:00:00. > :00:25.Jhumpa Lahiri has been garlanded with critical success and prizes
:00:25. > :00:31.since her first collection of short stories. Her reputation rests on
:00:31. > :00:32.quiet, that ticket only observed stories about Indian immigrants
:00:32. > :00:38.adjusting to their new lives in stories about Indian immigrants
:00:38. > :00:42.US. She is dedicated to the craft of writing to the point of sacredness
:00:42. > :00:52.and she creates characters who are hard to forget. Jhumpa Lahiri,
:00:53. > :00:55.welcome to Tour. Thank you. Your literary career is based on your
:00:55. > :01:01.interest in occupation in writing about families and relationships in
:01:01. > :01:07.that. Quite often, characters in consciousness. A pressure to be
:01:07. > :01:07.that. Quite often, characters in things at the same time. To be loyal
:01:07. > :01:15.to the old world — India — free things at the same time. To be loyal
:01:15. > :01:19.the new one, America. I am aware that the questions that you ask
:01:19. > :01:19.the new one, America. I am aware way beyond your experience but I
:01:19. > :01:25.also assume that the German for way beyond your experience but I
:01:25. > :01:40.London? Very much so. I always felt is your experience as the daughter
:01:40. > :01:47.London? Very much so. I always felt person, as a child, very much, it
:01:47. > :01:54.frustrated me. It is something I continue to feel as an adult but I
:01:54. > :02:09.write about. I think it is something think, now that I am also a writer,
:02:09. > :02:10.write about. I think it is something quite universal — that sense of
:02:10. > :02:16.division and sent of betraying a part of yourself or people you love
:02:16. > :02:26.in order to forge a new identity. collection, Interpreter of Maladies.
:02:26. > :02:30.What was extraordinary for me was that there was a quietness to them
:02:30. > :02:32.which is to do with your style of writing which we will talk about. At
:02:32. > :02:41.the heart of the stories, there writing which we will talk about. At
:02:41. > :02:49.quite explosive events. What happens of these relationships — secrets and
:02:49. > :02:54.not told all talked about in the first story, a couple talking about
:02:54. > :02:57.the loss of the child. A woman in the title story, Interpreter of
:02:57. > :03:03.Maladies, revealing the secrecy the title story, Interpreter of
:03:03. > :03:10.the paternity to a complete stranger who is besotted with her. This idea
:03:10. > :03:14.of the explosions that occur within human relationships is something
:03:14. > :03:17.that you are drawn to. Can you say something about that? Writers are
:03:17. > :03:30.drawn to these moments that are something about that? Writers are
:03:30. > :03:33.resonant in the context of ordinary lives. It is not always dramatic
:03:33. > :03:38.revelations can take place. The events where things can happen,
:03:38. > :03:42.revelations can take place. The profound decisions can be made.
:03:42. > :03:46.revelations can take place. The found moments of clarity, lucidity,
:03:46. > :03:50.ordinary moments and that interests can happen in subtle moments or
:03:50. > :03:50.ordinary moments and that interests me. There is something that writers
:03:50. > :04:00.are always looking for — locating me. There is something that writers
:04:00. > :04:01.are always looking for — locating to do... It feeds very well into
:04:01. > :04:12.your preoccupation with what happens to people who are dealing with one
:04:12. > :04:15.culture and imposing another one on it? I am interested in it the lack
:04:15. > :04:23.of community and the search for daughter of immigrants, I was keenly
:04:23. > :04:32.aware of how hard my parents had to building one person at a time —
:04:32. > :04:39.literally. My memories begin in iLife in the US but I know they
:04:39. > :04:43.literally. My memories begin in through that here as well. The Thais
:04:43. > :04:49.that they created in the new world. —— the relationships. What it meant
:04:49. > :04:55.to them to have something or someone lend a room or cook a meal or invite
:04:55. > :05:00.them over for supper. These things took on meaning and resonance that
:05:00. > :05:05.have lasted for half a century. These are things that I will never
:05:05. > :05:12.forget. When they moved to America, when I was two, they went through
:05:12. > :05:20.this process again. And that I remember more clearly. How few their
:05:20. > :05:22.friends were at the beginning. Just how you could count on one hand
:05:23. > :05:25.friends were at the beginning. Just people they knew and trusted and
:05:25. > :05:33.could speak to in their language. Slowly, that grew and I witnessed
:05:33. > :05:36.that process. It fascinated me Slowly, that grew and I witnessed
:05:36. > :05:39.that process. It fascinated me because I knew that each person
:05:39. > :05:51.owned in some way. —— earned. Can owned. Each point in connection
:05:51. > :06:01.owned in some way. —— earned. Can you say something about chronicling
:06:01. > :06:09.matters. Well, I think otherwise life... What is it that? I feel
:06:09. > :06:14.matters. Well, I think otherwise has to hold on to certain things
:06:14. > :06:20.because there is so much of that is happening and it is all slipping
:06:20. > :06:26.course, but when you write something away. I think writing is away to
:06:26. > :06:27.course, but when you write something you enter into a finite, it temporal
:06:27. > :06:34.space. A story may take an hour you enter into a finite, it temporal
:06:34. > :06:37.12 hours or 12 days or 12 years you enter into a finite, it temporal
:06:37. > :06:42.112 years — whatever ditties — there is a beginning, a middle, and end.
:06:42. > :06:49.It is an artificial construct — fiction. I think it is a way to
:06:49. > :06:57.isolate time, to isolate experience, In, it is not meant to chronicle
:06:57. > :07:02.anything in that it is not true In, it is not meant to chronicle
:07:02. > :07:08.accurate, what I am writing, they are stories and they are inventions
:07:08. > :07:14.and they are all sorts of filters so it's not that I don't feel I am
:07:14. > :07:23.documenting anything but in a way, yes, in my own imagined, invented
:07:23. > :07:36.way, I do feel that I was compelled to document certain aspects of my
:07:36. > :07:45.family's arrival and slow process of settling into a new world. I was at
:07:45. > :07:48.Interpreter of Maladies, in the context of your fourth book, The
:07:48. > :07:56.generational saga but rooted in context of your fourth book, The
:07:56. > :08:09.at varying revolution in India. politics of India and the politics
:08:09. > :08:10.at varying revolution in India. There is. I thought, this is a germ
:08:10. > :08:36.Brothers is executed by the State There is. I thought, this is a germ
:08:36. > :08:39.Brothers is executed by the State and consequently that people react
:08:39. > :08:42.to and describe their feelings about that then and how it impacts on
:08:42. > :08:45.to and describe their feelings about other characters. I wonder if you
:08:46. > :08:53.could say a little bit first about that social and political context.
:08:53. > :08:58.Why you were keen to look at that? I think that The Namesake similarly
:08:58. > :09:08.something I felt at once close to and extremely removed from and
:09:08. > :09:16.Ingrid. In that this execution that I... That inspired the novel really
:09:16. > :09:22.did happen. —— removed from and ignorant. It was very close to my
:09:23. > :09:29.paternal homes that it happen. I heard about it — the same period,
:09:29. > :09:35.1971 that a lot of things obviously were happening around those years
:09:35. > :09:46.but the point is, I felt that on the one hand, so very, very ignorant of
:09:46. > :09:50.this powerful, violent disturbing upsetting things on the other side
:09:50. > :09:55.of the world but not just any other side of the world but the other
:09:55. > :09:57.of the world but not just any other of the world with a precise place
:09:57. > :10:01.without my parents came from and what they left behind in a place
:10:01. > :10:09.that I was continually visiting throughout my life as well. When I
:10:09. > :10:15.picture the neighbourhood — I know me could teach it because I was
:10:15. > :10:22.picture the neighbourhood — I know the neighbourhood, I spent months a
:10:22. > :10:27.key related months, years perhaps, in that neighbourhood at this point
:10:27. > :10:32.— so I felt at once close and far and I wanted to know what had led to
:10:32. > :10:44.this execution and why. What was the and I wanted to know what had led to
:10:44. > :10:48.this execution and why. What was the something so horrific — a young
:10:48. > :10:51.this execution and why. What was the 's execution, a family lined up
:10:51. > :10:54.this execution and why. What was the watch. I wanted to ask about the
:10:54. > :10:56.silence that create a pit to killer atmosphere in families. The real
:10:56. > :11:02.terms to discuss things. Why is atmosphere in families. The real
:11:02. > :11:08.something that has become so potent in your novels? It feels like it
:11:08. > :11:17.drives the atmosphere so powerfully. I do not know. I am interested in
:11:17. > :11:25.communications, I think, and the difficulties, the challenges that it
:11:25. > :11:35.will have, especially in intimate relationships — big Dave romantic or
:11:35. > :11:42.romantic or familial. I was very, very big like and and scared, I
:11:42. > :11:42.romantic or familial. I was very, a very shy child, extremely shy
:11:42. > :11:52.child, and I was very connected a very shy child, extremely shy
:11:52. > :11:58.my parents and they were sort of all they knew — they were my world and
:11:58. > :12:00.it was hard for me to make friends at school. It was hard for me to
:12:00. > :12:06.trust other people when I was a at school. It was hard for me to
:12:06. > :12:10.trust other people when I was a young. And I do not know why that
:12:10. > :12:16.is. I need to know, in a way, but it did lead the two books and books led
:12:16. > :12:28.me to writing and when I started writing, which I started as a very
:12:28. > :12:28.younger girl, it was a form of both companionship and filling in for the
:12:28. > :12:38.friends that were not about. And companionship and filling in for the
:12:38. > :12:38.friends that were not about. And fundamental to me. The world of
:12:38. > :12:43.books and learning is central to fundamental to me. The world of
:12:43. > :13:00.books and learning is central to characters are often academics or
:13:01. > :13:07.Lahiri's The Namesake is that a couple marries and it is the wife
:13:07. > :13:09.pursues an academic career at the expense of her family, it has to be
:13:09. > :13:15.said. That world of academia is expense of her family, it has to be
:13:15. > :13:19.that is captured remarkably well. I feel these are people that even
:13:19. > :13:23.though I do not know that many academics, I feel they are kind
:13:23. > :13:32.though I do not know that many howls of mine. I wonder how you
:13:32. > :13:34.though I do not know that many really, really well? The campus
:13:34. > :13:40.though I do not know that many the University of Rhode Island was a
:13:40. > :13:47.sort of playground, my open space. I think that it has a particular
:13:48. > :13:56.significance for me I suppose for my entire family, because I think for
:13:56. > :14:03.an immigrant, because when one legitimate reason to be there, there
:14:03. > :14:09.are no connection, there is no family, there is no history, there
:14:09. > :14:12.is no past, you know, you just arrived and you have to move forward
:14:12. > :14:16.that there is nothing in it the arrived and you have to move forward
:14:16. > :14:23.will stop there is no back. And arrived and you have to move forward
:14:23. > :14:33.Rhode Island, this was the one thing the work that one does, in my family
:14:33. > :14:39.I felt they gave my family are real I felt they gave my family are
:14:39. > :14:39.legitimacy because I knew that somewhere in the back of my mind we
:14:39. > :14:49.were there because my father did somewhere in the back of my mind we
:14:49. > :14:54.were there because my father did important in that place. And that
:14:54. > :14:56.was the sole link, in a way, because otherwise you live in this world in
:14:56. > :15:08.memory is at least — the presence of otherwise you live in this world in
:15:08. > :15:08.memory is at least — the presence of my family was either not recognise
:15:08. > :15:13.or actively questioned sort of, my family was either not recognise
:15:13. > :15:24.AU doing here is Mac why are you even to remember that. I was aware
:15:24. > :15:28.of the lack of connection and I even to remember that. I was aware
:15:29. > :15:30.very aware of the lack of past, even to remember that. I was aware
:15:30. > :15:35.history, both personal history, even to remember that. I was aware
:15:35. > :15:44.more general history. I was acutely aware of that. Because my parents
:15:44. > :15:55.had lived a very intense history. independence, my father was born in
:15:55. > :15:59.1931 and left India in 1964. Those were extraordinary years in Indian
:15:59. > :16:12.history. Let's talk about your first novel. The central idea behind it,
:16:12. > :16:17.it is to do with the tension between an old culture and getting used
:16:17. > :16:19.it is to do with the tension between new one, and it is embodied in the
:16:19. > :16:26.name. The two main characters give to the protagonist in this story.
:16:26. > :16:32.There is a distinction in Ben Cawley culture between a pet name and your
:16:32. > :16:35.good name. Your name is your pet name, isn't it? Is that what made
:16:35. > :16:40.you think you wanted to explore name, isn't it? Is that what made
:16:40. > :16:43.through the central idea? In fact, no, the seed for that book was a boy
:16:43. > :16:55.I met once. In Calcutta. The name no, the seed for that book was a boy
:16:55. > :17:01.I met once. In Calcutta. The name struck me. I wanted to know why
:17:01. > :17:02.I met once. In Calcutta. The name that. That was the seed for the
:17:02. > :17:18.that material, the boy was a boy that. That was the seed for the
:17:18. > :17:19.that material, the boy was a boy born and raised in Calcutta, and
:17:19. > :17:26.eventually that changed, and he became a born —— K Boyd warned and
:17:26. > :17:35.raised in America. That added a whole new dimension and tensions to
:17:35. > :17:38.the story. In that sense, ES, the competitions of naming, the fact
:17:38. > :17:44.that my pet name became my good competitions of naming, the fact
:17:44. > :17:46.by a series of strange mishaps and Miss Communications. What is your
:17:47. > :17:55.good name? I have to. My mother Miss Communications. What is your
:17:55. > :18:02.I was born, in the hospital, the city of London maternity Hospital,
:18:02. > :18:22.was unable to choose between the two considering. So she put both of
:18:22. > :18:29.certificate. It is a very long official name. When my sister was
:18:29. > :18:38.born, my younger sister, my mother mistake and the confused in the
:18:38. > :18:39.born, my younger sister, my mother way, so she had it all set. So my
:18:39. > :18:49.has the good name and the pet name, character in the novel, in that
:18:49. > :18:57.has the good name and the pet name, and feels, as do so many of my
:18:57. > :19:01.parents' friends children, the acute by vocation in terms of their very
:19:01. > :19:10.world of their family, the world pet name being used at home, by
:19:10. > :19:16.world of their family, the world that their family creates, and
:19:16. > :19:26.thinking about those names in the having a good name in school, in the
:19:26. > :19:28.thinking about those names in the beginning, I was thinking about
:19:28. > :19:36.thinking about those names in the name go—go, and why a boy would
:19:36. > :19:37.thinking about those names in the that name. We should tell the reason
:19:37. > :19:50.why the character in the book has the name is because his father was
:19:50. > :20:00.was holding a book by the Russian writer go—go, and when the book
:20:00. > :20:07.There is a poignancy at the heart of the relationship that you convey in
:20:07. > :20:13.this story. It is lot about seeing for me, there is also a sense of
:20:13. > :20:15.being in a room that is dark and sensing something, and feeling your
:20:16. > :20:21.way around until you locate it. sensing something, and feeling your
:20:21. > :20:30.is a process of locating and then seeing, and what I am trying to
:20:30. > :20:32.is a process of locating and then Thereunder any great writers who are
:20:32. > :20:34.not voracious readers, and I know that you are. I wonder if you could
:20:34. > :20:40.say a bit about the writers who that you are. I wonder if you could
:20:40. > :20:47.even. I certainly turned to writers turn to for reassurance, or confit
:20:47. > :20:48.even. I certainly turned to writers for those things. But also as a
:20:48. > :20:59.guidance. For instruction. I would for those things. But also as a
:20:59. > :21:04.guidance. For instruction. I would say, in terms of short stories,
:21:04. > :21:04.guidance. For instruction. I would have been enormously grateful for
:21:04. > :21:25.is an essential writer for me. With have been enormously grateful for
:21:25. > :21:38.was Thomas Hardy. I read and reread have been enormously grateful for
:21:38. > :21:38.book, I felt somehow that I just needed to be immersed in his world
:21:38. > :21:50.and his novels. I had read him, needed to be immersed in his world
:21:50. > :21:56.course, years ago and I have always loved his work very much. But with
:21:56. > :22:02.this book, I felt that somehow reading and rereading his novels
:22:02. > :22:08.while I was writing the book made it seem possible, that I could write
:22:08. > :22:13.impossible for a long time. So I was grateful for that. You enjoy that
:22:13. > :22:18.success immediately, as soon as grateful for that. You enjoy that
:22:18. > :22:23.collection of short stories one grateful for that. You enjoy that
:22:23. > :22:36.the Pulitzer Prize. I wonder whether you are more at ease with it now. I
:22:36. > :22:44.felt then, as I feel now, I feel detached. I feel grateful because it
:22:44. > :22:50.has enabled me to continue writing difficult for me. But apart from
:22:50. > :23:13.unrecognised. It is essential for that, I feel very strongly that
:23:13. > :23:13.unrecognised. It is essential for say. It is the only way it can
:23:13. > :23:31.all comes from. I know that is where say. It is the only way it can
:23:31. > :23:39.all comes from. I know that is where it comes from. And so I have to
:23:39. > :23:39.maintain that distance. If a book is celebrated all well received, I
:23:39. > :23:46.book. When the book is done, and celebrated all well received, I
:23:46. > :23:48.book. When the book is done, and those things can only come when
:23:48. > :23:55.book. When the book is done, and book is done, I go back to doing
:23:55. > :24:00.what I do. That is thinking, and ideally, writing. And that process
:24:00. > :24:04.requires a very different state ideally, writing. And that process
:24:04. > :24:07.mind. A very different state of mind. And I have to maintain a very
:24:07. > :24:10.clear distinction between those mind. And I have to maintain a very