LAHORE: Jhumpa Lahiri, the award-winning novelist and writer of the Interpreter of Maladies and Namesake, on Thursday briefed her audience on the ways contradictory strains of life could impact human perceptions, generate huge uncertainties and help people form and reform attitudes.

Interviewed by Razia Iqbal of the BBC for Lahore Literary Festival, she spoke at length about her work – published in the last 21 years ago and winning a number of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize– and how was she able to create it.

Rooted in her own life, Lahiri says it has always been struggle to find centre of gravity for her.

“The people like us who lack a particular place and a sense of belonging try to find satisfaction calling themselves citizens of the world. But this lack of central place, which provides equilibrium for life, always haunt us.”

Born into a Bengali family in London, studying in Italy and Italian, and living in America, Jhumpa insisted that she never wrote to assert herself.

When asked about it, she explained, “It has rather been an exercise in finding my own self; who am I? I have been writing to, sort of, document myself at that particular stage of life. I am no more what I was say 10, 15 or 20 years ago. But, I still exist. So, it has been a struggle to know myself. Where I am rooted, or not rooted”.

Talking about her most recent novel, Whereabouts, translated into English from Italian, she said, “Interestingly, I wrote last chapter of the novel first. It has been a journey through a thick layer of confusion, trying to make sense or lack of it. People ask me if I am an Indian, my answer always is ‘yes and no’. If they ask if I am an American, my response is again the same; ‘yes, and no’.”

“Even linguistically, I was born to Bengali family and spoke Bangla, then taught in English. I felt huge love for Italian when I landed in Florence (Italy) in 1993 as a young student. Even my language identity is not fixed. This cross-cultural confusion has led me to what I am today and there is no doubt that I lack my center of gravity; lacking sense of belongingness,” she said in her 50 minute talk.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2021