Interview with author Ameen Merchant

Click here to read an excerpt from The Silent Raga.

Canadian Living: What was your inspiration for this novel?

Ameen Merchant: In the late '70s, a Tamil novel was being serialized in a popular weekly. I read a few pages of the first chapter (I was a dismal student of Tamil, and it would take me hours to read one full page), but I never read the whole novel. In 1997, when I went back to India after seven years in Canada, that bit of the story came back to me. In those first few pages that I’d read years ago, there was a mention of Janaki, the older of the two sisters, running away. There were no reasons given, and I didn’t even know if she came back in the later chapters of the novel. It became one of those nagging things at the back of the mind, and soon it turned into an obsession.  I had to find out what happened to Janaki.

I contacted the author and took her out to dinner in Madras. I mentioned the serialized novel from the '70s, and asked her what happened to the character named Janaki. She said she didn’t know, as that character never came back into the story after the first few pages, and the novel was all about the younger sister and her struggle to become a writer! I was devastated. I asked her for a copy of the novel, and she told me it was out of print. I searched all the second hand bookstores in the city, but still didn’t find a copy.

I came back to Vancouver from Madras and started to write what I thought had happened to Janaki.

CL: What is your favourite part of the book and why?

AM: I love the opening for the tone it sets for the entire book. I also like Janaki’s scenes with Zubeida. The link between these moments reveals how far Janaki has walked from those mornings at the milk depot.

CL: What is a raga, and why is it important in the story?

AM: A raga is a scale (the closest technical western classical term), and as such, it can also be song or music. The Silent Raga in the book is a prophecy that keeps repeating itself – in the same words – at different junctures.  But that is on a literal level. My own take on the title, The Silent Raga, is that of a love song – sung and unsung.

CL: Are there any characters particularly close to your heart?

AM: Gayatri Chitti is close to my heart. She lives her life without regret. And she lives it fully and unapologetically.

CL: It seems that most novels focusing on female characters are written by women. Why do you think it is? Did you see any contradiction in writing a novel focused on the lives of women?

AM: This is my theory: If you want to really know how good a male author is, pay attention to his women characters.  It is not easy for a man to write from a woman’s point of view, and here’s why: Women readers will spot a false note on the second page, and that will be the end of your book.  For me, it was a challenge.  I did not want to dismiss or disrespect the perceptive and intuitive intelligence of women/readers.  I actually wanted to celebrate  it.

Page 1 of 2