People on our Roof is a
portrait of one woman’s undying commitment to her kin; her struggle with
relationships and a heart-wrenching story of indestructible love between two
people. A coming-of-age story, it also explores the world of people whose minds
are wired differently.
Post listening to one of her recent podcasts where she
beautifully narrates the first chapter of Krishna Sobti's Daar se Bichhudi,
I told myself it was time. I needed to read the book I had been eyeing for
quite some time. And then, People on our Roof came home.
I kept mentioning to her how I was not able to read books
the way I did earlier. Something seemed amiss. But with this one, there was no
such hurdle. I was pulled into Naina's life — walking with her as she navigated
her seemingly complicated life like a pro!
When the last page was turned, I could not wait to ask her
the questions that cropped up while I was reading the book. One thing led to
another and here are excerpts from our mail conversation:
How did the idea of merging fiction
with non-fiction emerge—especially when it comes to the ‘minds of those who are
wired differently’? Curious about Naina—the layers of her that unfurl as the
story progresses. Was there an inspiration for this character or was it purely
based on your imagination?
Naina is purely fictional. But then, nothing is pure
fiction, isn’t it? We draw our stories from the world around us. There was a
woman in my class who had a similar situation at home and though I did not know
her well and so I never knew any details, I could never forget her; I always
wondered how life must be for her caring for a mother and sister who both had
mental illnesses and whose father I had never heard of. I guess, once you live
with an idea too long, it just has to find its way out of your head onto paper
— it is my way of seeing that classmate’s reality; maybe just my way of coping
with what bothered me about her situation.
The other, very important part for me, that I consciously brought to Naina’s character was for her to be courageous and resilient. See, life is full of challenges — all of us must face these throughout our lives. But how we respond to these is important — that makes us who we are; that is the test of our character. When we read about people facing struggles, we identify with them and that is how we connect with characters in creative arts — films and stories — and that is why their coming out of these stronger, also gives us courage.
There are in this story little bits of real-world problems —
the eve-teasing, social taboos — that are there not just to add depth or keep
the story real, but also to hold up a mirror to ourselves as a society — this
is what we do, this is what we allow others to do to us. How Naina, who
initially is like most of us, comes out stronger and takes these on headlong.
May we all have the courage to live like this.
What would be your message to your readers
when it comes to accepting mental health issues, especially in one’s own
family?
I would just like to say first that this is not a ‘sad’
story. Writing or reading about mental illnesses is emotionally extracting, so
much so that many readers have asked in reading groups before picking it up if
People on Our Roof is ‘triggering’. I will call this a story of courage and
fortitude; and of what as the blurb says is ‘one woman’s undying commitment to
her kin’.
Coming to your question, you know that I’ve been closely
associated with Arushi, an organisation in Bhopal that works with children with
disabilities, so I know how families live in denial of the mental health
problems that their family members may have. On the one hand, there are
day-to-day challenges arising out of our institutions, infrastructure,
everything, catering only to ‘mainstream’ people, and on the other, there are
challenges of social alienation.
This is the reason we need to read, write, and talk more
about not just the ‘abilities’ but the ‘normalness’ (sorry, to use this term)
of people with disabilities. That’s exactly what we do at Arushi, highlight
this and not always by putting them up on the stage (we do that too) but by
having our children mix with others in public spaces — markets, malls,
bookstores, fairs and exhibitions, for example, our children with blindness
read out stories (from Braille) to sighted children.
So, awareness is key — awareness and acceptance first of the
mental illness by the family, finding appropriate support systems — early
intervention helps people with disabilities live as independently as they are
capable of, which is not just good for the person with the mental illness but
for the family too.
So, the message, as always, is awareness, acceptance, and
inclusion.
Life flows, despite everything. Just like
the story. Tell us a bit about Shefali, the writer—how it all began, the joys,
and challenges that come your way when you pick your pen to write. Oops, or is
it the keyboard, to type?
Yes, I’m a keyboard person. A lot of my writer friends write
the first draft longhand, but I don’t.
I cannot remember a time when I did not write — something or
the other — journal, poems, features and short stories. Like with reading where
I read at least two works at the same time, I also have several ‘writings’
going on simultaneously.
I’m not a disciplined, ‘thousand-words-a-day’ type of
writer, I am a compulsive writer. I write when the urge to do so stops me from
doing everything else. So, I write in spurts — sometimes continuously for 3-4
days and then nothing at all for a month or more! But I like it this way. It
allows my thoughts to simmer in the head before they flow out of my fingers. Of
course, the later drafts, edits and proofs are a grind and I absolutely dislike
that stage but it’s an inevitable part of the package.
The World Health Organisation estimates
that 56 million Indians suffer from depression and about 38 million suffer from
anxiety disorders. While mental health awareness is on the rise, what could be
some of the practices that Indians could do away with, for improved mental
health?
That stresses of studies, career and relationships are the
likely causes is a no-brainer. We’re all running after what has been termed as
the ‘American Dream’ of ‘bigger, better, brighter’ without realising that all
of it is material. Our deeper needs are emotional. Without stopping to fulfil
ourselves emotionally, we are all chasing dreams that we see others having
fulfilled, especially on social media.
In recent days, I met two of my childhood friends who have
picture-perfect social-media lives — posh homes, fashionable clothes, exotic
holidays, and I was shocked to learn of their family problems — toxic partners,
children in and out of rehab. Everyone needs to figure out what mental peace
and emotional anchoring mean to them and pursue these with the passion with
which they chase their material needs.
Probably a tough question for the creator, but the creation of which character from the book did you enjoy the most and which did you find most difficult to characterise?
Yes, tough, because you live with these characters so long
that you tend to get attached to them in many ways. I could see Naina’s father
from her eyes, so I could justify everything she said, did or felt about him
and at the same time, I could understand why he did what he did. Since it is a
third-person narrative, everything that you want the reader to know and feel
about each character has to be through the situations you create for them to
respond to.
I am such a slow writer; I live a long time with my
characters and find it a most enjoyable process to ‘create’ on paper those that
are already living in my head. The enjoyable ones are the lead ones that you
can describe, and the tough ones are those that are peripheral, yet crucial to
the story — so one doesn’t have the freedom to describe them sufficiently, yet
one must bring out what’s essential in a way that they do not seem
unidimensional or flat.
Would you like to provide a sneak peek
into your next work?
How our minds work is what fascinates me the most. I think I
am stuck with this genre, but I will always write about our internal goings-on
— as I did in Stuck Like Lint and People on Our Roof and my other writing. It’s
still early days, but I am very excited about this story I am writing about a
woman living with a ghost.
Learn more about Arushi, a Bhopal-based not-for-profit
organisation working with and for people with disabilities and issues related
to them here.
To know more about Shefali Tripathi Mehta, click here.
Listen to the first chapter of Krishna Sobti's Daar se Bichhudi in Shefali's voice here.
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