Vikram Tyagi discusses ‘Quarantine’ a recently released collection of gay themed short stories with its Indian American writer Rahul Mehta. The stories and characters explore the lives of young Indian gay men in the United States- how their ethnicity and their sexuality interweave into riveting narratives.
Rahul Mehta
When did you first think of writing a book on the lives of the Indian-American gay men in the US?
In terms of writing, work that tells more explicitly with gay characters developed slowly over time. Probably the first time I wrote a gay character, I felt this works a lot better for me in terms of quality. This is something I feel more passionately about. It was nothing planned. All the stories grew organically.
The work is not driven by narrative or plot, instead by language.
What inspired you to write such stories in particular?
I am very much a line by line writer. I never sat down to say that I’m going to write a story. For me, the story blooms out of this first line and after some time, I do start thinking about the plot. But, I hope, that the plot grows out of characters. I do draw a fair amount from personal experiences as well.
The themes of homosexuality and Indian values have been intricately weaved throughout. How autobiographical are these stories?
The work is definitely not autobiographical. I am very much resistant to the label ‘autobiographical’ because that gives people the impression that the stories are somehow true, but they are not. They are very much fiction. But, having said that, they are definitely shaped by personal experiences. It’s very easy for readers to wrongly conflate the characters with me because we do share a lot of similarities on a superficial level.
Which is that one character among all stories that you relate yourself the most with?
May be the character in “The Cure”. He is a little bit neurotic. What the character struggles with has to do with social justice, enormous disparity between the haves and the have-nots. What the character also struggles with is the guilt he feels in having a certain level of privilege. His way of dealing with it is almost anarchist sort of way. I hope he characterizes me or sets something which I feel.
Pick one story from your book which is also closest to your heart.
Actually, “The Cure” is also my favorite story. I like the plot but what I really like about it is the language, tight minimalist kind of words. What the story is trying to do is say a lot by saying little.
How difficult has it been for you to be a gay and an Indian-American living in the US? Is it a double whammy?
Yes! It was a double whammy. We grew up in West Virginia. In both senses, I felt like an outsider. When we first shifted to the town, there were only two South-Asian families living in a twenty mile radius. Largely, the population is white. Growing up brown skin in this place sort of put me on the outside. I didn’t come out as a gay person till I left the town.
How far do your characters fit within the notion “American Dream”?
I am really interested in characters who are, first of all, on the outside. Characters who struggle, who are lost and don’t really know their place in the world. These are the characters who make mistakes and don’t always behave in the best way. My characters are very much on the outside of the “American Dream”.
What was the reaction you received from your friends and family members on your debut book “Quarantine”?
I don’t think most of them have read it. Partly because it’s not out in the US yet. Most of my relatives in India now know about the book but I don’t know if they are going to read it. Actually, it really doesn’t matter.
What’s your take on the state of gay literature in India?
I have to be honest, I don’t know a lot about the state of gay writing in India. It’s interesting for a lot of the period I was writing this book, I was trying really hard not to read things that I felt might influence me too much. I avoided a lot of things that I ordinarily be voracious about. I’m, of course, incredibly curious about gay Indian literature. Now that my book is done, I can spend a little more time reading.
Who is your favourite gay/lesbian author?
There is this writer called Scott Heim. He wrote a book several years ago called “Mysterious Skin”, that was amazing. His third book which came out sometime back, “We Disappear”, I think is phenomenal and thought it didn’t get the amount of attention it deserved.
Despite the legalization of same-sex relationships in India by the Delhi High Court, a gay professor from Aligarh Muslim University committed suicide for he was publicly humiliated on the grounds of sexuality. Your comments.
It’s deeply upsetting. It’s particularly shocking to me that it could happen in the context of an academic institution. Academic Institutions are where ideas can be explored. Where the idea is very progressive or very conservative, they all should co-exist. There are Universities even in the US where things like these happen. It’s not so long ago when ‘Mathew Shepherd’ was beaten within inches of his life and tied to a fence and left there to die for the next few days.
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great collection of short stories ! enjoyed reading… and so did my friends.