Jeet Thayil writes a novel after meeting Malay Roychoudhury. He was shocked to see Malay Roychoudhury in his pauper condition.

A novel take on poetry

Victoria Memorial: Is poetry regaining relevance? Not yet, said poet-author Jeet Thayil during a talk on Day 2 of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, co-organised by the Victoria Memorial Hall in association with The Telegraph, on Tuesday.

Thayil's latest book, The Book of Chocolate Saints, is a novel about poets and he has used some techniques of poetry while writing it.

The world around him may not warm up to poetry yet, but the poet and novelist in Thayil are never at odds. "You bring the same kind of tools and obsession to your writing, only the form is different," said Thayil, who inaugurated the latest edition of Kalam with a self-composed verse, along with three other poets.

"Inaugurating a literary meet with poetry can only happen in a city like Calcutta," said the author of These Errors Are Correct, giving the city a thumbs up.

Thayil read out excerpts from his new book to the eager audience before talking to novelist Sandip Roy about its making.

Thayil had hit on the idea of a book while working on a BBC documentary on the Hungryalist poets of Bengal, especially Malay Roy Choudhury. "The characters literally jumped out at me," he said.

The Book of Chocolate Saints is about a poet, Newton Francis Xavier, who is full of gloom and doom. His partner and muse, Goody Lol, is on the other hand full of hope. "Xavier comes alive with destructive behaviour, a truth about most people battling an addiction," said Thayil, who said he presented his protagonist without any filter.

Xavier's character comes alive in the memories of others, mostly artists and poets of the '70s and '80s in Mumbai. "Xavier is easy to admire from a distance. But you won't like him till the last part of the book," Thayil said.

The other inspiration for the book was the first chapter of Thayil's own Narcopolis.

The book about a "cruel, self-destructive" poet who like Picasso and Ayn Rand elevated his art but led a broken life makes fiction meet non-fiction. Some real personalities like the author's father, journalist-writer T.J.S. George, make their way into the plot that offers readers a taste of dark humour.
"During my journalism days I had covered the murder of a Sikh American, Balbir Singh Sodhi of Arizona. The research that went behind my news report now finds a place in my book," Thayil said.
Speaking about the Mumbai poets of the '70s, '80s and '90s, Thayil said: "These poets were not a generous lot. They never welcomed women and newcomers. I was not even allowed on the fringes."
The conversation was peppered with personal experiences, some of which have been woven into his current book.