Sandhya Mary , whose novel, Maria, Just Maria (translated from Malayalam into English by Jayasree Kalathil), is on the longlist for JCB Prize for Literature , discusses the challenges of fitting in, the celebration of everything ‘not normal’, and why she believes time is not something that needs to be ‘utilized’. Excerpts from an interview: After reading Maria, Just Maria, categorizing it as satire, magical realism or something else is not easy. How would you describe your novel? Categorizing Maria.
..isn’t easy for me either.
However, I would say Maria...
is basically about the entrenched ‘normal’ vs ‘abnormal’ binary that has defined our society for ages. If a person deviates even slightly from society’s prescribed definition of ‘normal,’ they risk being tagged and branded as ‘abnormal.’ And sometimes, a person’s entire life can become a struggle to fit in! Ours is a deeply conservative society and one is taught from birth to adapt and fit in.
You are not even given a chance to understand your true personality. Maria..
. subtly satirizes these societal systems, exploring the politics of our family, social and religious structures. Where did the urge to write come from, the storytelling inspiration that gave us Maria.
..? Maria.
..was never meant to be a literary work.
I started it as a series of notes, maybe to decipher my mind, to know how ‘crazy’ I was or how ‘crazy’ I would go...
It started long back and for some years, I didn’t write an.