I have a full pot of coffee and a keyboard. It’s time to talk about… India.
In 2007 I lived in India for six months. It was a part of grad school. There were certain things that were supposed to happen, and many things that did. I had several book ideas around that time, but I never felt quite like it was time to write about the place.
You see, the subcontinent and I – we have a complex relationship. How else could it be? India is incredibly complex – incredibly nuanced. A country with such varied languages and religions is necessarily complex. And I have all the corresponding feelings.
I am lonely, crowded, dirty, divine, beautiful, sad, angry, excited, curious, and enamored all at once.
My time there was challenging.
It is more than one book.
Any single experience could be a novella, if not a full-length novel.
*sips coffee*
So what’s changed? Time. Perspective. Self. It would seem it is finally time to talk about everything there. And I feel ambivalent about this book, moreso than my memoir.
I feel ambivalent because of the political situation there – how writers are treated. I feel ambivalent about the strange mixture of peace and violence, freedom and censure. I have no idea what will be in this novel (okay, I have an idea…) but part of me recognizes the very real possibility that I will piss someone off. I may never be able to return.
Seven years ago I didn’t want to. Now I don’t know.
Of course this is all speculation. The book isn’t written. I have no idea how it will be received – by anyone. I have no idea what it will be like. I mean, it is an expat story. Expat stories may be dark where native ones may not. And in a place that feels so different from WASPy America, with an outside perspective, I have an opportunity to talk about both places, highlighting the pitfalls and glories of each.
Let’s hope I do them justice.
With love and coffee,
Alexis
Alexis Donkin is The Destructrix - offering thoughtful mentorship and psychic insight at crossroads moments for the secretly spiritual womxn and baby psychics. Super accomplished in many things and steeped in herbal tea, she's the witchy bestie you've always wanted.
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