Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Chetna Keer about her book Geisha in a Gota Patti.  

Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Chetna Keer about her book Geisha in a Gota Patti.  Chetna Keer is a novelist, HT columnist, satirist, TED Circles panelist, poet & Creative Writing Mentor. She's a former Lifestyle Editor and senior journalist, having clocked over 25 years in the print media.

 

Thank you Chetna for taking time out to talk with The Wise Owl.

 

RS: The Gulmohar tree stands tall across your trilogy as more than a motif — it feels like a sentient witness, a keeper of family secrets, almost a chronicler of human frailty. What made you centre this tree as the narrative thread tying together the Gulmohar Trilogy?

 

CK: The Gulmohar looms large in an ancient, ancestral kothi as a sentinel, a spectator to its secrets and shifting fortunes.

 

The Gulmohar, as a metaphor in my Trilogy, has its birth in the darkest chapter of recent history -- the Pandemic. The Gulmohar outside my Lockdown window, sandwiched between the greyness of two high-rises, bursting into bloom even in the harshness of scorching summer, thus became a metaphor for red hot Hope blooming on the black canvas that was the Pandemic.

 

The Gulmohar metaphor imbues my Trilogy with a vivid canvas of visual vocabulary. This symbolism signifies the deeper subtexts, the gravitas embedded in the multi-layered narrative. The Gulmohar looms on the landscape as a character in itself, as a layered lens for delving into deeper connections.

 

The grand Gulmohar thus stands as a narrative voice at various levels.

 

At a micro level, its symbolism is personal. Its concentric circles are emblematic of the generational concentric circles of the clan nestled in the Purani Dilli ancestral kothi, presided by a Grande Matriarch.

 

At a macro level, the Gulmohar symbolism is environmental. The Gulmohar is the voice of the voiceless flora. It articulates the collective angst of our arboreal population bearing the brunt of bulldozing urbanisation. Our angst of watching gargantuan trees of puraani kothis face the brutal axe of builders is articulated through the Gulmohar"s narrative eye.

 

At a global level, the Gulmohar metaphor is aspirational. The Gulmohar secretly harbours a hope to be celebrated as a cultural emblem, a national arboreal treasure, the way cherry blossoms are feted as floral icons in Japan, driving an entire tourism economy of Sakura sightseeing.

 

 

RS: Geisha in the Gota Patti weaves together motifs of tea, diplomacy, mystery, and healing. What drew you to the world of tea as a cultural and symbolic thread to explore human emotions and global connections?

 

CK: "Geisha in the Gota Patti" is a toast to Tea as a healer in these turbulent timelines of world wars and global strife. It is a tale of conspiracies as much as cultural confluences woven into a tapestry of tea traditions and tea folklore.

 

It is also a sweeping saga of diplomatic intrigue and deep secrets unravelled through the prism of lore, love and loss.

 

It all started with an antique crockery chest.

 

One day, our grand-aunt was sorting and sprucing her heirloom crockery cabinet. There stood scattered about a treasure trove of teasets and teapots, each with a tale to tell. She suddenly rummaged out a breathtakingly beautiful set. She shared how in her entire lifetime, this tea-set had been aired and showcased only once. That had happened upon the only visit of a faraway Japanese relative.

 

Voila, she had unknowingly gifted me the idea for my third Gulmohar saga!

 

It is those tea tales of naanis and daadis, steeped in heritage, that define the warp and weft of the book's tapestry of tea traditions and tea diplomacy.

 

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RS: Your book Geisha in a Gota Patti opens in an old Dilli kothi and unfolds against a world of diplomacy, memory, and mystery. How did you strike the balance between the nostalgia of old-world Delhi and the tension of a modern psychological thriller?

 

CK: It was certainly a challenge to map out the twists and turns of a contemporary, cross-continental thriller around a sleepy, crumbling Purani Dilli kothi. Yet the ancient kothi with its peeling plaster was the perfect peg for the layers of the modern mystery, that peel off like its patina.

 

This stark contrast of an ancient kothi staging a contemporary suspense saga has been bridged by sub-narratives of confluence, cultural and digital. 

 

This is best illustrated in a scene wherein a digital -age app puts in a crucial "cameo" for the cracking of the mystery. The quintessential clash of the old world and new world is embodied in the Grande Matriarch's initial resistance to an app advocated by her Artificial Intelligence-expert progeny. 

 

The initial reluctance leads to subsequent embracing of new technology. This episode embodies the novel's subtle subtext of clash meets confluence, old order embraces new order.

 

 

RS: You’ve described the novel as inspired by “a long-buried, less-known diplomatic chronicle.” Could you tell us how you unearthed this historical inspiration, and what liberties you took to fictionalize it?

 

CK: Indeed, this is partly a historical novel of global conspiracies rooted in reality but fictionalised. A little-known, long-buried diplomatic chronicle has inspired the main narrative, though its contexts, characters and outcomes have been fictionalised.

 

When I was researching for tea traditions across continents and cultures, I suddenly stumbled upon an initiative of tea diplomacy involving India and one of its neighbours.

 

That is where the seeds of my psychological thriller's plot were sown. It uncorked unsettling questions that steered the subtexts of the storyline. What if the tea diplomacy episode had panned out differently? Would that tea diplomacy have been a turning point? How would it have shaped the history of bilateral ties? Would the history of strife in the subcontinent been scripted differently?

 

Lest I give away all the suspense, I'll leave it at that. Let the readers savour the twists and turns of diplomatic intrigue.

 

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RS: Lollita, your “sareeholic sleuth-on-the-side,” is both witty and empathetic — a rare kind of protagonist. How did her voice evolve over the trilogy, and what role does she play in holding together the saga’s emotional and thematic threads?

 

CK: Lollita evolved as a protagonist along with the Trilogy, as did I as a writer.

 

She is a relatable, realistic protagonist sporting shades of 40-plus womanhood. She could be you, me, any fab forty or fifty woman of substance.

 

She evolves in the roles she essays. From the wacky and witty book blogger of "Giddha On My Gulmohar" to a Climate Crusader and Go-Green enthusiast in terms of social and sartorial saree choices in "Garnets Under My Gulmohar". Then, she evolves into a sort of informal "Tea Ambassador" and saree-a-holic sleuth-on-the-side in "Geisha In The Gota Patti".

 

Lollita is a charming creature of contrasts. Vulnerable yet valiant, Sophisticated, savvy and spunky, yet simple, soft-hearted, sympathetic.

 

Lollita is like a bridge spanning the Trilogy.

 

She is a bridge between the diverse threads of the narratives. She is a bridge between the past and present, the old-world ethos and the new-age dynamics. She is the bridge mapping the generational divide of the Ekaanth clan. The middle voice between the Grande Matriarch on the one side of the spectrum and the younger millennials, on the other side.

 

Lollita epitomises the Gulmohar Trilogy's three C's --- continuity, chutzpah and conscience.

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RS: The narrative of "Geisha in a Gota Patti" moves between Delhi’s old-world ethos and the Himalayan tea terrain steeped in folk wisdom. How did you approach these contrasting settings — both geographically and symbolically — to explore ideas of heritage, identity, and healing?

 

CK: The Himalayan hillside, that forms the setting  for the sub-narrative, is symbolic of the novel's threads of heritage and healing. The tea terrain towers as a repository of Himalayan heritage and history.

 

The hillside harbours embedded folk wisdoms that carry echoes even across the corridors of the crumbling kothi.

 

Geographically, though the Himalayan tea terrain stands far removed from the ancient Purani Dilli kothi, yet its centuries' old folk wisdoms find a relevance and resonance in the mystery mapping out in the faraway kothi. A resonance both for the  kothi and its Grande Matriarch.

 

What intertwines them are the deeper connections of destinies that are similar in spirit.

 

Even in the apartness, there is a symbolic oneness. A oneness born of familiar fates, of frailty.

 

 

RS: You wear many hats — journalist, satirist, columnist, creative mentor. How did your journalistic eye for irony and detail influence your fiction, especially a story like Geisha in a Gota Patti that mingles humour, mystery, and cultural critique?

 

CK:  A food analogy best describes this interplay of the satirist and suspense writer in me. The satirist is like a chef who tosses egg sunny side up. The satirist in me dishes out Life funny side up. 

 

As a suspense writer, it's about learning to do the lasagne. "Geisha In The Gota Patti" is this my literary lasagna.

 

So, the satirist certainly cannot be divorced from the suspense writer in me. The is the intertwining and interplay of these two roles across the Trilogy.

 

The journalistic eye comes into play in the social commentary and cultural critiques defining the storyline. My satirical lens pops into the narrative especially in those scenes critiquing the Page 3 culture, club cronyism, the celebrity race for churning out memoirs and all that.

 

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RS: Across Garnets Under My Gulmohar, Giddha on My Gulmohar, and now Geisha in the Gota Patti, you blend nostalgia, intrigue, and cultural commentary. Do you see the trilogy as a reflection on contemporary India’s relationship with its past — and if so, what final message does Geisha in the Gota Patti leave with the reader?

 

CK: The crumbling ancient kothi and its Grande Matriarch, caught in a time warp, quite embody the classic tugs of contemporary India — Roots vs Wings.

 

As with the kothi, so with modern India, there is that constant tug of war between the old-world ethos and ethics and the new order, new values. There is that constant conflict of preserving roots while at the same time taking wings to chart fresh frontiers.

 

This classic clash is best embodied in the cultural conflict of the kothi's side characters -- the old-school family retainer versus the nouveau migrant worker.

 

At a macro level, the Grande Matriarch's clinging to the old ethos yet gently embracing of the new order is indeed symbolic of a contemporary India caught on the cusp,  navigating the tightrope between its rich past and resurgent present.

 

"Geisha In The Gota Patti", to sum it all, is a heartwarming tale of heritage, hope and healing. It's like sipping a charmed cup of chai. To be savoured sip by sip for soaking its alluring aromas of mystique and mystery.

 

 

Thank you Chetna. It was a pleasure talking with you. Wishing you the very best in all your future literary pursuits.