Pre-FACE
Sakoon Singh’s ‘Qissa”
5
Tell us something about yourself?
I am a Chandigarh girl. Did my schooling and
college here before moving to JNU, New Delhi
for my MA in English Literature. I went on a
Fulbright fellowship and put a year at University
of Texas at Austin, US. Last year I was selected
for a stint at the Indian Institute of Advanced
Study, Shimla. I have been in an academic career
and teaching at the Department of English, DAV
College, Sector 10, Chandigarh. My area of
research is Amitav Ghosh and Cultural Studies.
What were the kind of books that you read in
your early years?
My parents encouraged us to read as widely as
possible as children. Our family house fostered
an environment of creativity: teeming with
choice music, very select cinema and
meandering conversations on art, architecture,
literature. My elder sister was into reading
classics and it is through her that I picked up a
sense of literature. My father (may he rest in
peace) had a background in Psychology so we
had the classic titles by Freud and Jung which we
used to keep flipping through, it was his
influence that I went on to do Psychology
Honours, though later veered towards literature.
My mother has studied Punjabi Literature, so
through her an affinity and a deeper
appreciation for Qissa Kaav, Heer, Sufi
Literature, Gurbani and modern writing came
about. So I would say it was an eclectic mix of
English classics, Psychology, Punjabi literature
and also Russian authors.
What is your book all about?
In the Land of the Lovers, this is a book about a
woman artist, Nanaki, who has been brought up
by her grandparents in a quaint Chandigarh
neighbourhood. It is a classic bildungsroman, a
story of her growth where she moves from naïve
idealism to fierce sense of purpose. She struggles
to help Subedar Joginder Singh, a World War II
veteran, who makes beautiful, wall size exotic
bird embroideries but is languishing in
anonymity. She takes on the bureaucracy in the
Art College so that the old artist can get his due
but she realizes the level of political interference
she has to deal with. She is disillusioned with the
people in authority who she has hitherto held in
high regard. Gradually she gathers the strength
to take them on. Apart from that, it is a book that
revisits the collective community experience of
Partition of Punjab through mnemonic devices
of nostalgia and family anecdotes. It touches on
the harrowing experience of 1984 through the
psyche of a teenage boy. Additionally, a vivid
portrayal of contemporary Punjab where the
vices of drug addiction, political corruption and
nepotism are rife.
LITERARY DIGEST / May 2020