Anuja Chauhan’s latest book, Baaz, looks at human emotions against the dramatic backdrop of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. By Angela Paljor
With an Army background, the author of four-bestselling novels, Anuja Chauhan, has tapped into it for her latest Baaz. The story revolves around a farm boy from Haryana, who is ecstatic about defending his county as part of the Indian Air Force. The backdrop is the 1971 India-Pakistan war where the protagonist falls in love with a pacifist, sister of a dead soldier, who makes him question the essence of nationalism. “I found it really fascinating to write about fighter pilots as they need split second reflexes, full control of themselves while working under intense pressure as it’s a life-threatening job. I have always wanted to write a book about the defence services but only when I knew that I could write it well did I go for it. Also, we have a lot of books and popular fiction around the Army and not so much about the Air Force. Personally, it is a subject that has a very remote connection with my experiences. My father retired when I was only 13, my memories are of a child and since I have written it from the point of view of a male fighter pilot, it required a lot of research,” shares Chauhan.
“The book revolves more or less around a cantonment. I had conversations with retired and young pilots, read a lot about the military, issues regarding genocide and things that happened in Bangladesh and along the borders this side. The take is essentially military, so I have had first person accounts,” she adds.
The romance angle can’t be ignored as it brings the moment of epiphany to the male protagonist, who is thrilled by the idea of glory and adventure rather than realising the desperation of the short yet a costly war. Chauhan says, “When you’re in a dramatic situation, where the stakes are high and your adrenaline is up and pumping, your hormones stir and you do tend to fall in love. It’s like how children always fall in love when they are giving their class XII boards, when they are supposed to study. I think that the bonds people make in such situations is strong because what you are experiencing together is so intense. The whole idea of love and war play out together.”
Talking about the shift in her writing from female-oriented themes to one that is dominated by a young man with charms that wow everyone around the cantonment, Chauhan welcomes it as a new experience. Says she, “Every author does what the narrative demands. This book is more about boys and I think it was refreshing as I had enclosed myself in a female world. Baaz has fast machines in a fast moving world, all set in the backdrop of a different decade altogether. Doing this, I have tried to challenge myself to try something different.”
Chauhan started her artistic journey from a creative writer at James Walter Thompson to a renowned novelist. “I wrote advertising copies for 17 years and while I enjoyed my job very much, there were a lot of constraints on what I could write. I wanted to write with more freedom and not limit my imagination. I started writing novels as an escape from the frustration I gathered working in advertising.”
Chauhan’s novel Battle for Bittora will soon be on screen. As of February, the film is in its pre-production phase under Rhea Kapoor, who is producing it. Chauhan says, “I am excited about it but I am not really sure when it will happen.”
Chauhan, however, is critical about writers who only think about their work as a possible screenplay material.“I just feel that a book is a complete creative piece of work. It is not a ‘kunji’ or a screenplay. When one reads a book it should give a complete experience from your descriptions to the dialogues, and there should not be a need to see the film. When you write a book you write a book and not a blueprint for a movie. I don’t condone things like writing a book just to be made into a movie.”