Ladies' Tailor by Priya Hajela - A partition tale of the never-say-die spirit of the heart. An Author Interview.
Partition literature in the form of fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, testimonies and memories, both individual and collective have managed to capture and hand down not just some of the most harrowing stories of the era, but also the courage, sacrifice and generosity of the human spirit. Pune based author Priya Hajila's Engrossing debut novel lady Staler set in the backdrop of the partition is the story of Gurudev and a motley group of refugees who travel east from Pakistan right after partition
Priya Hajela
@hajelap · 2:04
Some were from the time and a lot were the way they look now. But the main bazaars that I've written about, they still exist. I also use my own childhood experiences in Chora Bazaar, in Ludhiana, the Lanes and bylanes the clothing stores Vibe. A lot of that came from my own time walking through there with my grandmother in the early seventy s. I think the bazaars in a lot of cities of Punjab were very similar, but each has had its own specialties
Thank you so much for sharing that priya. The wounds of partition run deep in the psyche of Indians and Pakistanis and in India. By and large, even the very survivors who suffered partitions worst effects have spoken very less about it. So little that the next generation barely knows what really their families went through during Tamalti's face when the British Indian Empire crumbled, except for the established narrative that partition was inevitable because of the differences between the Hindus and the Muslims
Priya Hajela
@hajelap · 3:54
She had trunks for her winter things and her shawls with the mothballs and so on. And then she had her transfer for her summer clothes and that's what she used. There was no wardrobe, cupboard kind of things. And I actually asked her about that because we had, of course, in our house, we had cupboards. And she said she said, keep you don't know when, what can happen. But I don't think there was really an understanding of what actually went on
Oh, it absolutely did resonate Priya. And thank you for sharing those memories with us. Considering how most of the books with practitioners, the central team, tend to focus more on the hatred, anger and violence, I did note that Lady Taylor is more driven by the emotions of hope, grief and love. So was this a conscious decision to make the book more about Story of Hope and starting afresh, rather than a story about the bloody aftermath of Partition?
Priya Hajela
@hajelap · 3:35
Critical as it has been to us Indians, it was really the backdrop to and in many ways and even more important stories. Even more important story. So I think that the way that I wrote this story was that I wanted to, that I have a fascination with adventure and everybody loves a little bit of romance. So the thing about having something positive that comes out of such a terrible time is what I was really trying to go after
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Priya Hajela
@hajelap · 3:30
She walked into a refugee camp which was predominantly occupied by Hindus and Sikhs, and she thought nothing would ever happen to her. But even she had experienced sorrow in a way that she didn't even think to blame anyone for. Her husband was in the army, the British Army, and he died in battle and that's all she knew and she accepted that. I think ultimately we are an accepting people. And that's unfortunate
This has been a deeply introspective conversation for me, Priya, and it makes me want to revisit parts of the book that really struck a chord with me. So thank you for taking the time out for this chat and I would love to have you back on for more conversations around your writing and your work. And for our listeners, I'm going to be sharing the Amazon link to the book that I would highly recommend for everyone to check out
