Kiran Desai ‘inherited’ triumph

London: With a Booker only third for an Indian, and the youngest for a woman, author Kiran Desai has created some hullabaloo in the literary orchard with her prized novel The Inheritance of Loss. CNN-IBN correspondent Sanjay Suri caught up with the lady in London to share her views.

Sanjay Suri: A many congratulations Kiran. Were you looking at the odds and saying 'no' to the possibility of actually winning a Booker prize?

Kiran Desai: Though I didn't look at the odds, I wouldn't have said 'no'. I was extremely surprised to know that I have actually been chosen for a Booker Prize, one of the greatest literary honour in the world.

Sanjay Suri: When did you start writing this novel?

Kiran Desai: I started on this novel about seven or eight-years ago. It’s been a long, painful and slow journey. But it feels fantastic that the journey was worth it.

Sanjay Suri: Is the novel arising from some real-life experiences of yours or is it entirely fictional?

Kiran Desai: It certainly draws from my own experiences of being an immigrant and moving from India to England and later to the United States. But it automatically led to other stories as well. Stories from the past and previous generations poured into my imagination and I re-created them in the novel.

Stories from other classes of Indians too came into the picture as the novel took its course. To think of all that it brings us much closer than perhaps we would like to think.

Sanjay Suri: You moved from India to England and later to the US. Have all these multi-cultural experiences been enriching you as a writer?

Kiran Desai: It has been extremely enriching for me. This is a book made up of so many different impressions. Yes, it does feels like a privilege in many ways to be able to live like this. There certainly are things that you loose in the process.

It's also strange for a writer because in many ways you feel you can’t tell the entire story. You have to weave a story out of the many little bits. But it's been an enriching experience really.

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