Arundhati Roy is away in the UK, being feted by the western literary world after her Booker success. Her husband, Pradip Krishen, is with her. Krishen's younger daughter, Mithva, 16, is in Dehra Dun, a twelfth standard student at Welham Girls High School. Left holding the fort at their Kautilya Marg residence in Delhi all alone is the older daughter Pia, 20, a third-year History student at St. Stephen's College. Pia Krishen spoke to THE WEEK about her stepmother's extraordinary success.
How do you primarily look at your mother— as a writer, a friend, a guide or mentor?
She is just my mom. I look at her as a mother. I can't think of her separately as a guide or as a writer.
What aspects of her impress you most?
Well, she is a very calm person. I've never seen her lose her cool. I cannot remember a single instance of having got a shouting from her, though I must have been a trying child.
She is very absent-minded. Earlier she couldn't make her way from home to the nearest market and back! Now she's memorised the way. When her agent David Godwin came down to meet her, he stayed at the Maurya Sheraton. She went to see him, but while escorting him back, she lost her way! He found it for her!
I've also found her very hardworking. When she is doing something she is totally absorbed in it.
Arundhati with daughters Pia and Mithva
Did you foresee the impact The God of Small Things was going to make?
I was a bit nervous about how it would be received. While reading it, I tried to forget it was written by my mother. I just adored it. So did my sister Mithva. We would have loved it, no matter who it was written by.
Have you observed any changes in your mother after the book's success?
It has all happened so fast, there has been no time to reflect on whether she or the family has changed. We kept telling her she would win the Booker Prize. She kept saying, no way, no first novel has ever won the prize. We pointed out that no first novel had ever achieved the success hers had.
Who is your mother's favourite writer? And yours?
My mother's favourites are James Joyce and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My own favourite is John Irving.
What is your mother's typical day like?
She doesn't have a typical day anymore. Her life is full of telephone calls, faxes and readings, interviews and rushing off to exotic places all over the globe. It's been nearly a year since it all began.
Our life earlier was much saner compared to what it has become. In those days she would work on her book in the mornings and part of the afternoons. Rest of the time she would laze around. In the evenings she went for her aerobics classes, where she was an instructor.
What is the secret of your mother's eternal beauty?
Eternal? She's still quite young! She eats all the junk food she can get. I guess the secret of her looks lies in that.
What is your father doing now?
My father studied History at St. Stephen's, just as I am doing. In fact four generations of our family have studied History at St. Stephen's. Then he went to Oxford, and taught for a while at Delhi University, before going into film making. He's directed these three feature films: Massey Sahib, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, and Electric Moon, apart from many documentaries.
Since then he has been mainly an environmentalist. He fell in love with Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh and wants to save it from environmental disaster. He has built a small house there, and stays there most of the time.
(Reproduced from issue dated October 26, 1997)
