He came to India as a tourist. Intrigued by the culture and people of the country, Swedish writer Zac O’ Yeah decided to settle here. As he launches the sequel to his detective thriller, Mr Majestic, he shares with Riya Sharma that it is acceptable to read about Sherlock Homes and Raymond Chandler but at some time, people would want to read about a detective who eats masala dosa and drinks filtered coffee
In 1990s, Zac O’ Yeah, like many tourists, came to India to travel and got a major culture shock. In his words as he tells us, “People wanted to clean my ears, they were chasing me and contrary to what I experienced in Sweden, people wanted to talk to me even when they did not know me.” One day, while walking on the roads of Connaught Place drenched in sweat, a fortune teller on the roadside told him, ‘You are going to love India and going to keep coming back’. His reaction back then was — No way! little did he know that the random fortune teller had the commandment of the Supreme bestowed upon him as he was bound to come back.
“I stayed here for six weeks and when I went back, I was missing India — the food, people, everything. There was nobody on the streets to talk to, as opposed to India. So, when I went back, it was a reverse culture shock. I started missing India. I left my job and came here to travel for a longer time and then I decided to write about my travels based on India,” he shares.
He adds that when he came to India for the second time, he met his wife, Anjum Hasan and that was the time when he decided that he did not want to go back. He laughs, “She didn’t want to move to Sweden and I also did not want to. So, we decided to settle in Bangalore. Though I had a strong connection with India somehow, may be I was born here in India in my past life and because of karma, I was born in Sweden.”
Talking about Bangalore, on the city where his detective thriller — Mr. Majestic is based on, the writer reminisces, “Back then, it was a backward and small town where everybody knew everybody. Now it has grown into a big town and it is bit chaotic. It is interesting to live in a city that grows in such an uncontrollable manner.”
In 1992, he unknowingly got off a train and started living in an area called Majestic. “I started liking that area. Whenever I went back, I always lent a hotel in that area. It felt like home — chilled out, crazy bazaars, and then it was only after I got married and moved to Bangalore, people warned me and told me that I might get robbed.”
He gets all the more excited while referring to an incident when he was nearly robbed. “Back then, when I was travelling, I had approx `10,000 with me, (which he immediately points out was a lot during that time). I bumped into a gang of robbers who threatened me for money. I got scared, thinking, oh my god, I have 10, 000 in my pocket, and the fattest of them said, ‘Give us twenty rupees’ and I was like , you must be joking. I started laughing and they seemed confused and started looking at each other. I just walked off, they did not even chase me. Even the gangsters in those days were mild. I never felt that is a dangerous area and when people started telling me about terrible things which happened there, then I thought I can write a detective novel based on the area,” he says.
He shares with us in surprise that he was amazed with the fact that nobody had written detective thriller based on that area. “One day, while looking for a detective thriller in a bookshop, I found stories based on New York, london, Stockholm et al. but nothing on Bangalore. Then, I started writing the first book. I think it was the day when I got off the train; I built nostalgia about that place. The great thing about detective novels is that, basically you need to have a murder or a crime in the beginning and at the end, you need to solve it. In between, you can send your detective on a tour of the city to look for clues, which can take him to fancy restaurant, shady bars and slums. Detective novel also becomes an excuse to explore a city, so for me it was like that.”
As the writer was in the capital to launch the sequel of Mr. Majestic, Hari-A Hero For Hire, he shares that he has never written a sequel before. “When you finish a book, the character dies as the book gets over. I created Hari after working for a year on it and if I stop writing, Hari would die. And I think Hari deserves life. That is why; I am working on the third book.”
Hari- the detective is a tout based in Bangalore and he knows everything about the city. “We usually have male detectives who are middle aged and sustain on pizza and beer. If it is a woman, then she would typically be a journalist and a single woman. But, I wanted to bring a different perspective. Hari is a formal tout, who hangs around railway stations and bus stands. In my former years of travel, I met many of them. I keep meeting them; first I found them very annoying, persistent. It would be perfect to have a tout as the detective because he would know about the city. He had connections from all kinds of people, and then I developed that character."
An interesting detail as he shares with us about Hari is that, he believes astrology is scientific. “People do not believe in astrology but he does. He believes as it is based on solid things like motion of starts and planets. And you know, planets cannot lie,” he tells us convincingly.
Though he accepts that this genre is not as respectable as literature, but novels of detective thriller can easily sell million copies. He further tells us that for readers, it is also interesting to have a detective thriller in that own setting and I think every city should have their own detective stories. As he concludes our chat by saying, “It is ok to read about Sherlock homes, Raymond chandler but at some point of time, you would want to read about a detective who eats masala dosa and filter coffee.” We couldn’t agree more.