New Delhi: Even 40 years ago, Namita Gokhale’s debut novel Paro was considered a game changer. Its eponymous character, Paro, did not have any “redeeming qualities.” She was wicked, manipulative, obnoxious, and sexually liberated—traits that, when it comes to women, are not everyone’s cup of tea.
“The book ensnared me in the first couple of pages. Around page 20, there was a line that smacked me squarely in the face,” said writer and surgeon Ambarish Satwik, who was in conversation with Gokhale at a discussion hosted by A Suitable Agency. The line in question: “They exuded the civet smell of recent sexual activity.”
Published in 1984, Paro was a roaring success. Its ‘illicit’ themes became a topic of discussions in cosmopolitan circles, marking the beginning of Gokhale’s storied career. Four decades later, Paro still commands prime literary real estate—it’s still in print and has been republished as a Penguin Modern Classic. The book’s playful irreverence has turned exalted. Gokhale herself is mystified by its enduring appeal.
“It’s not that great of a book. It’s okay. I’ve written vastly better books,” said the 68-year-old author. “I’m not charmed by it at the moment. I’m not sure why it’s having its moment in the sun.”
Readers remarked they had read Paro in one sitting. It was audacious—moral codes, particularly for women, were unforgiving then. No one was like Paro. “She had the morals of a stockbroker in the middle of a financial crisis,” Satwik said. According to Gokhale, people were shocked and amused.
Critics labelled the book as “pornographic”. At a session at JLF, Gokhale herself mentioned receiving “so much unexpected flack.” Despite this, the book was also praised for its sharp satire of India’s elite.
Paro was irresistible. The book’s narrator, Priya, is both overawed and infuriated by her. But she loves her.
“Priya loved her because she was all that Priya could not be,” Gokhale explained. “In those days, women were very careful about their public personas.”
Despite her current lack of enthusiasm for the book, Gokhale acknowledges that she nailed Priya’s character, describing the tone as “pitch perfect” and Priya’s voice as “never faltering” throughout the text.
Gokhale, who is also the founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival, read selected passages to an audience of devoted book lovers.
“One day I asked her outright how it was that she manipulated people the way she did. Everyone took me for granted, and here she was twisting everyone around her little finger,” Priya says in the novel. Paro’s response is cheeky and delightfully frustrating. “It’s part of being a beautiful woman. It’s a full-time occupation,” she replies.
‘Nobody was Paro’
Paro had “long alabaster legs,” wore “black lace panties,” and, after a few whiskies, “looked as though a bulb had lit up within her.” If Paro was meant to be a revelation to shake up solemn society, she succeeded.
She also symbolised a changing city, with the new replacing the old. “Delhi was on the cusp of change. The genteel old Delhi was giving way,” Gokhale noted.
She recalled conversations at parties with highfalutin society women who would scream at her, “I am Paro.” But none of them were, she said. “They were like bits of Paro. But nobody was Paro.”
There were voices that took up residence in her head while she was writing Paro. Confusing amalgams of Anna Karenina and Betty and Veronica from the Archie comics. They come from vastly different worlds. But they were “fascinated by bad boys.”
While Paro continues to stand the test of time, some of Gokhale’s references do not. The Mills and Boon hero—traditionally a dominant alpha male—no longer captures readers’ imaginations.
As the discussion wrapped up, an audience member asked Gokhale if she considered herself a feminist writer. The Sahitya Akademi award winner does not see herself that way. She identifies as a woman writer writing from a female perspective. “I’m not writing from an ideological perspective. Nothing human is alien to me,” she said.
A couple of audience members weren’t too pleased with her response, with one requesting further clarification. Gokhale insisted she wasn’t a feminist writer and that no ‘isms’ should be attached to her and her work.
The discussion remained focussed on Paro’s enduring legacy. “It was written 40 years ago, but Delhi is still Delhi,” Gokhale said.
(Edited by Prashant)
Namita Gokhale is a hack. Have read Paro and can vouch for the fact that the lurid sex accounts is what keeps the novel going. There is absolutely nothing more to the novel.
This is a tried and tested technique to get famous real quick. As a novelist, she is sub par. Hardly anything of worth came out of her pen.
Writing soft porn is the fast road to stardom in a conservative society. Write about the act of sex, titillate the reader, and become famous.
This is a shortcut – usually resorted to by people who know that they cannot write high quality literature which will transcend generations.
Cheap publicity comes fast but unfortunately, fades soon enough.