"...we're incapable of talking about loss"

His last book The Reluctant Fundamentalist was released in 2007 and is in the news again as its screen adaption directed by Mira Nair readies for release Amidst the buzz Pakistani author Mohsin Hamidrsquos third book How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia hit bookshelves The Pakistanbased author was in Delhi recently and spoke about his curiously positioned lsquoselfhelprsquo book Mohsin Hamid ldquoWhy so long for the thirdrdquo was our obvious lungopener After a chuckle he confesses ldquoAll my books took ages to complete This took six years my fastest Each time I start to write my work reads terrible mdash Irsquove not retained a single line from those early draftsrdquo Soon talk veers to how it took shape mdash ldquoThe biggest shift since I wrote The Reluctantwas that I became a father I had children in a way I wanted to feel different Unlike my earlier works where the protagonists were my age this novelrsquos leads are different Itrsquos a bigger scale mdash and a huge departure yoursquoll read about children family old age and the circumstances that engulf them My return to Pakistan has also affected the book partlyrdquo The novel has its bittersweet moments Therersquos life death love and yet positivity grips the reader Hamid elaborates ldquoI wanted to explore the idea that while our world today is filled with talk about markets uber commercialisation increasing assets and GDP human existence is also about loss health and love If we only speak market language itrsquos impossible to tackle loss Nowadays families are less allencompassing folk traditions are dying This builds anxiety wersquore incapable of talking about lossrdquo He cites how spiritualism in Zen Buddhism Sufi traditions and Hindu theology speak of not being selfcentred ldquoIrsquom familiar with Sufism and wanted to talk about love This novel is a brutal view of growth at all costs yet I wanted to show that love endures through loss and in the end can offer a degree of comfortrdquo And it is towards the end that Hamid writes ldquoWe are all refugees from our childhoodrdquo Is this specific to our part of the world or a universal truth we ask ldquoItrsquos universal Most importantly we must remember that we are all refugees We cannot revisit our childhood mdash that time has passed and with it experiences But memories should make us more understanding In the larger picture wealthy nations and the wealthy must be more open they shouldnrsquot look down on those who turn up at their doorsteps as refugees We must recognise this connect in life too It starts from thererdquo How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia Mohsin Hamid Penguin Rs 499 Available at leading bookstores Hamid speak On his narrative style of namelessness in all three novels Itrsquos always been a conscious decision One of the important reasons is that I didnrsquot want to create these peculiar exotic places in the minds of readers Lahore was my model Yet I wanted to have a universal theme Why arenrsquot New York or London but Lahore and Mumbai always perceived as the more exotic location On the contrary the latter two are far more humane than exotic more grounded and wellrounded in character Namelessness allowed me to be human and reflective On working with Mira Nair It was a wonderful experience shooting in New York and Lahore Shersquos become a good close friend But beyond that I respect her a lot because she realised a nearimpossible task Firstly she didnrsquot end up making an Indian film based on a Pakistani book Then again she was working with Hollywood Alisters like Kate Hudson and Kiefer Sutherland along with Pakistani and Indian actors To place them in the background and not vice versa showed exceptional creative vision She overcame numerous financial roadblocks during those 56 years on the film not a single month went by when we didnrsquot imagine that the film would almost collapse But Mira made it happen Shersquos a tough and groundbreaking director who inspires me immensely From LR Mohsin Hamid Kate Hudson Riz Ahmed Mira Nair and Liev Schreiber at a photocall of The Reluctant Fundamentalist at the Venice film fest on August 29 2012 Pic AFP On English fiction in South Asia There is a surge in reading that has led to an interest in English There is a false notion that reading is for the elite When I travel across Pakistan I see young people in its cities universities and small towns reading English fiction We are riding on the crest of this wave Reading in English in the Subcontinent has made it a South Asian language Without taking away from the popularity of Urdu or Hindi writing English is now on par with both these languages u00a0