The light brigade

You’d expect two people who’ve read each other’s books but never met before to take a little time to settle down to conversation.

But when Rupa Gulab, author of Girl Alone and Chip of the Old Blockhead, and Smita Jain, author of
Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions, met over cocktails and home-style pizzas at Del Italia in Juhu, Mumbai, they dived into discussion instantly.

Sharing their experiences as authors, wondering what separates a good book from trash, and trying to come up with a definition of chicklit, the conversation was just what you’d expect from the writers of two of the funniest books in the genre.

Brunch: Why are all books written by women featuring women called chicklit?
Rupa: Because of the media.
Smita: Because the media is lazy. Tags happen out of laziness or lack of imagination. All books that are targeted at women are not chicklit. There are certain prerequisites for a chicklit novel. It has to be in first person with self-deprecating humour, and deal with women’s issues like weight, addictions, commitment-phobic boyfriends, looks…
Rupa: In lad-lit, by writers like Nick Hornby, the heroes don’t obsess over looks.
Smita: Well, they obsess over size...
Rupa: Lad-lit talks about relationships, music…
Smita: Yes, relationships, but differently. For women, a commitment-phobic boyfriend is an issue. But for such a guy, the woman is the problem.
Rupa: But you can’t put chicklit in a box. Your book meets some parameters in my definition of chicklit, but not others. One: Sisterhood is an integral part of chicklit; women together, bonding, bitching out whatever hurts them. Your heroine’s friends were elsewhere. Two: Chicklit heroines are vulnerable. Kkrishnaa is very feisty, very determined. The neediness is not there.
Smita: But Kkrishnaa is insecure. One thing that separates chicklit from lad-lit is the fact that no matter how successful a woman is, she’s always insecure. Maybe because she’s in a man’s world where there are parameters on how you live.
Rupa: Kkrishnaa is insecure about her own personal job. She stops at nothing to keep it – including being whipped! I was horrified while reading that scene, but couldn’t put it down. Kkrishnaa came across as a hardnosed bitch. Which is fine. Even Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (by William Thackeray) hardly endeared herself to readers.
Smita: The main criticism of my book was that Kkrishnaa is not very likeable.
Rupa: That’s the problem in India. People want likeable characters. They like an underdog, someone to feel sorry for.
Smita: I work in television and I assure you an underdog does best.
Rupa: Okay. But name one person who’s going to read your book over and over again.
Smita: Me.
Rupa: Exactly. So you’re writing for yourself. If you have strong opinions, you’re going to have people who love you and people who hate you.
Smita: What one wants is strong reactions. I like Marion Keyes’s books. She deals with serious issues like recovering from drug addiction, yet she’s fun. Which shows how, even abroad, chicklit is used as an umbrella term for many other kinds of books. Look at Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich. Both write gritty detective novels but get combined with chicklit because their books feature female private investigators who have the usual female problems. Grafton’s heroine is twice divorced, for instance.
Rupa: I wonder why people think chicklit began with Bridget Jones. I read bloody funny female-oriented books long before Bridget Jones’s Diary was published.
Smita: Well, according to Wikipedia (the online, user-generated encyclopedia), chicklit came into prominence with Bridget Jones. When I read the book, I found it funny. I hadn’t read anything like it before. I wrote Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions because I’ve been writing for TV and I’m a great fan of detective fiction. It was only when I realised my book would be classified as chicklit that I began reading books by writers like Marian Keyes. Before that I hadn’t read any chicklit.
Rupa: Actually, a lot of chicklit can be read by men. It’s just that it’s defined as chicklit, so they keep away.
Smita: When a guy bought my book, he said it was to learn what makes a woman tick!
Rupa: India is in a transitional phase at this time, so leading the single life is an important theme. I think new genres of books will happen in waves, like this. At this point, I think all publishers of chicklit should join hands and release a box set called “Every Girl’s Career Guide” and books by men should be released in a set called “The Campus Guide for Boys”.
Smita: And what about the in-betweens?
Rupa: They rarely survive.
Brunch: People say chicklit is dumb...
Smita: I’ve noticed that any book that doesn’t make you pick up a dictionary is regarded as good. When I was working on Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions, my editor made me tone down the English. I was told not to use difficult words. I don’t know if that’s a chicklit phenomenon, or if that applies to everything; that books are not supposed to tax you.
Rupa: The world is made up of different kinds of people, but publishers try and reach the maximum. So they make sure a book is dumbed down to an extent and all the characters are likeable. Because the minute you have a character who is feisty, you lose a substantial part of the market.
Smita: What about sex?
Rupa: Sex is always up for laughs.
Smita: When you write, you think that something about your book will appeal to somebody. My book was supposed to be over the top. I’m a screenwriter and in television everything is a matter of life and death. Like anywhere else in the world, it’s a shallow industry. Though I don’t really know about sexcapades, I included some. Older people haven’t read the book, though one trashed it online – she said she’d never read something like this.
Rupa: (Laughing) The biggest thing to happen to an author is to have his or her book banned.
Smita: (Grinning) I’m working on it.
Brunch: What are the two of you working on now?
Rupa: I did one chicklit book, that’s enough. I’m not a hack writer. I did what I had to do and now it’s done.
Smita: I’m working on my second book about a female PI (private investigator) who has her own issues. I don’t know whether you’d call it chicklit since since features a woman but is also about crime. My mind just works towards crime, I’m constantly thinking of improbable plots. I suppose that’s because I’m a screenwriter, there’s a bit of the K factor there, but this is a serious investigative book.
Rupa: I used to be very focused. Now all I do is play Freecell. Maybe I won’t do another book. Though I am working on another book actually. There are six to ten chapters left, but I’m in no hurry. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.
Brunch: Why do you think chicklit is seen as frivolous?
Smita: Because it doesn’t challenge you in terms of serious issues and the dictionary! Many people love Govinda films, but catch them saying so in any interview.
Rupa: I once went to a workshop where we discussed this very topic. I said this there and I’ll say it here: For every Anna Karenina you read, you’d like a light book after. It’s like cleansing your palate. If you want to come across as pompous, however, you trash chicklit. All these women who say chicklit is bad – did they never fall in love? Did they never feel insecure? It’s silly. You need to flake out from time to time.
Smita: I’d say chicklit is modern day Mills & Boons.
Rupa: No way. Mills & Boons never get into the psyche of the characters.
Smita: I still call it the evolution of society and modern romance.
Rupa: I still say you shouldn’t define it.