Your story transpires on the Malabar Express, which you describe through the vivid imagery of a ‘monster with fiery eyes’. Can you tell us about your decision to give the setting of the train a prominent role in the story?

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In this story, I use a train as a primal metaphor to draw the essence of my experience and to delve deep into life’s pursuits. I always enjoy train journeys and the aesthetics they provide. The aesthetic of a train journey is not confined to the diverse landscape and other visual splendour, but to people from all walks of life. The idea of people from various social locations travelling on the same train with vastly distinct emotions, aspirations, and motivations is intriguing. The relentlessly running train represents our existence on this planet. Life exposes you to a wide range of experiences, people with untold life stories, and unpredictable events and situations. However, these experiences are fleeting. It will eventually come to a halt, and you may have to leave the train as well. It is not the destination that matters, but how productively you complete your journey. I believe that the train is the best medium for expressing this idea. 

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The central characters in your story, Meeval and Bhavini, are strangers who end up sharing their life stories with one another. Can you speak to the freedom that comes with finding familiarity of people we don’t know and why you chose to let your story transpire between strangers?

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I agree that the two central characters in the story share nothing in common except their gender identity. Their social locations, age, language, and experiential realities are entirely different. However, the process of unfurling lived experiences with a stranger and unburdening their traumatic memories becomes an empowering and liberating act. Such a portrayal helped me to access the idea of actualising solidarity irrespective of differences. In the story, Meeval, an educated young woman carefully listens to the lived experiences of Bhavini, who has been ‘othered’ by the mainstream patriarchal society. By letting Bhavini recollect her traumatic experiences, the story serves the purpose of making the unheard voice heard. The strange becomes familiar and the personal becomes political in this process. The cause of the oppressed or the subaltern community is often misconceptualised as ‘their issues’. By placing two strangers and letting them to listen each other, I tried to emphasise the need to have a shift from ‘their issue’ to ‘our issue’. I believe that such a positionality would advance structural transformation, solidarity and sisterhood. 

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The story unfolds on Christmas Eve. Can you tell us about the significance of this?

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Everything related to Christmas reminds me of hope. The images of light, stars, cakes, Santa and a bustling crowd in the story help me to connect my characters to a brighter tomorrow. In the story Bhavini is driven by a ‘hopeless hope’ and Meeval’s interventions add new hope to her life. This narrative suggests that each of us has the potential to embody the spirit of Santa in someone else’s life. Being a Santa figure doesn’t necessarily involve material gifts, rather it signifies that people themselves can be invaluable gifts, bringing immeasurable value to the lives of others.

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What do you hope readers will take away from this story and how does it speak to the possibility of an otherwise?

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The story emphasises the need to focus more on the intersectional inequalities of the most oppressed. Their lived experiences are either erased or ignored. I hope that the story makes people think more deeply about their positionality towards the gendered subaltern. Moreover, the story highlights the importance of resilience and resistance. Fighting back and transgressing boundaries are important to challenge the unquestionable authority or any form of power. The story does not want its characters to be doomed as victimised, rather it shows how solidarity and sisterhood bring impetus and novel hope to their life. It represents women as agents of social changes, who evolve and redefine themselves. Instead of succumbing to chaos, trials and tribulations, they empower each other and explore alternative possibilities to lead productive lives.

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