Fineprint: The Gifted author shares her story

FICTION AT ITS BEST: Indian born writer Nikita Lalwani’s Gifted' was on the Booker longlist.

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New Delhi: Indian born writer Nikita Lalwani’s impressive debut, Gifted' was on the Booker longlist for this year. A tale about a child prodigy who struggles to be like any other kid, its original and engaging.

It's a story about Rumi Vasi, a math wiz born to ambitious immigrant parents in Cardiff, Wales in the 1980s. Labelled as a 'child prodigy', she struggles to 'fit-in' with the rest, but her special 'gift' sets her apart. It's a 'gift' not easy to live with.

“I was interested in the overlap between mysticism and math like there is in India. Here math is seen as a magic skill, whereas in India it’s more integrated. I wanted something that separated the character from her environment. Its like a chicken and egg situation- does she move to math because she is different because of her race or is she different because of her maths,” says Nikita Lalwani, author Gifted.

Nikita's characters are engaging and the story, original, even though it explores the predictable themes of parenthood and immigrant experience. Rumi, the protagonist who we see growing up, has a lonely childhood controlled by her parents. Her father is obsessed with getting her into Oxford- his symbol of success as an immigrant. Mother, shreene struggles to shield her daughter from the 'corrupt western values'. Rumi finds herself trapped between her parents' ambitions plans. Until she cannot cope anymore.

“When you are in a host nation, you are uncomfortable, you want to give your child the armour and give them a way to make their way into the world. For Mahesh, it was academia and grades, because they did it for him. So its about him trying to give a gift again and that going wrong because of the cultural climate they are in and the difference between the outside and inside world,” said the author.

Nikita’s own experience of growing up in Cardiff has lent a visual authenticity to the story- vivid and real. She has already started working on her second novel, which she says will be set in India, her motherland.

Although the book has a lot of Maths woven into the text, it never becomes jargon. At the heart of it, it's a very human story about an extraordinary girl struggling to be like any other kid. The book seems a bit rushed towards the end, but it certainly is am impressive debut. It’s one of those books you might not actually buy at a bookshop straight away, but thanks to the booker longlist, it’s been a very interesting discovery of the year.