The feminine, the Islam, the Pakistan, the Parsi culture, the reasons of a woman  that brings to life, through an ironic, elegant and vigour writing , characters and stories of a far world of which one can discover to be a fascinated observer and compassionate accomplice.

Q. Bapsi, it is said that childhood is the place where our real nature shapes. What remembrance do you have about your Pakistani childhood?

I received a great deal of affection and care as a child because I had polio. I had to undergo several operations and I could not go to school. To an extent, this deprived me of the compamy of other children. This made me a lonely and introspective child given to fantasizing.

Q. Can you tell us about your family. Which kind of family was it?

My father was orpahend very young and he grew up in a very poor household. My mother came from a wealthy family. Our family could be described as middle class, but my father did very well in his business and became a wealthy man later in life. He had a wine shop and late rhe became the owner of the only brewery in Pakistn. My mother never worked on a job but she did a lot of voluntary social work. I have two brothers.

Q. Which kind of education did you receive insid eyour family? What were the main restriction or values  you was taught to beleive in?

There was a great emphasis on truth in the family. Truth was always rewarded so that it was easier to speak the truth rather than lie. We were taught to be very frugal. My father was constantly switching off the lights in the house. because I didn't go to school, I had a private tutor.  At 13, I gave my Punjab  Matriculation Exam privately. At 15 I went to Kinnaird College for women in Lahore and graduated from there.

Q. What was the first book you've read? And how did you get it?

The first book I read was "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. This was given to me by my private tutor on my eleventh birthday. It mad eme fall in love with reading and books.

Q. Bapsi, you belong to Parsi community, ca you tell me more about Parsi?

The Parsis moved to Gujarat as refugees in the 10th century from Persia, some of them spread to other parts of India, and my ancestors travelled north to the Punjab. At that time, what is now Pakistan, was part of the British Indian Empire. There are still about 3,500 Parsis in Pakistan. At the time of the partition, those Parsis who happened to be in the part of  India that became Pakistan, stayed there.

Q. How did you and your family live the Pakistani  Indipendency. That time you was a child, but big enough to understand  the brutality of death. What were the  thoughts  inside a little child in front of the tragedy of death, war, riots?

I wasn't very clear about death, but I knew that , what was happening around me, the fires and looting and killing, were evil. I was very frightened by the roar of the mobs.

Q. In your book "Cracking India" you talk about partition and you've chosen the point of view of a child, Lenny. Why? What could have been different in the undertsanding of the book if could have chosen the point of view of a grown up?

I've chosen the point of view of a child because a child sees the world through the eyes of innocence. A child has not yet learned the prejudice of the elders, or how to hate other people or communities. But this child, Lenny's voice, is informed by the adult, sophisticated presence, so the adult is always  there. A child's voice by itself is very tedious.

Q. Parsi use to believe in the Zhoroastrianism, what is your personal relationship with religion?

All Parsis are Zhoroastrians, who fled from Persia at the time of the Arabic invasion. They came to India as refugees. The Parsi are the descendts of the Magi, also referred to in the bible as the Magus, so we are the descendants of the three wise men who followed Christ's star to Bethlem. Zhoroastrianism is one of the first  monotheistic religions. Most Parsis are  very comfortable in the religion to which they belong. I don't believe much in the ritual of religion, but I would never dream of changing my faith.

Q. In one interview you've siad that it has been difficult to be a Parsi in Pakistan, better to be a Parsi in India where you coud be taken as a simple Pakistani. How have you lived your personal identity in the relation with the society?

A Parsi is always more comfortable where there are more Parsis. Since there are about 60,000 Parsis, around the Bombay area in India. I felt embedded in my community whenever I was in Bombay. But as a community in Pakistan, we were not interfered with and we have prospered.

Q. As a Parsi woman  have you ever had difficulties to conquer the literary  field? How did you start publishing your books?

There was no publishing in English in Pakistan. I sent "The Bride" and "The Crow Eaters" to an agent in New York. They tried for two years to find a publisher, but I  got a lot of rejection slips saying that they loved my writing but Pakistan was too remote in time and space for the Western audience to understand, and the books would not sell. They gave up and I self-published "The Crow Eaters" in Lahore. Then a friend sent it to an agent in London. this time, the books was picked up by Johnatan Cape in England and published there in 1980.

Q. Have you ever had problems with your books? I mean with boycotting, censorship or else?

When "The Crow Eaters" was self published in Lahore, it was launched at a hotel. There was a bomb scare and we had to rush out of the hotel. Afterwards, I realized that the Parsi community was very angry, and some Parsi person had phoned the hotel to say that there was a bomb in it. This was the first book to be written about the Parsis and it was very difficult for them to read about Parsi characters and customs. The community, like all small communities , is very secretive and they felt I had revealed too much about it. They felt disturbed that I had written so openly about its customs, values, and religious practices, etc.

Q. Bapsi, you are an American citizen and also a Pakistani one. Yet your American citizenship has made you lost something of your origins? Being an American means also  to be much more considered as a writer?

I am a very popular writer in Pakistan, but being an American has made me a more internationally recognised writer.

Q. Once you've said you wrote your first book secretly. Why? This experience reminds me to the English wirter Jane Austin who used to write secretly on an excercise book hidden under the table clothe, after cooking and before ironing. All this beacuse at that time a woman who was writing was not acceptable. What about you?

I wrote the first book secretly because we belonged to a business family. It was not expected  of me to write. all our friends were business people, and they would have made  fun fo me and thought I would be writing cheap romances. there were hardly any writers in the English language.

Q. Bapsi, you write in English, have you ever thought the possibility to  write in your mother language? Don't you think that choosing a alanguage not yours, can compromis ealso your original point of view?

The Parsis speak Gujarati, which is my first langauge. I also speak Urdu and Punjabi. Since nobody could teach me to read and write Gujarati, the only language I can read and write in is English. English is very commonly spoken in the subcontinent, and I consider it an Indian language. I have no problems describing the cultures I'm familiar with in English. I don't think I lose anything by writing in English.

Q. In your novels you've always represented your original culture. To you is impossible to set aside from it?

It is much easier for me to write about people in the Indian subcontinent because when i write about them I am writing from  within. But with "An American Brat", I have changed the geographical location of my work and also written about American characters.

Q. How is the present situation of Pakistani or Indian women? Which are their possibilities to achieve a position as a writer or a poet?

You have to have education, which means your family has to have money to provide youwith education. You have to have time in which to write and dream. Because writing does not involve interacting  with men or going outside the house, it is an acceptable profession for women in India and Pakistan.

Q. Once you've said that certain books can be written only by women. What did you want to mean?

A woman's experiences can only be translated by a woman or maybe by gay men. Women can deal more easily with emotions and their writing is more intuitive and compassionate.

 Bapsi Sidhwa Home Page

Valentina A. Mmaka

Alice 2002