New Delhi, June 4
Amitav Ghosh is back with his
much-awaited ‘Flood of Fire’, the last in the Ibis trilogy, where
history and fiction interweave and span the years leading to the first
Opium War between Britain and China.
In writing the book, he says he feels like he has climbed a great mountain.
Hailed
as one of the most accomplished Indian writers, Ghosh was recently
nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. A Padma Shri awardee,
he has also been elected a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature
The
first book of the trilogy, ‘Sea of Poppies’ (2008) is all about the
life and travails of a motley crowd of indentured labourers and convicts
in Ibis, a former American slave ship from Baltimore.
The
second, ‘River of Smoke’ follows opium’s journey to Canton where Chinese
officials capture the shipments and confine the foreigners. The
landscape of the final one ‘Flood of Fire’ is set in the first
Anglo-Chinese Opium War (1839-42) and the British takeover of Hong Kong
in 1841.
On the eve of the book’s release on Wednesday by
Penguin, Ghosh spoke to IANS about the task that spanned a decade,
climate change and his love for food. He even shared a recipe.
Excerpts from the interview:
IANS: Now that you have finished the final book of your trilogy, what are your feelings?
Amitav:
It is incredibly fulfilling to have brought the trilogy to an end. It
took almost a decade of my life. It was a very ambitious project. I felt
like I set myself a task of climbing a great mountain and now I feel as
a mountaineer who got to the summit. I would say that among the three
books, ‘Flood of Fire’ was the most difficult one. It is about a complex
war. It is intricate with large number of characters. So it took longer
to finish. It’s also the closest to me as I finished it recently.
IANS: Give us a glimpse of what you attempted in ‘Flood of Fire’.
Amitav:
The landscape of ‘Flood of Fire’ is set in the first Anglo-Chinese
Opium War (1839-42). You will see more of the characters like Deedi,
Paulette and Neera from the first one, ‘Sea of Poppies’. However,
Deedi’s brother Kesri Singh is the central character. In ‘River of
Smoke’, you didn’t see many of them because it happened in a different
place and circumstances. Many of the characters came back in the third
book.
IANS: Give us a sense of what led to writing the trilogy and the opium war?
Amitav:
It happened during the writing of my book 'Glass Palace', which was set
in Burma (Myanmar). One of the main characters in the book is someone
who brings indentured workers to Burma. I began to pursue the history of
the workers, and how they left India. Then I conceived the character
Deedi. I started looking into the background of the movement of
migration. That is where the whole history of poppy and its cultivation
emerged. It was from those roots that I came to the trilogy. Opium wars
had a great impact in Indian history. Economically, opium was a very
important commodity for India in the 19th century.
IANS: From
intensehistorical research and period details, the trilogy is a
fictional fare for the reader. How much work went into it?
Amitav:
There were many challenges. Recreating history of the battle was one of
the complex tasks. Though there were records of military history of the
war, it wasn’t put together and there was no book written on it. So, I
had to work on it a lot. Learning Cantonese was another daunting task. I
called it the Ibis trilogy because it was a ship’s name. It begins with
the ship and ends with it. You can call it a metaphor. It is also a
real vehicle in which people cross the seas.
IANS: Your book is widely reviewed as critical exploration of colonialism. Do you agree?
Amitav:
My book is about the Indian past. If you write about 19th century
India, you have to write about colonialism. There is no escaping. It is
not really only about history, it’s about characters too. History is
only an aspect of the book,among many.
IANS: Is it then end of a story which lived with you for a decade?
Amitav:
I don’t feel that the characters have left me. They have become very
much a part of me, that’s what happens when you spend ten years of life
with them. You can’t imagine them anywhere else.
IANS: Your
characters speak Bhojpuri, Bengali, Cantonese, and the pidgin English of
the Chinese variety - What is the idea behind the use of multiple
languages?
Amitav: The English language itself has many words
from other language like Malayalam, Gujarati, Tamil, Bengali and Arabic.
It was interesting to see how many other languages have fed into the
English language. I wanted to explore how they come together and form a
shape.
IANS: Journalist, anthropologist and historian, you wear many hats. How did it influence your writing?
Amitav:
Journalism had a great impact on my writing. My first job was as a
journalist and it played an important part in my life. I have also spent
some time as an anthropologist. However, one cannot separate one
experience from the other. It is impossible to explain each one’s role
in my writing. It is all mixed and it’s there.
IANS: You shuttle
between Brooklyn and Goa. Also you lived in countries like Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka. How much has that influenced your characters and
writings?
Amitav: The countries I lived in influenced me a lot.
One of the central characters is an American. Sometimes you meet people
and you never pick up from real life. It doesn’t happen that way. You
see something in them and you connect. There are many different ways it
works.
IANS: Your books 'Shadow Lines' and 'Hungry Tide' seems to be the most popular books in India.
Amitav:
I will start with the first book ‘Circle of Reason’. I wrote it when I
was working in Kerala which has a lot of mention in the novel. 'Shadow
Lines’ remains a popular book in India. It’s taught in schools and
colleges. I have met people with intense connection with the book. It is
an important book for me. ‘Hungry Tide’ is about the Sunderbans. I have
a long connection with the Sunderbans as one of my uncles used to work
there. I was finding a return to my childhood. It was powerful
experience. It was in the Sunderbans, that I experienced the direct
impact of climate change. Since then, I am vocal about environmental
issues.
IANS: Which writers (and books) have you been most influenced by?
Amitav:
So many books have influenced my writing. Moby Dick inspires me a lot.
So does Rabindranath Tagore and the Mahabharata. While Moby Dick is
about ships, Mahabharata is all about wars.
IANS: You are a foodie, so can you share some thought for food.
Amitav:
I love appam and idiyappam, which are Kerala dishes. Since I stay more
in Goa now, I get to eat them a lot. My favourite Bengali dish is
potatoes skin. The good thing about Bengali food is that nothing is
wasted. It’s easy to prepare too. You heat some oil, throw in some poppy
seeds, potatoe skin, some salt, and there you go. it’s a completely
delicious food. I love it because it has poppy seeds.
IANS: What is your next project?
Amitav: I am currently writing a non-fiction.
(Preetha Nair can be contacted at [email protected])
