a gym provided me with a very realistic turf. A personal trainer, a housewife, Gurgaon, inattentive husbands — all the ingredients to kick-start an affair.
So much of the book is based in and around the gym... are you a fitness freak?
Yes, yes, yes! Three things I focus on — workout, more on diet and then lifestyle. In fact, I learnt a lot about what I wrote at my gym. For example, the term BMI or Body Mass Index... I did not even know about it!
Sweet homemaker Naina or go-getter TV anchor Manvika, who would you be attracted to?
I have been asked this question at all the four book launches so far (laughs)! In my mind, I am more attracted to Manvika. The reason is that she is not the protagonist. However, she completely takes over the protagonist, Naina, in the second half. All that people are talking about after reading the book is Manvika!
I knowingly started her off on a negative note.... The idea was to paint Manvika negative because that is how our society reacts to something like sex outside marriage. Now, with each page that you turn, I wanted to lighten the shade of grey, so that by the time the reader comes to the end, Manvika is a neutral character.
Manvika challenges everything on the basis of logic. She says you may disagree with me, but as long as you put rationale and logic my way, come let’s have a discussion, a debate. At the end of the day you pick your own battles and make your own choices. You may be Naina — and I respect your stand — but I do not agree when society paints me black… you envy my freedom.
I feel society envies Manvika because they did not get the freedom in their own relationships and marriages. In Hindi, we have this kahaawat, ‘Miyan biwi raazi, toh kya karega kazi’.
It’s high time that we talk about this. I created Manvika because I wanted her to start this debate. She challenges everything and that’s the beauty of Manvika. Hence she’s my favourite character.
You’ve written about love after marriage, that too not with the husband. Isn’t that too much for our ‘shuddh desi India’?
At the very first book launch, in Gurgaon, someone asked me, ‘Do you think society is ready to talk about open marriages?’ And my response is very simple: I am not going to wait for society to be ready so that I can put forth something for discussion. I am an author and I am taking a responsible stance. I am not preaching. I am not telling you that I am pro-extramarital affairs, pro-love outside relationships or pro-attraction outside relationships.
However, what I am saying is that if a person goes out of the relationship, can we try to understand why it happened? Why does society have to label everything as ‘forbidden’ and invoke a sense of sin, guilt, adultery, cheating, or infidelity? If someone asks me that isn’t it too much… I’d say probably 20 years back what was too much for me was a man falling in love with another man and a woman falling in love with another woman. Today, I believe I have transformed. Back then I would have probably cracked a joke about homosexuality... today I am totally for fighting for LGBT rights and decriminalisation of homosexuality.
I was debating this with a girl the other day. She was watching Bajirao Mastani and was like, ‘Woah! What a love story!’ So, you are perfectly fine when Bajirao says, ‘Bajirao ne Mastani se mohabbat ki hai, ayyashi nahin’. There is a wife, Kashibai, sitting at his home... and he is falling in love and the world is going gaga, but we cannot tolerate a Bajirao or a Mastani in real life in the 21st century. That’s the hypocrisy that I wanted to highlight in my book by taking a very logical stance about it.
Manvika advocates open marriages. What are your thoughts on it?
My thoughts are that if the husband and wife are comfortable with granting each other that freedom, then it is absolutely fine, as long as they are not hurting anyone out there. And, if husband and wife both agree to follow the traditional form of marriage, then that should be followed. So it is not an unbiased thing that only men get to sneak out and have an affair and come back. I want to make it a level playing field for everyone. And there is going to be a problem when one between the two wants to exercise his or her rights outside marriage and that’s a difficult situation to deal with.
Has your wife, Khushboo, read the book?
She loved the book! She knew... I mean we’ve been discussing, debating a lot ever since I thought of writing on this subject. And my first thought was to see how comfortable she was with it, because when the book comes out, because of the nature of the subject, there will be questions asked to her. But she was very clear that if you believe in something then you must go and write about it.
Again, this is fiction. I am not saying I am pro this or that.
You started with the idea of losing love, then finding love and now marriage... so what’s next on the cards?
True, true. The last part of the love trilogy, the story of my marriage, is still pending. So, 99.9 per cent that’s going to be my next book.
When can we expect it?
By this time next year, maybe.
You’ve written this book in the voice of a woman. Chetan Bhagat is doing the same in his next. Why do you think there aren’t enough women romance writers in India?
I haven’t thought from a gender perspective. I believe there are many authors of both genders but some books did well and the authors of these books happened to be men.
But I can definitely tell you why I chose to write this book in Naina’s voice. See, this subject is very controversial and explosive in nature and I did not want to lose this theme to the explosive subject. The cornerstone of this book should be logic and rationality... and I wanted to treat this subject very sensitively.
I could have had two male protagonists who have extramarital affairs. But the perception in our patriarchal society is that men are dogs and they keep going here and there and then come back home. The only way that I could do this was by bringing in two different women who have extramarital affairs. Both young, both married, however, both holding different viewpoints.
Naina is this traditional girl... and I myself am a more conservative and traditional person. Naina resonates with me. So, I thought the extramarital affairs should be of two women and I needed to pick one and narrate the book in her voice, so that I can make people feel. When you write a book in the first person, you can make the reader feel that it is their story. I want to consume and absorb my readers with this idea.
When are you coming to Calcutta?
Mid-September, I think. I love coming to Calcutta. It’s the one city where the number of my readers grows in multiples of hundreds!
So Calcutta is special for you! What’s your message for your fans here?
Oh it is, it is! Thanks to t2 as well, the way you guys have covered almost every event of mine with full page articles... and the next day people tag me on Facebook and Twitter. I have a great connect with Calcutta. I was born there. I lived there briefly, and my first story starts in Calcutta, at Babughat.
My only message for my Calcutta fans is please continue to read me and I shall continue to write for you, come to you, meet you, click so many selfies... Each one of you who comes to my launches with all my books, I sign dozens of them. I’d love to do that again..
Complete the sentence…
Ravinder at the gym… Is doing functional training
Ravinder at home… Ummmm, talking to his readers on Twitter!
Ravinder at his writing desk… Cooking up something in his mind, at the same time savouring his cup of tea
Ravinder on WhatsApp… Ahhh, trying to discuss his future characters!
Ravinder on a ‘cheat meal’ day… It’s a blessing. I am on cloud nine. I have a list — parathas, one dessert and dinner where I get to eat chapatis.
Ravinder on holiday... I like water bodies, so if I am on holiday I would stare at the peaceful water for a long time and do nothing!
Ravinder is this writer that feels right because... Tell t2@abp.in
