Interview with Author Bidisha Ghosal (Towards Literature)

Interview with Author Bidisha Ghosal

"The Rape Trial" 

1)People usually introduce themselves by name. As an author, what's different in your introduction?  

I think I have the same run-of-the-mill self-introduction. My name, followed up by what I do (though, the thing that I do keeps changing). I have to admit, the reactions I get might not be run-of-the-mill. Everyone shows a burst of excitement upon knowing that I write fiction, and they immediately want to know what I'm writing about (something that at least for this book took me a long time to articulate), and then they want to know when the book would be out (this is the main reason I won't be admitting to anyone in the future if I'm working on a new book). I started wishing that I had something else to say other than 'writer'. Introductions were something I dreaded soon after I began working on this book.

2)"The Rape Trial", not just a book but a step to raise against the heinous crime, Rape. Any Comment.

Yes, I have attempted to be truthful without apology about what it's like to live as a woman in a patriarchal society. Rape is the ultimate weapon against us, used to control us, our movements, our work, our pleasures in life. I hate this apologist attitude that has come over the feminist movement, and I suppose it's because our current feminist icons/role models aren't career feminists. They're all doing something else and they fear they have something to lose if they're too outspoken. So with every feminist statement there's this weird apologetic follow-up - 'I'm not a hardcore feminist' or using a pro-man hashtag where it's not called for or using #notallmen whereas that is simply a defensive argument used by people to derail a feminist conversation (and by the way most likely those same #notallmen people readily say 'boyswillbeboys' unironically). I firmly state that we women do not have to apologise for feeling what we feel, for thinking what we think, for stating the bald truth of our experiences. Let's stop apologising and backtracking, let's stop making excuses. If men feel uncomfortable by this, and they want to swear that they're not like 'those men', then let them do their bit to change the patriarchal social narrative of what men are like - zero in on their own sexist learnings, unlearn them, and hold their fellow men accountable.

3)What is that biggest platform where you always want to go with your book?  

I want my book everywhere, honestly, but the biggest platform would be a movie. We've been in the age of the visual medium for a long time now. So, a movie adaptation would be the best.

4)From Writing Dream to Dream Writing. Have you ever feel this state while writing your debut book and what specific thing make you feel this?  

Whenever I get a sentence right, I feel on top of the world. It is much harder than what I thought it would be, so it was incredibly rewarding when I would finally get it right.

5)Your social media account is fulsome of your art work. Why don't you step ahead in field of art?  

I am! I love paper quilling, also called paper filigree, and am currently creating a body of work with which I can start selling. Let's see how that goes!

6)In your opinion what's the difference between "Writing is my Hobby" & "Writing is my passion"?  

The first is you writing when you have some free time. The second is you writing under a compulsion, mostly the compulsion of the story itself. When the story is dying to be told and just won't let you rest in peace until you've written it out, that's passion!

7)What thing encourage you to write "The Rape Trial"? 

I got the idea late 2013. At the time there was a spate of rapes and/or attempted rapes in my city, and the men were going scot-free. One even brazenly told a news reporter that there was no need for him to hide his face because a family member was well connected and he would get bail in an hour. Later on the system swung into force and there were many arrests, but at the time, I was full of rage and helplessness, and someone who said 'boys will be boys' taunted me that if I really felt so strongly about the situation, I would stop arguing and write something about it. Coincidentally, at the time, I was already working on a different story that I'd started to realise was going nowhere. Shortly after this taunt, I dropped that story with the acceptance that it was a lost cause, and a few blank days later the first half of The Rape Trial popped into my head.

8)Any message to the world why they should read "The Rape Trial" putting aside their reading interest. 

I think a significant takeaway is getting to know a woman's perspective on the world. What does the world look like from our point of view. It's the most legitimate point of view there can be, considering that we're at the receiving end. Even women who uphold the patriarchy have been at the receiving end, in fact, I believe, they're the ones who lost so hard they simply had to make the best of whatever they were left with. When you side with your oppressor, your oppression becomes bearable.

  

   

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