Award-winning copywriter and novelist Vedashree Khambete-Sharma talks to us about her latest novel 'What Will People Think?' and reflects on how Indian culture has changed for women since the 1970s.
Vedashree Khambete-Sharma works in advertising in Mumbai, and in the course of her 18-year copywriting career, she has won both Indian and international awards for her work, including a Cannes Lion. What Will People Think? is her fourth novel and the first to be published in the UK. What Will People Think? was published by Atlantic Books in November and is also available from the Suffolk Libraries catalogue.
My parents had several Marathi books at home, but my earliest exposure to English ones came with the Childcraft set of books. Those were pretty expensive in the 80s and 90s and we were a middle-class family, so buying the whole set was out of the question. But my mother knew I really enjoyed reading, so she struck up a deal with a local bookstore owner, who allowed her to buy the 15 Childcraft books, not together as a set, but one by one, over 15 months. She would also buy me second-hand books from roadside bookstalls – they had a system where you could read and return the books and they’d return your money, after taking a small “reading fee”. So I grew up always having something to read, but not necessarily being surrounded by books.
It’s been rather a roller coaster ride, pardon the cliché.
My first publishing opportunity came knocking on my door, without me having to lift a finger. I used to write a personal blog some 10 years ago, when the internet was a nicer, safer place. An editor at one of India’s well-known publishing houses read my posts about my job and friends and the shenanigans we got up to in the office. She got in touch, asking if I’d like to write a novel set in advertising. I said yes, she offered me a ridiculously tiny advance. I pitched the book elsewhere, Hachette picked it up and a few months later my first novel came out. Just like that.
Then my next novel got turned down by pretty much every major publishing house. I was in the wings for a whole year, waiting for the last editor – at HarperCollins – to say no before I threw in the towel and self-published. But then, she ended up loving my book. And that’s how books 2 and then 3 happened.
What Will People Think? was actually supposed to be book 5. But book 4 had a similar fate to book 2 – no takers. Then, one editor said yes, I signed the contract and promptly got ghosted.
So yes, the last eleven years have had their ups and downs.
With What Will People Think? though, the experience has been uniformly positive. Like something out of a dream, really. I was advised by a fellow author to get an agent, which after a few short weeks I actually got – I’m told the actual process takes months, so this was the first surprise. Then, just as quickly, Corvus bought the book, which was surprise number two. I think it comes from having the right people champion your book. Both my agent Judith and my editor Sarah love Austen. They got what I was trying to do with this book and I think that made all the difference.
My writing routine is erratic at best - I think that goes with having a full time job and a child. It’s difficult to say, okay, I’m going to write for an hour daily, from this time to this time, and then stick to it. Life happens. A meeting is rescheduled. A school notebook can’t be found. So I find it best to write whenever I can. Which, as a copywriter, doesn’t happen daily. It can’t. Neither do I get huge swathes of undisturbed time, when I can immerse myself in my writing. But whatever time I do get to write, during that time I’m fully focused. If it’s twenty minutes, half an hour, so be it. I just sit and write. Writer’s block is not a luxury I can afford.
On paper, it’s an adaptation of Pride & Prejudice set in 1970s Mumbai. But it’s more than that. It’s a commentary on women’s place in society and family in India. It’s about sisterhood and friendship and community. It discusses colourism and independence, love and marriage and everything attached to them, both good and bad. It takes you to places you’ve never heard of, leave alone read about.
Oh, and it’s funny too.
I’ve had footnotes in all my books. They were inspired by Sir Terry Pratchett, who used footnotes in his Discworld series, both as a narrative device as well as for world-building. My books generally tend to tell readers about something they don’t know, about a world or place they’re not familiar with – advertising, Mumbai, Maharashtra. The footnotes help me set context, while staying tongue-in-cheek, which goes a long way in making them the opposite of academic.
Some things have changed, some not so much. For instance, it’s more acceptable for women to study more, to work, but not all over India, not across social classes. There is still a prevalent feeling that a woman ought to quit her job after her wedding, to focus properly on her household responsibilities. The same is true for dowry – there are still families that would rather save money for their daughter’s wedding, than for her education. Eyebrows are still raised if you marry someone who doesn’t belong to your religion, community, class, caste. It’s a lot more common these days than it was in 1976, and considered more acceptable, but in many cases, couples have to fight their families for quite a long time, to get both sides to agree to such a love match. As for skin, the body positivity movement has made it possible for people to love the colour of their skin, but Indian matrimonial ads still ask for fair brides. So it’s a case of you win some, you lose some.
I’d say we’re definitely evolving as a society, but at a pace that’s slower than ideal.
Not yet, but a girl can dream.
The gods, and my previous publishers willing, absolutely.
I’d love to stick around in the 70s and write another book set there. There’s so much more to explore, so many customs, nuances, traditions to capture. So with any luck, another nice literary romance set in the 70s, I should think.
I’m left-handed, and in middle-school I’d do my homework in my lunch recess, writing with my left hand and eating with my right (in India, we eat with our right hand only).
