Kolkata-based sociologist Rahul Singh makes his literary debut with the novel Unfolding. The book follows two gay protagonists navigating an open relationship while exploring themes of love, memory and social perspectives through the character of their domestic help
The city of Kolkata acts as the backdrop for the novel. Pic Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons
Kolkata-based urban sociologist and writer Rahul Singh’s debut novel, Unfolding (HarperCollins India), is an example of sophisticated character study. It traces the lives of two gay protagonists Ralph and Ojas, who set out to explore an open relationship. It also observes the life of their domestic help, Zubina. While Ralph, a chef at a major Kolkata hotel, struggles with the non-monogamous set-up and holds on to the memories of his mother, Zubina considers love and its various manifestations.
Singh began writing the book in 2020, amidst reading novels featuring queer characters; he wanted to read one where the character’s narrative arc was not confined to their coming-out. “I wanted to see that if there are two men who are already together, how are they making it? And I saw Ralph and Ojas in this sort of a relationship which is appealing to one and not to the other.” This nudged him to tap into these novel dynamics that can be witnessed more visibly today, especially among the queer communities.
Illustration courtesy/Veer Misra, Harpercollins India
Two prominent voices emerge in the book, Ralph’s and Zubina’s, though others’ lives unfold around them too. Zubina provides an outsider’s perspective into this relationship. Singh recollects drawing her character after he imagined Ralph and Ojas. “I thought if these are two men, there has to be someone who is continuously working as a help,” he tells us. Zubina holds conservative values, is God-fearing, and believes in propriety. It is not rare to find voices like hers in literature, but it is uncommon to read her perspective in novels about queer lives. As Ralph’s help, she’s privy to his world. At the same time, in imagining her domestic life, Singh makes us privy to her world and her negotiation with love at home.
Rahul Singh
“Zubina was developed because of my training as an ethnographer,” Singh, who is currently pursuing a PhD in sociology, shares. “I’ve been visiting neighbourhoods, so I observed the different ways of life around me. But I wasn’t observing it with the intent of writing about Zubina.” He learnt about habitats and the various kinds of indispositions that people live with. “These went into me imagining a Zubina,” he adds, grateful that his editors helped bring out the finer nuances of the Muslim woman.
The novel at its core is about intimacies and its precariousness. The title is both arresting and unassuming. In his first draft, Singh recalls writing a scene where a character unfolds a bedsheet. “That image stayed with me; that’s what I saw this novel as,” he says. At the time, he was also reading Marcel Proust, whose profound meditation on memory and love stirred something in him. The title speaks to the many lives the novel deals with. “In a way, it universalised their divergent language of uncertainty and desire where there was still hope,” he concludes.
Available: Leading bookstores and e-stores
Cost: Rs 599
Author Reccos
>> Garth Greenwell’s Small Rain
>> Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Summer Will Show
>> Brandon Taylor’s The late Americans
>> Violet Trefusis’s Broderie Anglaise
>> Vasudhendra’s Mohanaswamy
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
