A reason to rejoice

Author Preeti Shenoy, who is a mother a two teenagers, deals with teenage problems in her latest novel. It Happens for a Reason

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Somya Abrol

There has to be a logical end to the madness we endure every day. We all like to live on the bare thread that the universe is constantly conspiring to serve us with something better. And hence, “Everything that happened, happened for a reason; everywhere you are today, it’s because of the turn of events of the past,” says one of the best selling women author, Preeti Shenoy, about her sixth book, It Happens for a Reason.

On her Chandigarh visit during a book tour, Shenoy starts off by talking about her latest book, “It’s about a girl who gets pregnant out of wedlock, when she is still a teenager. But, the girl is a very strong character, so she decides to keep the baby. The book starts with her delivering the baby then moves to her son being 15 and her being 34. She then has two unusual careers – she has a dog boarding facility and she’s a gym instructor. ”

Most of Shenoy’s novels, however, have dealt with teenage at one point – be it Life is What You Make it, The Secret Wishlist or the latest one. “Yes, half of them do. But, if you look at my other book, The One You Cannot Have, 80 per cent of it is written from a guy’s perspective. It’s the story of Aman. I bugged a lot of my guy friends while writing that book to know what goes through their minds at different instances. By the end of it, I was thinking so much like a guy that I told my women friends that I might even make a pass at you! About the teenage element, that’s just about 15 per cent of it. In The Secret Wishlist too, the girl’s parents were conservative, which is why she got pulled out of school, she got married because it was integral to the plot.”

About what pulls her to teenage characters, she says, “I feel empathy towards the teens because they have so much pressure from society! In an incident that took place in Bangalore, this 15-year-old girl committed suicide by jumping from the 10th floor of her balcony, because her school issued a letter which said she was caught kissing a boy. A newspaper published that letter. Teenagers already have so much to deal with, without the authorities and the adults intervening. Why do we have this crazy moral policing? It’s the most natural thing to have a crush on someone when you’re a teenager. You don’t have to be crucified or killed for that.”

Being a mother of two – an 18-year-old and a 14-year-old, the writing process is a delightful complication for Shenoy. “My children, especially my 18-year-old son, help me out with some teenage characteristics when I’m unsure of how my character would behave. So, yes, it does help having teenagers at home. That way, writing in first person also becomes easier. I would, however, like to try my hand at third-person in the near future.”

somya@tribunemail.com