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Asian American Heritage Month
"The Death of Vishnu"
With Author Manil Suri
Wednesday, May 9, 2001; 1 p.m. EDT
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage month and talk with Manil Suri, author of "The Death of Vishnu." Praised by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham and excerpts published in The New Yorker, the novel explores life, religion, love and death in modern India.
Suri is a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A first generation Asian American, Suri was born in Bombay and received his bachelor's degree in mathematics at the University of Bombay (1979). He received his master's of science degree (1980) and Ph.D. at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1983. He has been a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County since 1994. He will be featured in the upcoming edition of A Magazine dedicated to Southeast Asian American writers.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Manil Suri: Hello and welcome to everyone. I'm still touring around for this book -- it's amazing how much work goes into promoting a book and getting your message across. Very different from lecturing Calculus, where you might repeat the same topic once every semester -- when I'm on book tour, I find myself reading from my book every evening, and also answering some
questions several times a day. This is a very refreshing change, though -- having the luxury to type out my answers, and read them over before pushing the `submit' button.
Washington, D.C.:
Your book is not only beautiful but beautifully written. How did you come up with the idea of the book? Why did you use Vishnu, which most commonly would be interpreted as the death of the Hindu god. But I was surprised that Vishnu was the name of the dying man. Is Vishnu a common name?
Manil Suri: Vishnu was a real person, who lived in my apartment building. His name was actually Vishnu, which is a common enough name in India. Since so many people in India are named after Hindu gods (I have an uncle Krishan, and my father's name is Ram), when I started writing this story, I didn't even make the connection with the God Vishnu. Rather, I was just writing about a man whose death I had witnessed in 1994, on the steps of the building in which I grew up.
It was while taking a writing course (my first) at the Writers' Center in Bethesda that instructor Jane Bradley (a terrific, terrific writer and teacher) said: `Wait a minute. If you're going to have a character named Vishnu, people will be expecting to hear about the God Vishnu.' That's when I started exploring the mythological aspects of the book, and showing the distance between this man who died, and the god Vishnu, who can never die (he can only go to sleep).
Alexandria, Va.:
How did you get the idea of the apartment building for your book?
Manil Suri: I grew up in a somewhat similar building in Bombay -- though it wasn't quite the same. We shared a big apartment with 3 other families, and had a lot of strife with the neighbors over not only the common kitchen, but also common toilets. There was actually a Short Ganga, a Tall Ganga, a cigarettewalla, a paanwalla, and of course Vishnu. The rest of the characters are made up. A little resemblance, it is true, with the people on the first floor, and the fighting neighbors, but above that, it's all very much fictional. As I was writing the book, it became more and more clear that this was a microcosm of India I was trying to describe, and the challenge was to invent characters that reflected society there.
Vienna, Va.:
Were you writing about your past experiences in Bombay? When did you last visit? What is modern Bombay like these days.
Manil Suri: Having lived away from India for two decades, I found that I really had to focus on things about Bombay that I enjoyed -- things that I do on every visit when I return (I return at least once a year). So I put in Hanging Gardens, and Chowpatty Beach and the exquisite Marine Drive, and mangoes and pomfrets and everything else I miss. I was last there in January, and will be back in the last week of May -- this is the first time in almost 20 years that I'll be back during the summer, and be able to eat my beloved Alphonso mangoes, that are nothing like the awful specimens of mangoes you get
here.
Virginia:
Do you consider yourself a first generation Asian American? Are immigrants from India considered part of Asia?
Manil Suri: I once attended a social group that was supposed to be for Asians and Americans. Afterwards, I got their newsletter which said that their last event had been very well attended -- there had been 30 Americans, 35 Asians, and 1 Indian.
The last time I looked, India was very firmly ensconced in the map of Asia, so yes, I think I qualify as an Asian, even if in this country, people seem to think more of South-East Asians when one uses the term. (As opposed to the UK, where `Asian' generally refers to South Asian (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka). And yes, I am a first generation Asian-American
(as would be, surprisingly, an immigrant from such diverse places as Lebanon, Iran and even eastern Russia).
Alexandria, Virginia:
Dr. Suri:
My dream is to become a college engineering professor. Asian Americans have the stereotype of hard workers who don't complain--which can lead to their exploitation. I have found this true in the corporate world. How do you feel in the Academic world? What types of racial challenges have you faced along your journey? Any advice on becoming a professor? Thanks from a Terrapin.
Manil Suri: Being a mathematics professor, I find that a number of my colleagues are immigrants. So there really hasn't been any discrimination. I suspect this is true in many science, math and engineering academic settings, since so much higher education in these fields attracts foreign graduate students. I have heard it's very different in the corporate world. Certainly, I have been very lucky -- and there really haven't been any racial challenges -- other than the initial shock of coming from a less advanced country and having to deal with a society that suddenly looks very different. But I found people very friendly, and it was not as difficult an adjustment as I thought it might be.
Vienna, Va. :
Congratulations on your book. It's surprising to see a mathematician in the world of literature these days. Although, I'm sure there were many Einstein and such well-known math/science scholars that wrote as well. Had you been writing the book throughout your tenure at UMBC? What do your colleagues and students think about you now?
Manil Suri: I've been writing short stories off and on for most of my tenure at UMBC -- but it was very low-key -- maybe a story every year or so. I started the book in 1995, and it took five years to finish it completely. My colleagues have been generally very supportive. As for my students -- a few of them came to my very first reading, in Baltimore (late Jan). I read out a lot of funny passages, made a lot of jokes, etc -- after which someone asked if I was this funny in class. The students looked at each other. `No' they said, almost in unison.
Delray, Va.:
This might be a very superficial comment, but your book jacket is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Whoever designed it did a superb job.
Manil Suri: Yes, I love the jacket as well. The publisher was quite wonderful in getting my input, etc (for instance, the picture on the spine, of Vishnu's consort, the goddess Lakshmi, was found by me, from the catalog of the Sackler Gallery show `Devi'). I've often been asked who the two lovers on the cover are. I think they could be any of the three couples in the book: Vishnu and Padmini, Vinod and
Sheetal, or Salim and Kavita.
Incidentally, the cover of the UK version of the book couldn't be more different. It's been made to look like a Hindi film (Bollywood) poster -- it has extravagant pinks and oranges and reds, a painted woman smiling at the reader, and flames shooting out of the word `death'. The Indian cover once again uses the photo from the US cover, but there is less decoration, and there's an amazing Michaelangelo-type blow-up of the man's hand dangling in space, like that of Adam reaching towards God.
Arlington, Va.:
Is modern day India very Westernized?
Manil Suri: Well, every time I return, there seem to be more Western influences -- more internet cafes, more cellphones, we even have several McDonalds in Bombay now. But of course, it's probably different in smaller cities -- I was in Madurai last December, and it looked very much like I suspect it must have several decades ago. Even in Bombay (now Mumbai), there are things that never change -- all the technological advances, etc might only affect a certain percentage of the residents, while people like Vishnu might not see much alteration in their existence. In the book, I've tried to concentrate on things that seem to have remained timeless in India -- Hindi movies, for instance, which are still repeating the same plots of thirty years ago, or religious conflicts, which trace their roots back to even longer. I've purposely tried not to let the reader pinpoint the exact year in which the book is set -- it could be the seventies, or the eighties, or the nineties, or the present day.
Washington, D.C.:
How do you feel about anti-Chinese sentiment in America now? And I've noticed that other Asians are getting lumped together in that sentiment. The age old stereotype that we all look the same so just hate all of us? How do you think this will affect the future of Asian Americans here?
Manil Suri: As someone who didn't grow up in this country, my experiences are very different. In India, there are so many different divisions and different levels of discrimination in society: class, skin color, language, religion, community, caste, etc that one often sees instances of much more naked (voluntary) segregation, even hostility between groups. In comparison, the US is much more benign, much more calm, and things rarely get to the stage of physical violence that one might find in other parts of the world.
Although there is always room for improvement in people's attitudes, I think there has been much more progress made here (even compared to some countries in Europe).
Washington, D.C.:
With its enormous variety of languages, customs, religions and cultures, India is one of the most fascinating countries on earth. The only thing I know about your book is what is mentioned in the blurb on the chat page. In your novel, what aspects of Indian life do you focus on, and why did you decide to choose those?
Manil Suri: What I've tried to do is immerse the reader into the experience that is India. When you're there, things come at you from all directions -- there's so much noise and drama and excitement and diversity, that it's sometimes hard to process everything -- it's all very exhilarating, but also disturbing. And then are the subtexts, the hidden layers of meanings in people's actions and day-to-day interactions -- which I've also tried to bring out. But beyond all this, there is some sort of universal humanity that connects us all, even in an exotic locale like India, which is the feeling I'd like the reader to leave with.
Bethesda, Md.:
Indian writers, as you know, are gaining in popularity in the U.S.--which is great for me because I've loved Indian novels for many years! I'm looking forward to reading your book. How do your experiences as an immigrant to the U.S. differentiate your writing from that of writers who either stayed in India or emigrated to, say, England? Thanks.
Manil Suri: Yes, it's amazing the number of terrific books coming from writers of Indian origin. And it's wonderful that people are getting recognized as well -- from Arundhati Roy's Booker prize, to Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer.
If I'd stayed in India, I think I might not have been able to get the dual perspective of looking at a society both from the inside, and from the outside, that my present distance allows me to do. The latter perspective was quite useful in trying to fashion a microcosm of Indian society in an apartment building. More practically, if I'd stayed in India, I might still be living with my parents, in the flat we shared with all the other families, and it would have been really difficult to have the resources and time to write a novel. In terms of migrating to the UK, that's a harder question -- it's possible the book might have come out very similar, perhaps not -- I've only spent a few months living there, so I can't really tell.
Arlington, Va.:
Will you be teaching a writer's workshop anytime? I heard you have written in workshops with Michael Cunnhingham.
Manil Suri: I don't think I will. I much prefer teaching mathematics, for the simple reason that there's only one valid opinion in class there, and that's (usually) the instructors. In a writing workshop, everyone's opinion counts -- which makes a more interesting discussion, but is much harder to conduct if you happen to be the instructor. I actually did try my hand at it at American University recently (just for a single fiction workshop). I approached it with great trepidation, but it turned out to be much easier, and much more fun than I had expected. So who knows, but certainly not any time in the next several years.....
Manil Suri: Well, this was fun. I'd like to thank everyone for joining me and for providing such interesting questions. I'm off on Sunday for more promotion (this time to Australia, Singapore, India, Denmark and Sweden -- literally a round-the-world tour) -- but I will be back in June, and will be giving several readings in the area (June/July).
All my best!
Manil Suri: I will be appearing at the following local venues. Exact times and addresses will be available on my website,
www.manilsuri.com
June 24: Barnes and Noble, Ellicot City/Columbia
June 28: Smithsonian Institute, DC
July 11: Barnes and Noble, Bethesda
July 12: Barnes and Noble, Rockville
July 15: Artscape, Baltimore
Please come.
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