Who is a “Karol-Bagh-type”? Ask writer Anuja Chauhan who coined the term in her first book―The Zoya Factor―a rollicking romance published 16 years ago. “When all the snooty ad-people think Karol-Bagh-type, they imagine a pushy wannabe in a chamkeela salwar-kameez with everything matching-matching,” says Anuja’s 27-year-old, chubby-cheeked heroine Zoya in the book. “Someone who says ‘anyways’ instead of anyway, ‘grands’ instead of grand and ‘butts’ instead of butt. (As in: She has no butts, earns twenty grands a month and lives in Karol Bagh. Who does she think she is, anyways?)”
There is something endearing about Zoya’s fear of being tagged as a ‘Karol- Bagh-type’. The humour in Anuja’s writing is evident (very Bridget Jones minus the self pity), but the heart in it lies hidden, waiting to be discovered. Other than being fun and frothy, that is what she loves about writing romance, says Anuja. Because she can insert her social commentary, or what she calls “my sneaky agendas”, within the romance. “While the reader stays for the romance, I can explore any themes I want―war, politics or family disputes―through it,” she says. There is gravitas beneath the lightness of her writing, but she camouflages it so skilfully that many miss it.
The subtext is more obvious in her daughter Nayantara Violet Alva’s first book, Liberal Hearts, the rags-meets-riches love story of Namya and Vir. Whether it is her insecurity about her looks, her anxiety to fit in with the tequila-swigging, socialism-spouting crowd in the posh college where she studies, or her conflicting feelings about the hypocrisy of her fellow students, Namya wears her heart on her privileged sleeve. Nayantara, 26, has not yet perfected that blend of sass and sincerity that is so typical in Anuja’s writing, but she makes up for it in authenticity. Her characters are genuine, her writing is unpretentious and her story, very readable. Nayantara has worked as a producer on hit shows like Anupamaa on Disney+Hotstar (which she says her mother used to watch compulsively and then roast her about every morning, until she was forced to ask her to stop watching), and currently works at JioCinema. Here, Anuja and Nayantara discuss crushes, cute boys, and all things cheesy in their books. Their banter, much like their books, is infectious.
ON UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF LOVE IN THEIR BOOKS
Anuja: A lot of kids tell me that I have spoiled them [for romance]. ‘It is so unbelievable, boys like these don’t exist in real life,’ they tell me. Then I tell them what I told my kids when they were little: ‘You want a hero, but what are you doing to become a heroine? Where is your courage, your sass, your belief?’
Family dynamics: Nayantara (middle) with her parents Anuja and Niret Alva, brother Daivik and Sister Niharika.
Nayantara: I recall my sister and I remarking to our mother that there are no men like her hero Dylan [in her book Those Pricey Thakur Girls], who are ‘honest, kind, and brave’. Then mama told us, ‘Why don’t you try being honest, kind, and brave, and becoming like the men you want to marry?’
ON THE BOND THEY SHARE
Nayantara: We are very close. I have shared every crush with her from a young age.
Anuja: With me and with everyone else. She stops people on the road and tells them about her crushes.
Nayantara: That’s not true. I might have done that when I was, like, 12.
Anuja: [But seriously], we are a very bonded family. There are no boundaries or filters. I don’t know any other child who would say these things to their mother.
Nayantara: And I don’t know any other mother who would say these things to her children.
Anuja: Of course, my husband sometimes feels that I should have shielded them more. He is worried we might make them anxious when we overshare our issues, or if there is some tension around the house. I think that’s why Taru, poor thing, has written a book about an anxious heroine, because we made her anxious. But I think it is nice we do that. Our family WhatsApp group, for example….
Nayantara: …is constantly active with everybody saying random, funny things about their day.
ON BEING HER DAUGHTER’S WORST CRITIC
Anuja: It is true. I am brutal with my criticism. All the writers who have worked with me in advertising have told me this. My worst criticism about Taru’s book was on the prologue which she wrote, like, seven times. She had this phrase about this boy’s gold medal falling to the mud ‘slowly, quietly and irrevocably’. I thought it was terrible and so cheesy. But she was obsessed with it. She would write a whole new prologue and again it would be there. [Thankfully] it did not go in the final draft.
Nayantara: The prologue is still what I am most insecure about in the book.
ON BEING WRITERS FROM TWO DIFFERENT GENERATIONS
Nayantara: I feel like a lot of the stuff I talk about in the book is very tangible to the Gen Z especially. Mental health was a very big part of this book, which is why I wanted to create a perennially anxious heroine. Because I think that when you are in a college like a Jindal or an Ashoka [where I studied], or any college that is small and closed off, you are surrounded by beautiful people from wealthy families. I have a lot of friends like that and I myself have struggled with anxiety in the past. We have all been Namya at some stage. Before you find yourself and become secure, you do go through a stage of feeling inadequate, and social media definitely does not help.
Down memory lane: A childhood photo of Nayantara with Anuja.
Anuja: I think these kids are cursed with too much choice. They agonise over everything. Just take dating choices; they are swiping all the time. We grew up in the days of Doordarshan where only one movie played at a time and the entire nation was watching it. Kids these days spend the whole evening deciding what movie to watch instead of watching a movie. They have got six OTT channels open. It’s a Saturday night, and the whole night, all they are doing is jumping from movie to movie.
There was a lot of peace in our time. We had time―lovely blank spaces―to think. Now, no one has any time. Also, because of the usage of filters and such, girls don’t like to go out because then, people will see them like they really are. Even if they want to go out to buy milk from Mother Dairy, they will put concealer and what not. Today, everyone has all the insecurities of a movie star without any of the fame or money.
ON HOW AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL THEIR WRITING IS
Anuja: I always think that your life is your best raw material. Why would you draw from anything else? My voice is just my experience and observations of my friends and family. This is so much better than if your story comes from movies or books. I think life is better than that. Your own experiences are at least legit.
Nayantara: Namya is not really based on me at all. I wanted to write somebody who was not like me on purpose because I thought that would be more fun and interesting. Also, I wanted to write about somebody who everybody can see a little bit of themselves in. Everybody goes through that anxious first year of college phase, right?
I also wanted to invert what is true of me and my safety nets. So, I am not an only child. I have a very good relationship with my siblings. I am very close to my mother. She’s my biggest strength. But I created a character who did not have any of those things, because I thought that would give her certain layers.
Anuja: That’s just an excuse for her to make the mother in the book so horrible.
Nayantara: She is nothing like you. You have to read my second book for a mother like you.