Debut novelist says he is making up for Indian writers' neglect of science

CHENNAI: The critics' comments seemedto weigh quite heavily on debut author Manu Joseph's mind at the launch of hisbook Serious Men' in Chennai on Thursday. "It's been described as a very malenovel', another review talked of the relentless male gaze'. One reviewer evencalled it sexist, misogynist'," Joseph told the audience at the British Councilwhere the reading was held. "The two central characters are men," he conceded."But I worked really hard to create Oparna, the female character, whoseobservations on a science institute full of men are quiteinteresting."It took Joseph three years and many drafts to write the book, which created ripples this April when publisher John Murray reportedly bought the UK Commonwealth rights for £100,000 at the London Book Fair. "I finished my first draft and realised that it was a gigantic review of the book that was in my head. I'm a journalist and comment a lot, and that's what I had done. So I started again and worked on characterization," he said. "As a journalist you have boundaries of language, of facts... Here, you have to redefine your boundaries while writing a novel." Joseph's book,published in India by HarperCollins and already translated into German, Dutch,French and Serbian, is about a brilliant scientist, Arvind Acharya, and hispersonal assistant Ayyan Mani. "Today, scientists are asking the questions thatphilosophers did, like when did time begin, and say they have the answers. Noone can question them since they throw jargon at you. I thought it would behilarious to question the scientist, have his personal assistant asking the samequestions a scientist does," said Joseph.Joseph, who grew up inChennai and now lives in Mumbai, said he chose to set his story in a scienceinstitute as most Indian writers tend to leave science out of their novels."Science and technology is such a huge part of our lives but writers havecreated a world that ignores science," hesaid.