Review: Encounters with Kiran; Fragments from a Relationship by Nayantara Sahgal
This collection of the email correspondence between Kiran Nagarkar and Nayantara Sahgal touches on their views on issues like demonetization, the rise of religious extremism, violence against minorities, threats to freedom of speech, and protests led by artists and intellectuals, and the Me Too movement
How do you feel about peeking into the private correspondence between two famous individuals who are known for their literary talents and political views? A mild curiosity, perhaps? Or breathless excitement mixed with pangs of guilt? It is hard for many people to admit that vicarious pleasure makes them giddy, and ethical questions are often afterthoughts. Keeping up a pretense can be exhausting and pointless, so it might be a better idea to own up.
Reading Nayantara Sahgal’s new book Encounter with Kiran: Fragments from a Relationship (2021) made me confront all these thoughts and feelings. It is a slim volume, offering selections from email exchanges between these towering public figures of our time. Kiran Nagarkar, who died in 2019, wrote novels, plays and screenplays. Sahgal has written several works of fiction and non-fiction, including memoirs.
This book is dedicated to the “memory of a comradeship in hard times” nurtured over five years. Their chance meeting at a literary festival in Delhi in 2002 could have been forgotten if Nagarkar had not picked up the threads in 2014. The catch-up blossomed into a warm and meaningful relationship through emails, phone calls, visits, and the sheer joy of discovering each other’s work and discussing current events with someone like-minded and like-hearted.
It is not uncommon for authors who meet at literature fests to stay connected and form lasting friendships. Writing can be a lonely enterprise, and it is heartening to share a bond with someone who can empathize with the challenges of the writerly life – not just the discipline of showing up at the desk and churning out words but also other aspects like advances, editing, blurbs, marketing, reviews, censorship, and social media outrage.
Sahgal writes, “Emails are not a celebrated form of keeping in touch. They don’t have the prestige of letters, but they have an immediacy that letters can’t have.” The email fragments have been dated and arranged chronologically. She adds, “Our mails made for the sense of a presence nearby with whom it became natural to share views, feelings and daily doings. It brought two writers into each other’s orbit and into an involvement with each other’s lives.”
In these fragments, the Mumbai-based Nagarkar showers praise on the Dehradun-based Sahgal, and she reciprocates with admiration. They make time to read the books that the other has written, and express their views on plots, characters and endings. They talk about self-doubt, ask for feedback on new and old work, and seek validation. This book shows readers what happens behind the scenes when authors are toiling away, not performing at festivals.
Sahgal and Nagarkar seem to be in agreement on issues like demonetization, the rise of religious extremism, violence against minorities, threats to freedom of speech, and protests led by artists and intellectuals. Sahgal notes, “I discovered a bond with Kiran apart from writing. Being born political myself, into a family that took part in the fight for freedom from British rule, I found in him a like interest and concern with national and international affairs.”
The book includes Sahgal’s letter to Sreenivasa Rao, Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi, dated 6 October 2015. She wrote it while returning the award that she had received from the organization in 1986 for her novel Rich Like Us. The book also contains the text of her undelivered speech written for the 92nd Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sammelan held at Yavatmal in January 2019. She was disinvited because of political pressure on the event organizers.
Sahgal notes, “We met at a time of fundamental political change in India. The India that we knew was disappearing under a government that had declared war on our age-old civilization of inclusiveness and the secular republic we had built since independence. It was not a time for personal or literary withdrawal and neither of us withdrew from the fray.” She and Nagarkar managed to find strength and solidarity in each other during this tumultuous period.
The book also includes Nagarkar’s open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dated 29th March 2016, and his open letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, dated 9th March 2017. Both letters are meant to hold these politicians accountable for the state of affairs in the country.
The fragments that Sahgal has chosen to make public trace how the relationship began on a formal note and got more intimate with the passage of time. In the earlier emails, Nagarkar calls her “Nayantaraji” and worries about intruding on her privacy. Later, he confesses to being “an old-fashioned believer in either astral connections or bonds that are beyond the ken of human beings”. The euphemisms gradually fade away; he writes, “I miss you intensely.”
In one of her emails, Sahgal writes, “Kiran, I have just been watching on my laptop Emilio Pericoli singing my favourite song Al di La, and then Sophia Loren dancing the Mambo Italiano. Felt like dancing myself. Hey Kiran, will you dance with me?” He jumps at the opportunity. He replies, “Will dance 24x7 with you. I’m flying to Dehradun right away.”
They talk about Nagarkar’s chronic ill-health, and Sahgal’s grief on the death of her 23-year-old grandson who decided to end his own life after a long struggle with mental illness. They hold each other through pain, anger and frustration. They hatch plans to go for walks, dance, watch films, and reduce the distance between Mumbai and Dehradun. They introduce each other to favourite writers, artists, actors and musicians. It is a joy to read their exchanges.
This book might further upset those who are already miffed with Sahgal for supporting Nagarkar when his name surfaced in allegations of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement. The contract for his novel The Arsonist was cancelled by Penguin Random House; it was later published by Juggernaut Books. Sahgal reproduces Nagarkar’s statement denying accusations of “sexual impropriety” made by women journalists.
Sahgal characterizes these as “ugly attacks on his personal integrity” that affected Nagarkar’s health, peace of mind, and reputation as a writer. She also reiterates her stand “against the direction that the #MeToo movement had taken,” and critiques it for becoming a “witch-hunt and sex-war.” She reveals that she refused invitations to participate in literature festivals that boycotted Nagarkar and other writers who had been held guilty “because someone says so.”
In this book, Sahgal notes that Nagarkar was grateful for her unstinting support. He told her, “I think of you as my armour against the world.” She even asked Nagarkar to represent her in Pune and accept the first Loknete Bhai Vaidya Smruti Gaurav Puraskar on her behalf. This award was set up in fond memory of the socialist leader, Bhai Vaidya, who served as the Home Minister of Maharashtra in 1978 and also revived the Socialist Party of India.
Nagarkar was 72 years old, and Sahgal was 87, when their correspondence began. The book jacket claims that Sahgal’s “emotions appear to be those of a friend, albeit and close and loving one” whereas Nagarkar’s “feelings run deeper; he expresses an adoration akin to love.” He is certainly more effusive and extravagant in his choice of words. He compliments her on her “supernatural beauty” and says “There is no dearth of things to love in you.”
Sahgal seems a bit more restrained but there are occasions when she lets go of her inhibitions. Her feelings are evident when she says, “This is like no letter ever written! Shall I frame it and hang it up to look at every day? And you are like no other. Stay that way! Much love.”
Chintan Girish Modi is a freelance writer, journalist and book reviewer.