‘A Suitable Boy’ will have a curious sequel: Vikram Seth

Emphasising on the readability of the sequel, Vikram Seth promised that ‘A Suitable Girl’ will be a “curious sequel” as it jumps 60 years.

Aman Kanth

Jaipur: Vikram Seth is one of India’s most popular novelist, librettist and travel writers. A self-proclaimed ‘lazy person’, Seth’s oeuvre includes three best-selling novels – ‘The Golden Gate’ (1986), ‘A Suitable Boy’ (1993) and ‘An Equal Music’ (1999), apart from five volumes of poetry ‘Mappings’ (1980). Vikram Seth appeared to be quite hurried on the Day 4 of DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, where he attended a press conference. Dressed formally in a blue shirt, beige trousers and a brown jacket, Seth’s eyes gleamed with delight, cheerfully obliging his media friends and updating them about his much-hyped project, a sequel to ‘A Suitable Boy’ – ‘A Suitable Girl’, which will be set in contemporary India, unlike the Nehruvian settings of ‘A Suitable Boy’. Expressing his views on the much-delayed sequel, Vikram Seth said that he was looking for an inspiration all this while, “I would happily have written the sequel if I was inspired.” However, Seth added that not all protagonists will be repeated in ‘The Suitable Girl’. “Lata (one of the central character of ‘The Suitable Boy’) will be there, but given the human life expectancy, many of the other characters would be missing. “India has changed so much and yet so little. It will be looking forward and looking backward,” he said. Emphasising on the readability of the sequel, Seth promised that ‘A Suitable Girl’ will be a “curious sequel” as it jumps 60 years. Closing the session by sharing his views on his literary inspiration, Seth said, “Inspiration can be from a scene, a conversation in a bus or Pushkin’s sonnets. It can be anything. I am basically a lazy person. Whenever an inspiration comes, I do try to follow as much as I can.” Now, that’s quite an honest confession by our ‘suitable boy’!