Aatish Taseer hasn?t been to Pakistan since Benazir Bhutto?s killing in 2007. And after the brutal assassination of his father, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, this January, he doesn?t know how soon he can. In a way it?s strange to talk about his latest book, Noon, which tells the story of a young Indian boy, Rehan Tabassum, who travels to Pakistan to meet his estranged father in the aftermath of what?s happened. ?I still haven?t come to terms with it…there?s too much reality. It will need me many years to even talk about it.? Taseer didn?t meet his father till he was 21?his mother is noted journalist Tavleen Singh?and then a ?frost? settled between the two, after some of Taseer junior?s writings on Pakistan, that didn?t thaw till the end. From his first book, Stranger to History: A Son?s Journey Through Islamic Lands, he has been on a quest to understand Islam?and Pakistan?and his own identity. To critics? quibble that Taseer feeds too much on his past, he simply says, ?What can I do…India, in a bigger sense, and Pakistan, are in my blood.? Excerpts from an interview with Fe?s Sudipta Datta:
You return to India-Pakistan again, and this time a character, Rehan, is in search of his estranged father.
Pakistan is steeped in blood, upto its eyeballs. One of the objectives of Noon is to talk about the state of disintegration of the Pakistani society. The violence is much more widespread than suicide bombing. There?s a sense of a toxic society, where individuals are not allowed to be what they want to be. I wanted to probe deeper into other aspects of the Pakistani society. True, there are bits of the old book in the new book, but writers often use a small world to explore many themes, and that?s what I have tried to do in Noon.
But you have a very difficult reality to grapple with, your father?s assassination….
There?s too much reality. It will need many, many years before I can even talk about it. It?s been very difficult, my relationship with my father was frosty at the end. I haven?t been to Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto?s killing in 2007. It?s difficult for me to go there now because I don?t want to be restricted.
What worries you most about Pakistani society?
The violence. The principle behind Pakistan is a very narrow idea and there is no emotional and cultural connect. India, on the other hand, appears to be loosely structured on the surface but there is a sense of wholeness not to the detriment of individuality. I have a very long view on Pakistan. It is so damaged now that something big needs to happen for changes to happen.
In your book, do you have a favourite character?
I like Mirwaiz, the restlessness in his spirit, much like Aakash in Temple-Goers. I?m very interested in what happens to such characters, the danger lurking behind the restlessness. I also like the character of Amit Sethia, and the journey of self-improvement he undertakes.
Tell us about the process of writing, you have got an endorsement from Sir VS Naipaul.
Writing is kind of a vocation. It?s too much hard work. Noon took me many months to complete. Once you get the momentum, it?s good going, but it?s bad for relationships. Sir Naipaul has been wonderfully generous, he is a writers? writer, and listened and helped if I got stuck and went to him. Now that the book is out, I want to go back to my normal life, like learning Urdu and Sanskrit or simply go for a run. There have been many upheavals and I am yet to overcome my grief or fatigue.
Extract
There was Sahil Tabassum, of course, my father, the man of small beginnings, who had lived many lives, and made good in each one. He had been a finance man in Dubai in the days he had known my mother; after their relationship was over, he had returned to La Mirage to be a politician, fighting General Gul?s military tyranny; when that ended, he spent some years in and out of power; then, with the return of military rule, he became a businessman, building a news and telecom empire out of nothing. That was what he had been, a media tycoon of a kind, a man of dark suits and sunglasses, when I first met him in La Mirage five years before. He had married again and had three other children with Shaista, a young wife twenty years his junior. Though there was much that was interesting about him, I found him a difficult man to reach. It was as if the many lives he had lived had made him intolerant of the past. And I, who sought him out from the deepest folds of his past, was not someone he could easily communicate with.
We had blood and almost nothing else in common.
Extracted with permission from HarperCollins