“Are you lost, ma’am?” He takes my face in his hands.
“I came to see the stars at twilight,” I whisper, gazing into his eyes. “Did you know there are three different moments of twilight? Civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight?”
“Is that so? Which one is happening now?” A smile touches his lips.
“Nautical twilight. General outlines are still visible, but the horizon is indistinct—”
“You remember well.”
“I also remembered Star Galaxy.” I press the stone into his hand. “It belongs here, in its home by the sea.”
He tucks the stone into his pocket, then he kisses my forehead, my eyebrows, my cheeks. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come. I was afraid you’d find the perfect man of your dreams, and he wouldn’t be me.”
“How could you think such a thing?” I whisper. “You’re better than any man I can imagine.”
I glance back toward the train. A shadow-face appears in the window, my imaginary man who was once Nathu. He’s barely a wisp of a shape as he raises his hand to wave goodbye.
Up Close and Personal
with the Author
HOW DID THE IDEA FOR THIS STORY COME TO YOU?
I learned of a cousin’s wedding in India and imagined standing squished in a crowd of relatives in a hot Kolkata courtyard. I wondered how I would feel. Fascinated? Happy to be with family? Completely disoriented?
The rest of the story followed quickly. Lina’s far more audacious than I am—I would never invent an imaginary man!
OH, REALLY? THEN HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN RAJA PRASAD?
You caught me! I guess I do have a fertile imagination. When the Pee-wee Herman clone practically drooled on Lina, I couldn’t help rescuing her. The handsome, debonair Raja popped out of my—I mean Lina’s—head.
HAVE YOU KNOWN A MAN LIKE RAJA? WHERE DID YOU FIND HIM?
He’s a composite of every dashing man I’ve seen in the movies. He’s inscrutable (Keanu Reeves), rough-edged (Tommy Lee Jones), sophisticated (George Clooney), sexy (Brad Pitt), and dangerous (Christian Bale), with a touch of the exotic. Phew! As Lina would say, he’s Vin Diesel with hair.
IF WE SAT IN A RESTAURANT, COULD YOU IDENTIFY SHIMMERING THREADS BETWEEN POTENTIAL MATES?
I’d be a terrible matchmaker—I couldn’t see a shimmering love thread if someone dangled one in front of my face. I grew up immersed in science and the laws of physics. My father is a chemical engineer and my mother has a doctorate in science and math education. I broke the mold by studying anthropology and psychology and then pursuing the arts.
WHICH ASPECTS OF YOUR LIFE CORRESPOND TO LINA’S?
I was born in India, but I grew up in Canada. Most of the novel takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I lived for several years after graduating from U.C. Berkeley. I struggled through many boyfriends before finding my husband. We now live in the Pacific Northwest with three cats, a rabbit, and plenty of surrounding wildlife.
DO YOU FEEL THE SAME CONFLICT BETWEEN
CULTURES?
In some ways, yes. I was one of only a few Indian kids growing up in a Manitoba town. Although I made close friends there, a couple of small-minded bullies called me names. I didn’t always feel comfortable in my brown skin.
I also felt out of place when we visited Indian families whose children spoke their mother tongue. My parents sometimes spoke in Bengali to each other, but they never taught me Bengali.
Yet Indian culture infused our lives. My parents were affectionate and demonstrative, as Indian families often are, while my friends rarely hugged or kissed their parents. My parents cooked Bengali food, had close Indian friends, and we returned to India a few times. On weekend mornings we lounged in our pajamas and drank chai (Indian tea with lots of milk and sugar). When I stayed overnight at friends’ houses, I found it strange that everyone got dressed to have a formal breakfast together. What, no tea in bed??
Now that I’ve moved out and established my own life, I have a better understanding of my unusual family background, and I don’t feel much conflict between cultures. I feel like a North American, and yet I’m also proud of my Indian heritage.
YOUR FAMILY DIDN’T TRY TO ARRANGE YOUR
MARRIAGE?
Heck no! My family is much more unconventional than Lina’s. My parents fell in love; their marriage was not arranged. They were adventurous, the first members of their family to seek an independent life in a foreign country.
As such, they emphasized education and encouraged me to excel in my studies, piano lessons, figure skating, swimming, and ballet. Nobody bothered me about getting married until one day, when I broke up with a longtime boyfriend, my mother let slip, “Now you’ll never get married!”
HOW MANY INDIAN WEDDINGS HAVE YOU
ATTENDED?
None actually in India, but I recall a traditional Indian wedding in Canada that was packed with relatives, friends, and children running everywhere. The beautiful bride, decked out in gold jewelry and a red silk sari, trembled with anxiety. Before the ceremony, she ran to the bathroom and threw up.
Within India, there are many different types of wedding traditions. The movie Monsoon Wedding depicts a typical upper middle-class Punjabi wedding, while the wedding in Imaginary Men is Brahmo Samaj, a more reserved Bengali affair.
A few months ago, I attended my Bengali cousin’s wedding in Denver, Colorado. She married an American man from a Roman Catholic family. The couple and a few friends later flew to Kolkata, India, for the Bengali version of the wedding.
THE SCENES SET IN KOLKATA ARE SENSUOUS AND
VIVID. DID YOU DO RESEARCH TO CREATE SUCH A
SEEMINGLY AUTHENTIC SENSE OF PLACE OR DID YOU
RELY ON FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE?
While I did some research to sharpen the details, I relied mainly on firsthand experience. I was born in Kolkata—then called Calcutta—and I’ve returned a few times. A complex, energetic city, Kolkata conjures images of crumbling colonial facades, enchanting beauty, culture, chaotic crowds, traffic, squalor, poverty. Everyone who’s been there has to agree—Kolkata is unforgettable.
THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LINA AND HER SISTERS,
DURGA AND KALI, RING WONDERFULLY TRUE. DO YOU
HAVE SISTERS?
I’m the eldest of five children in a rather unusual family. When I was four, we adopted my younger sister, Nita, from a Cree reservation in northern Manitoba, Canada. She’s the other kind of Indian—Native American.
After my parents divorced and remarried, my father and his Italian wife had a son and adopted two daughters from India. They spend the school year in California and holidays in Italy. So I have three Italian-speaking Indo-American siblings and one Native American sister. Our cultures are all over the map.
WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?
As a child, I typed stories, stapled the pages together, and pasted copyright notices inside the front covers. I guess I inherited my grandmother’s love of writing fiction. A British author, she married a Bengali man and moved to India. My mother, who is Anglo-Indian (half-British, half-Indian), grew up in Kolkata. When my grandmother visited us in Canada, she pretended to edit my drafts. She just scribbled a note here and there in the margin.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
I’m working on an unusual love story, set in Seattle, featuring an Indo-American woman who lives a clandestine, double life. That’s all I can say. It’s a secret! Stay tuned!
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Imaginary Men Page 16