Question: What inspired you to choose the title of your novel and how is it connected to the narrative of amnesia of the protagonist in the story?
Bragadeesh Prasanna: Thank you for such an insightful question. Waterboarding, as you know, is a torture technique in which the victim is subjected to water treatment with a towel or damp cloth in his face. While the body knows it is not drowning, the mind tells that they are drowning. The torture technique depends on the thin strand of time between hope and hopelessness. A space where it is dying and not. Most people’s life flash before their eyes in that time inbetween.
The protagonist and the other two main characters of the novel, metaphorically go through this in-between time where they are hopeful of their future at one point of time only to be go hopeless in others. The novel talks about such self inflicted tortures people go through their life because of the choices they make. The lead character Ved suffers from traumatic amnesia where he had no recollection of major chunk of his life. He is caught in between the hope of the future and the weight of his past which, whether he like it or not, impacts his present and possibly his future. Sara, Ved’s best friend had been waiting for so long for Ved to see her true feelings for him. When she had given up this accident and Ved’s amnesia gives her a hope to start their relationship afresh. She does all she could to reshape his past to fit her narrative she is feeding to Ved. But her conscious keeps gnawing her whether what she does is morally correct or not. Even when things are going well for her, she is afraid of an impending doom. The third character Maya, also goes through such phase where she couldn’t understand Ved’s feeling for her and his trust issues. She grew up in a Tier-2 town with nobody to care for her. She clings on to Ved as he gives her his full attention. While she gets that from him, she wonders whether if that is all she needs from Ved.
The amnesia is a metaphor to the fast moving life of our times. People are getting very comfortable to hide their feelings than tell it aloud. These hidden feelings are forgotten after a while. But the feelings they felt before has impact on their present and future selves. This story is the struggle of these three characters trying to take off the wet towel off their faces and to stop torturing themselves. Whether they succeed or not forms the crux of the story.
Hope I have given a satisfactory answer. We, writers are encouraged by such insightful thought process of the readers. We write in hope to find such minds which resonates with our thoughts and concept. Thanks for being a diligent reader. You are doing the world of literature a great good.
Reflections, Ruminations, Illuminations 