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BIO
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born in Calcutta, India and lived there until she came to the US to study at the age of nineteen. She is the bestselling author of the novels SISTER OF MY HEART and THE MISTRESS OF SPICES; the story collections THE UNKNOWN ERRORS OF OUR LIVES and ARRANGED MARRIAGE, which received several awards, including the American Book Award; and four collections of prize-winning poetry. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms., Zoetrope, Good Housekeeping, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Best American Short Stories 1999, and The New York Times. Born in India, Divakaruni lives near Houston.
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PAST INTERVIEW
March 8, 2002
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has won a loyal following with her novels MISTRESS OF SPICES and SISTER OF MY HEART as well as her award-winning short story collection entitled ARRANGED MARRIAGE. In an interview with Bookreporter.com's Sonia Chopra, Divakaruni discusses what prompted her latest novel, THE VINE OF DESIRE.
BRC: How did you become a writer?
Divakaruni: I came here at the age of nineteen and it took me fifteen years to start writing. I think being here, as an immigrant, gave me this unique perspective of being able to look back at India and understand my heritage and culture. And since, I didn't grow up here, in America, I can look at everything here with freshness and objectivity. The blending of the two cultures has worked to my advantage. There are a lot of autobiographical elements in my work. My stories are set in Calcutta, the city of my birth and the memories of the local scenes; cuisine and stories told by my grandmother are faithfully and diligently recorded.
BRC: Do you consider yourself an ethnic writer?
Divakaruni: No. I write for everyone. I have always been interested in reading about other cultures and other countries and I hope to attract the same kind of informed readers.
BRC: Was THE VINE OF DESIRE a planned sequel?
Divakaruni: Actually, I was very happy with the way the previous book, SISTER OF MY HEART ended. It meant aesthetic closure. But when I moved on to my next book, a collection of short stories, I found myself haunted with thoughts of the main characters Anju and Sudha. I realized I couldn't forget them, so I needed to write about them.
BRC: So, shall we expect another sequel?
Divakaruni: Again, I believe it is completed.
BRC: Is there anything you particularly want to write about?
Divakaruni: One of my greatest desires is to spend a year in India and write a book as I find it hard to do that from here. I have gone back, on vacations and managed to write short stories but at some point I would like to do a novel.
BRC: Who is your favorite writer?
Divakaruni: Rabindranath Tagore (A Nobel Prize winner in literature who has distinguished himself by his bilingual writings in his native Bengali and English). Like him, I also read and write in Bengali and English. His writings were versatile. He wrote poems, songs, stories and novels.
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PAST INTERVIEW
April, 1999
TBR Senior Writer Judith Handschuh was thrilled to read Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's latest, SISTER OF MY HEART, having been a dedicated fan since MISTRESS OF SPICES and ARRANGED MARRIAGE: Stories. With her natural gift for characterization and her evocative subject matter, Divakaruni impresses us again in her most recent novel about two cousins who are very different, yet are connected by a special bond. In this revealing interview, find out about the culture clashes Divakaruni came up against when she first came to the US, what she thinks is the most important ingredient in writing, and hear firsthand some poetic advice to aspiring writers.
TBR: You have said that while you were growing up in India, your grandfather told you stories. Did this experience inspire you to become a writer?
CBD: I think it did, although it took me a long time after that to realize that I wanted to be a writer. But when I did start writing, years after moving to America, I thought of my grandfather often, and used his stories. Particularly in SISTER OF MY HEART, a number of Bengali fairy tales play a crucial part in the lives of Sudha and Anju, and in the way they envision the world and their role in it. I have also drawn on a number of traditional quest tales in SISTER OF MY HEART.
TBR: You came to the United States in 1977 to go to college. Why did you decide to attend school here?
CBD: I had wanted, for many years, to experience life in another country. I believe it is very important for us all to live for at least a few years in a place that is very different from what we are familiar with. It makes us think and grow in new ways. As my brother was already in this country, and as my field was English, America was a practical choice as well. I'm very glad I did this --- living here has given me a whole different angle of vision on my original culture as well as the mosaic culture that I now live in.
TBR: When you first came to this country, did you experience any culture shock? Can you tell us about that experience?
CBD: Yes I did. The very second day when I was in this country, I went out for a walk in a suburb of Chicago, and a group of white boys called me a nigger and threw slush at me. It was, as you can imagine, a great shock. It made me realize, for the first time in my life, how it felt to be seen as an 'other,' how it felt to be hated for the color of my skin. I think this was one of the key experiences that made me want to become a writer.
TBR: Much of your writing focuses on the problems Indian women face when they come to the United States. Are they based on your own experiences and/or those of your friends?
CBD: Most of them are based on observance, some on things I read in the Indian American papers or overhear at parties or group events (we writers are great eavesdroppers) . But ultimately imagination is always the most important ingredient.
TBR: You teach creative writing --- do you think that writing can be taught, or do you see yourself as more of a mentor to your students?
CBD: As a teacher what I see myself doing is helping my students get a better sense of their strengths and weaknesses --- we are often too close to our work to have that. Once they see this, I can help them work on their strengths. Also, I expose them to the work of writers they don't yet know, so that they can juxtapose their own work against that of these writers, and learn through that act. Obviously, I can't give anyone writing talent --- but I can certainly help to sharpen and focus it.
TBR: Most of your work focuses on the relationships women have with each other and with the world. How did you become interested in this subject?
CBD: One of the first things I noticed about life in the US is the amazing amount of choice women had. (I must say, though, that after living here for over 20 years, I now realize that some of this is illusory). It made me think newly about my traditional life in India, the very strict boundaries within which I was raised. Soon after starting to work, I also began volunteering in local women's shelters in California. This made me additionally sensitive to women's problems. In 1991 I also helped start the first South Asian women's hotline on the West coast, Maitri.
TBR: SISTER OF MY HEART is your most poignant book on this subject, exploring, as it does, how doubt and mistrust can cloud even the deepest friendship. Their conflict begins when men come into Sudha and Anju's lives. Do you feel that men can interfere with women's relationships with each other? Do you think that there is any way to resolve this issue?
CBD: Men can interfere with women's relationships, certainly, but so can other
women --- in some way, Sudha's mother does that, and later so does Sudha's
mother-in-law. Circumstances, too, can interfere --- geography, the passing of
time, the fact that one friend might have what the other does not, be it freedom, or children, or married love. But what is important is that we are, at least sometimes, able to overcome these negative forces. I believe the human heart is capable of deeply unselfish acts, and of great yet quiet heroism. I hope Sudha and Anju illustrate this in a powerful, authentic manner.
TBR: Are there writers that have inspired you or affected your writing?
CBD: I have been influenced by many ethnic women writers who are concerned about many of the same issues as I am --- culture, community, the place women carve out for themselves in a patriarchal environment. Some of them are: Sandra Cisneros, Louise Erdrich, Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Bharati Mukherjee, Cristina Garcia and Anita Desai.
TBR: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
CBD: I'm not sure I would presume to give advice, but here are some things I tell myself: If writing is important to you, you must be prepared to work hard at it, and simplify your life so that you can give your art the time and energy it requires. Read widely, practice for long hours. Like a potter, you must be willing to throw away misshaped pieces. You must be willing to take risks, try new forms, grow with each thing you write. You must try to tell the truth as best you are able.
TBR: Are you working on anything new at the moment. If you are, can you tell us something about it?
CBD: I am working on a collection of stories dealing with some new aspects of the immigrant experience --- our second generation, the parents we leave behind in the home country, etc. I am trying some new things stylistically in these stories. I'm rather excited about this project.
TBR: What books are you reading at the moment?
CBD: I recently finished Pauline Melville's THE VENTRILOQUIST'S TALE, which I was much taken by. I am reading an advance copy of Salman Rushdie's THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET, which is at once wonderful and exasperating. I also read Ian McEwan's ENDURING LOVE, which I thought was far superior to AMSTERDAM. I reread Rosellen Brown's BEFORE AND AFTER, which I love, to see again how she did the different voices. And as I do every year, I read the Best American Short Stories and the O Henry prize stories with a highlighter in my hand, marking everything I thought I could learn from.
TBR: What are your thoughts on the millennium?
CBD: It's a wonderful time of possibility, isn't it? And there's something primal, almost mythic about being able to participate in the start of a new thousand year cycle. But it's also scary --- it brings with it so many responsibilities. It makes me think hard about the world we are creating for our children, and whether this world with all its beauty and heartache and pain and achievements will still be around in another thousand years --- or whether we will have destroyed it.
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