Climate threat real, fiction can help humanise it: Author Rupinder Brar

Rupinder Brar, a serving administrator, debuts with Corals Bloom Again, a gripping story of a woman's fight against ecological destruction.

In Short

• Rupinder Brar, an IRS officer, debuts with Corals Bloom Again
• Story set on fictional island Mizinga off East African coast
• Protagonist Maya fights illegal blast fishing threatening coral reefs

Rupinder Brar, an IRS officer, has chosen to write a work of fiction “at almost sixty years of age.” That is roughly the time when senior bureaucrats start jotting down points for their memoirs. Her debut work of fiction, Corals Bloom Again (Konark Publishers), is an eco-thriller set in a fictional island off the East African coast.

Maya, a young Indian professional who has inherited property there, is drawn into the world of coral reefs and coastal communities, but discovers the ugly underside of the idyllic place. She chooses to fight against those profiting illegally from destroying the fragile ecology.

In this conversation, Brar discusses what prompted her to turn the threat of blast fishing into fiction, drawing on her own memories of growing up in Dar es Salaam.

She also speaks about climate fiction, the role of women in protecting the planet, her literary influences and what she hopes to explore in her next book.

To begin with, what prompted you to write a work of fiction?

I got exposed to the practice of blast fishing quite by accident and as I read more about it, I wanted to take it to a larger number of people. Fiction, I felt, would allow me the space to develop my story with a far more human side to it and provide me with a creative space to chisel my characters and situations. On a lighter side, I can add that I do so much work-related reading that I felt that I wanted to write an easy read which was pacy while keeping it meaningful and something that touched both the mind and the heart.

On a related note, there are several examples of authors making a debut at an advanced age. How was your experience of writing a novel at a time when many of your colleagues might be planning to write their memoirs? Did you feel that you should’ve started this much before?

Well, things happen when they happen. I am super-excited that I have been able to bring together years of my nuanced understanding of the world, stitch it with events and characters and write a work which I hope you will find interesting and thought-provoking. I had been itching to give vent to my creative bone for a while and I am looking forward to more explorations around the world.

Mizinga, the fictional island, is as much a protagonist of the novel as Maya is. The landscapes and the seascapes are among the dramatis personae. Did you draw upon your memories of living in Dar es Salaam? Can you tell us more about those days?

Absolutely. Mizinga is as much a product of accumulated memories as Maya is. The Dar es Salaam of the late 70s was idyllic, green and the vast ocean literally opened the mental vistas of a kid who had gone from a landlocked city. Those were not the days of the internet, so there was hardly any vicarious learning. The simplicity and warmth of the local people, the sheer joy for life that they displayed was so endearing. And exposure to expatriates from literally all over the world. To a young mind, what could have been a better setting; absorb, absorb and absorb.

Suddenly there was no one way to live life. Different approaches, customs, food and different contexts existed, and each stood tall. I was to understand later how these years have been so critical in making me the person I am. The ability to adapt, respect and not be judgemental. I feel started then, and it has stayed with me, only becoming stronger with time. Interestingly, it was also a time when going to gurdwara happened with far more frequency than in India. The social collective of a group of people as they celebrate their oneness amidst diversity has also been a beautiful learning. Mizinga is also a place where nationalities come together effortlessly, almost to a point where it does not even matter. This was a deliberate plot.

Should we read more into having a female protagonist? In the fight to reclaim the planet, do you see women taking the lead?

Well, being a woman, I felt that this role could be best essayed by a female character. It required an impetuous idealist who looks at things with the lens of empathetic conscience. And I wanted to tap in to the women’s inherent nature to be the nurturer and preserver. Down the ages and across geographies, women have displayed resilience as they combated social, political, economic, legal disparities and asymmetries and, in recent times, climate change-related challenges. But they have held themselves strong. So, yes, I think the world needs women to take the lead and use their unique cognitive abilities to build a world that is more humane and respectful to all other species and elements of nature.

With climate change emerging as one of the biggest risks to humankind, there is a growing genre of cli-fi or eco-fiction. Environmental issues are all around us, but turning them into a gripping narrative such as Corals Bloom Again is not easy. What does it require from an author?

I am so glad that this genre is growing, because we need to bring the issue to everyday conversations and not just restrict it to conferences, roundtables and technical webinars. The threat is real and fiction can help in humanising and bringing the issue into our living rooms and everyday banter on dining tables and cafes. It also has to be seen as something that impacts the lives of all of us and not something that is to be seen from afar or only as a one-off event. If there are flash floods, the temperatures rising, air quality deteriorating, some species getting extinct, then somewhere it is touching the lives of people everywhere all the time. It requires the author to deftly understand the linkages and weave it as if it was your story or mine. It must touch everyday existence for it to appear real.

Can you tell us about your reading preferences? Who are the authors you’ve looked upon as models? Which are your favourite works of fiction?

My reading preferences are quite wide-ranging. From socio-political works to matters of human psychology and mysteries of the universe. Growing up, I read a lot of Issac Asimov, Desmond Harris (The Human Ape), Anton Chekov, Dostoevsky. It’s been a growing list, but I do love reading Amitav Ghosh, Kazuo Ishiguro, Chimamanda Adichie. I was very touched when I read Apeirogon by Colum McCann.

What do you plan to write next?

I am allowing my mind to travel to diverse ideas that have been brewing in my head over the years. Whichever one I settle for, it will again be an attempt to rake up thoughts on an issue that is a mix of socio-cultural and politico-economic factors and impacts our lives. I am also tempted to do a prequel to Corals Bloom Again.

- Ends