The Indian literary scene welcomes a new-comer: the German-Indian Saskya Jain. Admired by colleagues and critics alike, her debut novel ‘Fire Under Ash’ is set in Delhi. A walk with the author through an underwritten city.
Two hearts beat at once in Saskya Jain´s bosom: As daughter of a German mother and an Indian father she unites two nationalities, two cultures and three languages – she speaks fluent English, German and Hindi. Homeland? Difficult to say. She was born in India, studied in Germany, and a couple of semesters in USA too. Her husband is German but her book is published in English.
She was five when she moved with her parents and brother to Kaka Nagar, 18 when she left the colony for Germany. In between lay years of a well-protected middle class childhood in a well-guarded neighbourhood for the bureaucrats. The crazy thing is that her father was no bureaucrat. As an art historian and the director of the Craft Museum he got an apartment on the ground floor of Block D-II, right next to the Sports Club of the quarter. And unlike the neighbours who had to leave the house in cycles of 3-5 years, his family was allowed to stay on indefinitely: One of the many privileges that Saskya enjoyed in her life. But it was not always an advantage to the girl who will remain somewhat different.
Between the Worlds
For example during her schooldays: Having a German mother, she was allowed to go to the elite German school. Surrounded by children of diplomats, Saskya would notice how different their respective worlds were. And it was not only to do with her being Indian. She was at a loss to understand the superficiality of the classmates, their showing-off and their inability or lack of desire to mingle with the exotic world around them. She seldom invited friends to her house. And she became a good student. ‘‘I wanted to show it to them.’’
The older she grew, the more she grappled with her cultural identity and her socialization. ‘‘One is never completely this or completely that’’, she remarks. ‘‘Somehow one always takes on an outsider’s perspective. Perhaps, that’s the reason we become writers’’, she muses. And why is Delhi the focal point in both her novels? ‘‘My roots are in Delhi. I grew up here. I am proud of it. In that sense I can safely say, that’s where I belong’’, she declares without hesitating. And because she’s not a person who looks back poignantly, for whom nostalgia is not only dealing with the past but also with the future of her land, both her novels describe the current condition of the capital of India.
The 31-year old writer spends six months each year in Delhi and the other six in Berlin. And all this while there are enough book readings, book fairs, literary festivals, appointments with agents and publishers to exhaust her. For this reason she has to manage time well and has fixed three to four hours in the morning as the time to write. She is convinced that without discipline and a strong will the greatest talent is futile. She is supported by her husband Christopher Kloeble who is himself a writer. ‘‘That’s like having my editor right at home. Very convenient’’, laughs Saskya Jain. ‘‘Naturally there are also many challenges when two writers live together.’’ For one thing there’s the competition, and then having to deal with frustration. It takes maximum understanding of the other’s moods to make it work. ‘‘An author’s life is often full of rejections and disappointments.’’
The first two coaches of each metro are reserved for women. They are pretty strict about the rule – we have to travel with our photographer in the third coach. Five Metro lines intersected by the sixth one connect the entire NCR (National Capital Region), which includes the prosperous suburbs Gurgaon and Noida. Moreover, further work to extend the network is under progress.
