By Our Special Correspondent
SHILLONG: The Bookmark Sahaki offers book lovers of Shillong a cosy little space for book release events. Authors of different genres have come and read bits and pieces of what they consider to be the gems of their creative expressions.
This time the author is US-based Nina Harkness who has her roots in Shillong. The release function was quite an extraordinary experience. Nina’s mother, Bluebell Wason Marbaniang, founder of Step by Step School, proudly released her daughter’s book.
Nina said, “This book is for you Mum.” What a poignant moment it was! And yes the book is a fiction, Nina says, but hints that it is also strikingly close to real life events.
As Nina read about the protagonist Ramona’s tryst with a fur stole brought to their bungalow by one of those roving Pathans, Kong Bluebell rummaged into a plastic bag, took out the stole and wore it.
“It’s over fifty years old and I paid quite a royal sum for it even at the time. It cost Rs 400,” she narrated with pride and joy.
Kong Bluebell was dressed in a Bhutanese ‘Baku’ since the novel is set amidst the hills of North Bengal, now a strife torn region but once the favourite haunt of tea planters and managers.
When asked what inspired her to write A Sahib’s Daughter, Nina said she had penned down her thoughts since 1986 and the plot was all figured out but she did not have the time to actually complete her manuscript.
“I wanted to dedicate the book to my parents but when my father died two years ago and I had not progressed beyond the first few chapters, I decided that I was going to complete the book at least for my mother,” Nina said her eyes welling with tears.
She wrote the book in two months flat producing 76,000 words. A Sahib’s Daughter, published by Tollymoore Publishing, USA was released in the USA in 2011. The book has already won rave reviews from established authors like
Barbara Miller and Jean Bricknell.
A resident of Naples, Florida, Nina Harkness lives and works there. She has two children, a son who works for the US Government and daughter who just graduated from law school.
“The publishers showed me several cover designs but most of them looked like adverts for Lipton or Brooke Bond tea. Finally my daughter, Laura Harkness said she would give it a try. It has come out so well. The cover shows a young lady who is about to venture into the beckoning mountains,” Nina explained.
A Sahib’s Daughter takes readers on an intriguing journey as three generations of women grapple with secrets, scandal and passions of the heart during the post-Raj Indian era.
Nina weaves her story around the life and times of the great era of the Tea Planters and Managers and their imposing lifestyles with a retinue of servants and cooks to cater to their every need.
This was an era of change as well because the colonists now opted to marry Indian women whom they would earlier romance with and leave behind with a brood, that had no father to call their own.
The book also ventures into the intricate psyche of the Anglo Indians of the time and their worldview which was unattainably British (firangi) yet pragmatically Indian.
In the 60’s and 70’s Anglo- Indians were often torn between these two complex worlds and struggled to straddle the two.
A Sahib’s Daughter will soon be available in paperback at the Bookmark Sahaki. Currently it is also available through Junglee.com and Amazon.com.