New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) The runaway success of her debut novel "Paro: Dreams of Passion" in 1984 did little to propel the literary career of Sahitya Akademi awardee Namita Gokhale, who revealed she was "forgotten" and overlooked by publishers for nearly a decade.
Speaking at the Belgian Embassy on Wednesday, Gokhale reminisced about her four-decade-long illustrious career and remarked that one of the worst and best things that can happen to someone is having a "very successful first novel," as there’s a good chance you may never recover from it.
"Publishers and my agents, everybody thought I should do 'Paro' again and again... For 10 years, nobody had bothered about me; I was forgotten. Somebody said, 'Namita Gokhale, she is just a flash in the pan'... From suddenly being a star, I was at the bottom of my career. I was discouraged so much that I started doubting myself," said Gokhale in her conversation with author Amrita Tripathi about her new short story collection, "Life on Mars".
"Paro", first published in 1984 to both notoriety and critical acclaim, is a bold and witty exploration of love, lust, and society.
Gokhale has written 24 works of fiction and non-fiction, including the novels “Shakuntala”, “Things to Leave Behind”, “The Blind Matriarch” and “Never Never Land”; and edited several anthologies.
She also discussed how people compared her writing to that of novelist Shobha De, whose novel "Starry Nights", was written in a style similar to that of "Paro".
"Somebody actually reviewed my book. She reviewed it and said, 'Who's this Namita Gokhale? She is trying to copy Shobha De.' Now, De came up with 'Starry Nights', which was written in the Paro style. It was released two years after Paro. She continued with those kinds of books until she changed her style and became more autobiographical with Shobha De in 65 or Shobha De in 70. She didn’t confuse the readers," said the 69-year-old writer.
However, she added that things began to improve after her first short story, "Omen 1", was well-received by readers in the mid-90s, and since then, she has loved writing short stories.
In fact, according to Gokhale, writing short stories is more challenging than writing novels, which she confessed she can no longer bring herself to write these days due to a lack of time.
"I really began doing so many things like JLF and others. They take up mind space, and you can't live with those characters for 4-5 years, which you need to write a successful novel. I enjoy writing short stories. Writing a short story is more difficult than writing a novel. You think a short story is easier, but it can't afford any flab at all. Everything has to lead to the next thing, next thing, and next thing. In a novel, you can get away with a lot," she added.
A co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, she is also the recipient of several awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Centenary National Award for Literature and the Sushila Devi Literature Award.
"Life on Mars: Collected Stories", which brings together previously published and new short stories by Gokhale, is published by Speaking Tiger. The volume is arranged in two sections — "Love and Other Derangements" and "The Mirror of the Mahabharata".