On a Thousand Hills

In class eleven or twelve, I set out to write a novel for the first time. There were no personal computers then. I got a 1000-page notebook and a special 0.5 microtip pen - a fad those days - to write the book. Eventually, I wrote the first chapter of a mystery set in London of all places. I've never been to London but could imagine what a typical London street would look like at the beginning of winter.

Very Lawrence Sanders-like, there was a retired detective who was about to settle down for dinner with a nice, comely wife, when the telephone jumps to life. He is called to a crime scene to 'provide inputs', if not help solve the case. He retired, remember? :) So he steps out and at the doorstep his wife reminds him to take the gloves. November was ending and they werent getting younger, you know. :)

That was where the novel ended - at that first chapter. I had no idea what to write, no one to read the rubbish I wrote, so had no clue what to do next. Besides, as always, I was lazy. So that's where the first book ended.

I wrote a second one, much later in life, around the time when I was finishing my Journalism course at XIC and had left the TOI job. I wrote quite a lot of that book, I must say, however incorrect and shallow the first draft was. But that story was no story at all. Most of it was idle banter - could have passed it off as chic lit though - and so I gave up on that one too.


"On a Thousand Hills" was the first novel I wrote sincerely. I have not completed it, and the story has changed course dramatically since the first ideas that I'd thought of. Locations and situations changed, the characters remained the same, and even as late as last month, I've researched about Rwanda for the sake of writing this book.

The story centers on a couple of Indian origin, their family and life, set in the days, years rather, leading to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. I began writing this sometime in 2002-2003 and wrote 32 chapters then. Yes, thirty two chapters! First draft definitely, required editing, but I had a draft!
And then one day, my hard disk crashed.

In the 'Author's notes' of 'Shantaram', I remember reading about how the Australian cops caught the author with the book while he was doing time, and flushed his book in the toilet, and burned a second draft. The final one was his third or fourth attempt. Really admired the man for that perseverance and rigor.
How I wish I had at least an iota of it!

In my mind, this story of mine is still fresh. I rewrote eight chapters, but after that, nothing. Although I know what I want to write, and how to write it, I have just not gotten past that block to start writing again. Now I know you guys will tell me I should, at least for the sake of those 21 dollars that I spent on the books I bought from the World Bank Info shop on Pennsylvania Avenue, for my research on Rwanda. I'm sure now that I know more about Rwandan politics, society, and the genocide situation that my father, who lived and worked in Rwanda for six years till 1994. But there are several apprehensions that keep me from writing:

1. Who will want to read about a family of Afro-Indian origin in an almost unknown central African country called Rwanda (Not even Zaire (DRC) or Uganda; people 'know' these countries)?
2. Even if there's someone out there who would want to read this, would they believe in my story and the situation, considering I plan to write this book on the basis of research and one month spent on vacation in Kigali when I was in class VII, in 1990?
3. The genocide happened in 1994, 16 years ago. Do we have to rake up ghosts of the past? There are people still suffering in the aftermath of this tragedy. Would they be happy to read this, especially modern Rwandans in a now modern Rwanda, where things have changed?

I read this bit about the Smithsonian Institution while on trip to one of the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, D.C. It said that James Smithson, the British chemist who left a bequest in his will to the United States of America, which was used to initially fund the Smithsonian Institution, had never ever been to the United States! I, on the other hand, have been to Rwanda, even if it were for a month, even if that trip happened 20 years ago. Not quite related to my situation, but if a Smithsonian institution could be founded, I guess there's no harm in writing a book. :)