Achala Moulik joined the Indian Administrative Service after graduation. She has worked in various capacities like Education Secretary, at the Government of India when the national education program ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ was formulated and as Director-General, of the Archaeological Survey of India.

She has published books on international relations, and political and cultural history, along with biographies on Tagore and Tolstoy, four acclaimed novels, and a collection of poetry. Her play Pushkin’s Last Poem was staged in Moscow and Petersburg to a standing ovation. For her contribution to Russian history and literature, Achala received the Sergei Yesenin Prize and the prestigious Pushkin Medal from the Russian President.

Her latest book is Phantom Lovers. The Kolkata Mail correspondent Priyanka Dutta caught up with the author in an exclusive conversation about her new book. Excerpts..

Phantom Lovers contains two novellas. Can you tell us something about them?

Achala Moulik- Phantom Lovers comprises two novellas. The first story titled “With Fate Conspire” (quotation from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat )- set in Bengal during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, is about a rebellious young English magistrate, Julian Ruthven, who finds affinity with the gifted Radha, daughter of a zamindar.

Though their families are friends and part of the Renaissance movement, they oppose the growing attachment of the two people. After a brief puja at a riverside temple on a stormy night, the couple sail to the district where Julian is posted. Their brief and perfect idyll is shattered by the outbreak of the Mutiny when Julian joins the British army and is killed.

A grief-stricken Radha swiftly follows him. They travel through the barriers of time and space and meet in London a century later to conclude their unfinished symphony.

The second novella -“Wait!” takes the title from a Russian poem of the Second World War.

It is about Rustom, a young Afghan nobleman who is a lecturer at London University, and Minoti, his Indian student. They plan to live and work in London until Rustom is summoned to Kabul to serve the new Afghan republic. Minoti is to follow him after completing her postgraduate studies. Rustom is caught in a violent coup, is arrested, and awaits execution in a prison in Kandahar.

Desperate at having seen his family dispersed and with no news of Minoti, Rustom begins to write letters to his lost beloved. He is aware that these messages will never reach Minoti but this is his only link with the invisible betrothed. And in far away, peaceful London Minoti also writes letters to her fiancé. These letters remained their invisible bond for seven years through the tragic turbulence in Afghanistan. Finally leaping over the barriers of race and creed they are united.

Why is the book titled Phantom Lovers?

Achala Moulik- Phantom is derived from the Greek word Phantasm which denotes fantasy or unreality. In both the novellas, the four lovers encountering separation and death keep wondering if their attachments and affinities were ever real. They fear that their passion and happiness are a fantasy, conjured by a mocking Fate.

What are lyrical novellas?

Achala Moulik- Novels and novellas can depict many aspects of existence – struggles, ordeals, ambition, pursuit of power and wealth. Modern fiction is often centered around these themes. Though these two novellas depict the injustice and violence of the Indian Mutiny and the carnage and tragedy of modern Afghanistan, the theme of the two stories is a poetic ode to the affinities of the mind and heart that can transcend time and distance.

This new book is a poetic ode to the power of love.

What were the inspirations between the two stories?

Achala Moulik- The two novellas were inspired by two women dear to me who endured and overcame ordeals with grace and courage. Living in our troubled times where antagonisms are rife, where tolerance is fading, where raw power determines events, one wants to believe that ideals and dreams still have a place in our lives.

How long did it take to complete Phantom Lovers?

Achala Moulik- I began writing the stories soon after the two women passed on and continued writing them as the nightmare of COVID-19 engulfed the world.

The virus did not recognize the barriers between the rich and poor, between the humble and the high, and spared neither the aged nor the young. Its indiscriminate ferocity made people pause to reflect on the purpose of existence, the relevance of individual identity and what endures of our fleeting presence in this world. These thoughts also compelled me to write the novellas.

What is your next project? Have you decided on a topic to write on?

Achala Moulik- I am working on a book on cultural and political history, of how diverse civilizations grow from and around each other, and of how new inspirations in art and literature flowered amidst turmoil.