Monday, April 8, 2013

Sepia-tinted memories: Yasmeen Premji


 Sepia-tinted memories

 Yasmeen Premji gives Society a brief glimpse into her life as a newly-minted author

At her book launch, teeming with people spilling out of the Oak Room at the Park Hotel in Bangalore, Yasmeen Premji declares that she does not read modern literature; that she reads very little because she reads very slowly. She says this and much more in what one learns through the course of the evening is her unique style of speaking – straight bat, honest and at times self-deprecating. When I tell her that not many writers would make that admission, she says simply,  ``I have no agenda.’’ Yasmeen Premji wife of Azim Premji, Chairman Wipro Limited, one of India’s iconic businessmen and amongst the richest people in the world, adds, ``I took 20 years to write this book and I have written this chiefly for myself. I love writing. And if someone finds joy in reading it, then it’s gratifying. ’’

A few days later, we meet Yasmeen at the Azim Premji Foundation office at the Wipro campus. Azim Premji, whose net worth is estimated to be about $ 15 billion, has contributed $2 billion to the Foundation which focuses on education. The Foundation building is tucked away in the rear of the facility, bordered by tall eucalyptus trees. It almost looks like it’s situated in the clearing of a small forest. The veiled entrance perhaps says it all for the philanthropist-tycoon’s family, whose personal life is strictly that, with the gleaming façade of the Wipro Technologies building left to take up all the attention. While Azim Premji is resolutely private and rarely seen outside the boardroom, Yasmeen has often been sighted at art shows.

 The Premjis rarely talk of their personal life. They’re neither known for their pious posturings nor extravagant affectation. The import of this family’s quiet power and influence can only be deduced by the hulking presence of a Quick Reaction Team vehicle parked at the entrance of Wipro’s HQ with a group of menacing-looking guards in black gear. My research material on her is scanty apart from what appears on the blurb of her book. A Google search yields nothing but short reports of her book launch, all very recent. It’s then left to us to piece together something about the author from the anecdotes of her friends and family and some eaves-dropping.

``She’s a natural,’’ we hear Azim Premji say to his sons Rishad and Tariq, as they see Yasmeen chat and smile with friends who have lined up to get their signed copies of Days of Gold and Sepia.
Girish Karnad who launched Yasmeen’s book in Bangalore is an old college friend. In his introduction he shared that everybody was in love with Yasmeen at St Xavier’s, Bombay, adding wistfully that they weren’t in the same class.  Now that she is also Mrs Premji, Karnad said he only introduced her by her first name, since many of his friends are cash-strapped NGOs and he felt protective towards her because of her surname.

Yasmeen is no recluse. During our interview she talks of her friends, (and she seems to have many), and what they have said of her book. Some were privy to reading her transcript. A former colleague from when she was the Assistant Editor at Inside Outside, and the only person who could decipher her writing, has helped to transcribe her draft. ``I think her move to Bangalore was a sign that I should finally write my book. I write with a pencil and a lot of it has faded over the years.’’ In an admission that left the audience at her book launch in splits, and is sure to go into IT lore, Yasmeen declared that she did not use a computer to write, preferring pencil and paper instead.
  
As she speaks and our photographer starts taking pictures, she requests that the photographer doesn’t shoot while we talk. ``Having my photos taken makes me edgy. All this PR stuff is not my scene at all,’’ she says. But then, having worked for a design magazine as an assistant editor, Yasmeen knows the demands of a journalist’s job and relents graciously.

We meet on August 15, a day when India is on a flash back to the past. Much like Yasmeen’s book, Days of Gold and Sepia, which weaves stories of ordinary people from 1857 to roughly 1947.  Her book is sweeping in its scope as its narrative spans 90 years in pre-Independence India, following the central character Lalljee Lakha and his journey from an orphan to an influential and wealthy `Cotton King’, and a host of characters who Lalljee meets along the way.

``I’ve always wanted to write ever since I was a little girl. I wrote short stories and my story was first published when I was 17 and in college.’’ I never gave it much thought, she says, about writing a book, but recalls growing up with family stories told by her mother. ``I also heard a lot of stories from my mother-in-law. They came from a generation of oral story-telling, that was still a remnant of that generation, although they were both literate. There’s a magic about story telling. A computer or a book is inanimate. In the right setting, story-telling can be mesmeric.’’

As an aside she says she wrote these stories since her sons Rishad and Tariq refused to hear their mother’s stories, much like how she tried to avoid listening to her mother read out from books. ``I was the youngest and when I was at home, my mother would read out passages from books for me. She was ``married off’’ and could not finish her SSC. But she continued to read on her own at home. She read history, biographies, philosophy, literature...and made me listen to some too. On my eighth birthday, she gave me a book and a dictionary and told me to find out the meaning of a word I did not know and write it down in the book. Of course I didn’t do it for long...’’ she laughs.

It was when her father died 20 years ago that Yasmeen says she was convinced she had to sit down and put together all the stories of her childhood. ``That’s when I conceived the character of Lalljee Lakha. I didn’t want to write just the stories but weave them together with characters. I always knew that the period between 1857 and 1957 was the time I wanted to place the characters. I wanted to write about Bombay because this was the generation when people came to Bombay to make their fortunes. I also wanted to bring in tid bits of history. This is not a historical book, it is a fictional account of what India must have been like at that time. I’ve made it inclusive by bringing in people from different places, language, religions, freedom fighters, maharajas...’’

Yasmeen admits her book is about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Yet she writes with an uncanny insight into her characters, with a certain precision that can’t be contested. She says demurely, ``That’s a surprise to me. I suppose one notices things when one lives this long.’’

In Yasmeen’s book there ’s a compassionate tone that you can’t miss, a certain kindness, a generosity of spirit and love that extends beyond the immediate family. She says she picked up these cues from her grandmother’s house which was a large one with many rooms, and to a  six-year-old the house seemed gigantic. ``I remember seeing all these people in her house. I didn’t know who they were apart from my immediate family. The house was there for everybody who needed it. Everybody found shelter. Old people, orphans, people down on their luck... they all fitted it there and lived with grace. That was how it was in those times, ‘’ she recalls.

``I’m not going to use the word `gentler’ in describing that time. My son pointed out that I had already used it three times at the book launch. Most people look at the past as a better time. It’s remembrance gives you pleasure. We often tend to blur out the negatives from the past.  I did not want villains in my book. I don’t like villains. I believe heroes have their limits too.’’

Yasmeen admits to writing without any structure at first, and writing just for the love of it and because she had a story to tell. ``I wrote when I felt like it, when I was moved. When the editors became involved, I was sternly put in place if I digressed into side characters (and there are many in the book.) I was told that everyone is only interested in my central character Lalljee. Editors keep a strong eye on you. I had written a lovely story about this character called masi who appears in the book. It was a tragic story about how she was married off when she was a very young girl to a widower with 11 children. She later has an affair with her step son. A young editor who was working on the book told me `Everyone has a dukhi masi in India. We don’t want this masi story,’ ’’ laughs Yasmeen.

Yasmeen’s book is peopled with characters who sometimes get a page to themselves or a just a para or two, but who leave a memory trace nonetheless.  How did she think of names for so many people? ``At first I used names from my family. But when I finished the book I couldn’t think of changing them.’’ There’s even a character called Hashim whose family is in the edible oil business we point out and she laughs.

 Inspired as it is by the stories told by two women who she was greatly influenced by, Yasmeen’s book has flashes of strong, resilient women.  ``Yes, some of my female characters were strong within their spheres. They were taught to accept everything and expect nothing. You dealt with your lot. I remember being told when I would play at home, `You had better behave. What will your mother-in-law think?’ It was a social reality that we grew up with. Our training was different. We learnt a lot at home. We were not sent off to various classes as children these days are.’’

A lot of people have told her, she says, that Days of Gold and Sepia would make a great film. ``I don’t know. This book was clearly written for me, I wanted to write it. There was no agenda at all. No worries about how many copies it would sell. I wrote it for family, friends and people whose opinion I value. When I was stuck, I would try to visualise the scene, conversations... I don’t know how other authors do it. ‘’

She recalls one of her editors telling her, `` `Can’t you do anything about the writing, it’s so archaic.’ Then she said, `oh I guess that’s your style.’  ’’ laughs Yasmeen.

Some may say the writing is archaic but the topics are certainly not. Through her characters, Yasmeen explores ideas of widow re-marriage, women who pursued education, a father who treats his daughters as he would his son... ``There is even a cross dresser, but that I would have borrowed from this generation. The last scene will come as a bit of a shocker to her readers and without giving away too many details, Yasmeen says, ``Thoda tho mirch chahiye. When you look at people you think they have everything. But as is the case with Lalljee, what he really wanted he did not have.’’

Of the Bombay that she has detailed in the book and the Mumbai that it is today, Yasmeen says, ``You always see anything as you want to see it. You take your mind with you. People change, generations change. You have to accept it. There was a kindness, a generosity in those times. I think it’s still there, hidden in the corners.’’

Yasmeen says that no one in her family knew she was writing a book. ``I didn’t think I had to announce I was writing a book. Half the world is writing a book. So until it was signed, sealed and delivered, I did not announce it. Although I must say, my husband asked me once, when he used to see me sitting at the computer during the last stage of edits, `What are you doing?’ I just brushed it aside saying I was compiling the stories lying in the drawer.  When the book was done, he read it, his first novel in years. My sons are thrilled that their friends like the book. I was sure no one under 60 would like this book. Although I cut nearly 150 pages of the book, I was sure people would still find it heavy. If you don’t take yourself too seriously it’s easy to edit your own stories.’’

Yasmeen is also aware that as a writer one does not stop with finishing the manuscript but has to sell the book too. ``I was told that they (publishers) are creating a Facebook page for my book. I’m not on Facebook and I don’t even know how to open it. I have no desire to be there. May be it’ll come to me someday... I didn’t know how to use e-mail till a year ago. Now with a book, I see it’s useful. ‘’

A favourite line in the book which Yasmeen fought to keep was: `` ``What do we really know of those we think we know.’  I feel we are so quick to have our prejudices without really knowing what the true story is. This was the only rule in my house while growing up. Never be judgemental. I never heard my mother say an unkind word about anybody. If it was something negative, she would not say anything. She led by example. After my father died, she decided that two generations had gone by, and told us stories about our great grandfathers and their families. She believed it was no longer gossip, but history, ‘’ says Yasmeen.

In the few weeks that she’s handled media, she says she not going to fall into the trap of giving answers to questions like what would you like the reader to take-away from this book. ``While writing this book, there was a lesson for me – whatever you do, there is a chance of reprieve. I believe in absolution. ’’

I ask her if there is any character in the book which bears any resemblance to her. None, she says.  Aren’t first books supposed to be almost autobiographical, I ask. ``Don’t believe everything they tell you,’’ she smiles.

Finally I ask her what else does she do besides writing, and she says, ``Well, not very much I’m afraid. It sounds terrible to say, I know. I don’t know where my life goes, but it goes very quickly. I can’t point out to anything specific that I do do that I consider useful work. I’ve designed and built this building (the Azim PremjiFoundation building), if that helps. I realise that you don’t have to be an architect to design and build something. Learning comes from different sources - book, courses… ’’ I’ve designed a couple of buildings.

As we leave the office and I switch off the lights, I get an approving smile from Yasmeen. ``I thought I was the only one switching off lights. I go to people’s houses and see that lights are on even during the day. I go around switching them off,’’ she says, emphatically.

After the photo shoot, we see Yasmeen walk away, treading her way between the trees, an enigma again.

THE END.

(This article appeared in Society magazine in September 2012)

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