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Playtime with the Author:
Interview with Reenita Hora
By Carin Chea
Reenita Hora is the epitome of a multi-disciplinary professional, which is why it’s so hard to introduce her.
To start, Hora is an expert marketer, having held the position of Head of Marketing at one of Silicon Valley’s leading science and technology institutes.
She is also a journalist who has contributed to the most prestigious international news publications. And, when businesses and organizations want to grow, they call upon her and her endless marketing and business acumen.
But, beyond the accolades and achievements, Reenita Hora is, above all, a creative storyteller.
A published author of several fiction and non-fiction books, her upcoming novel, Vermilion Harvest: Playtime at the Bagh, is described as a thrilling historical love story.
Hora, the epitome of multi-facetedness, has crafted a story guaranteed to draw in young and old, the cynic and the optimist, you and me. Though the story is fiction, the historical backdrop is tragic and real.
Vermillion Harvest is not a typical romance tale. It is brilliant, nuanced, and profound, just like its author.
You have so many areas of expertise. Which one came first?
I started writing books first, I think. There have been periods of feast and famine along the way. Many, many years ago, I started working in advertising and (along the way) became an Ayurvedic entrepreneur.
Back then, no one knew what that was. So, I decided to write a book to answer people’s questions. That’s what led me to writing my first book, a self-help book about Ayurveda. I end up writing four books on Ayurveda.
At some level, they were all Ayurveda 101 books. I always had to start with the same ABCs. I yearned to go deeper, but that was what the market seemed to want, according to the publishers.
So, the writing of the books started first, but then I became this expert on health, on the Indian holistic health system. That led to talking about the environment and sustainability, because it’s all a part of the cycle-of-life concept in Ayurveda.
Then, I left San Francisco to go to Hong Kong due to my husband’s job. At that point, I was writing freelance on various things pertaining to sustainability and the environment.
Of course, once I get to Hong Kong, they asked me, “Ayurveda…that’s nice, but what do you know about money and finance?” So, I was living a dual life in a sense where I was teaching Ayurveda, but on the other hand I saw this course on brushing up your digital skills for working journalists.
I ended up taking courses on financial journalism at the university. That led me to RTHK which was the public radio system. Radio talk shows and broadcast journalism – that’s my first love. I love print as well; it’s a sibling rivalry.
I worked for many years for the public radio system in Hong Kong, but would also freelance for the BBC and various print publications as well.
From there, because I had a great schedule where I worked an early morning show, I would then spend the rest of the day writing my books. Those were the years where I wrote my first fiction books. I love writing fiction. I’m a die-hard story teller and story hog and will do anything for a story, and that fit well with my journalistic skills.
Working on public radio was wonderful because within the dysfunction were these loopholes that you could seize and grab in order to build your career. It wasn’t an organized system.
Later, I was recruited by Bloomberg and that was interesting because of the prestige. On the other hand, it was very restrictive. I stopped writing books. They said anything I wrote belonged to them, and not to me.
Wow - Really?
Yup. They said “You need to take permission from us.” There wasn’t even a question of my writing anything for anyone else, not even a cooking show.
So, I left them, went into audio tech in the San Francisco Bay Area, then worked for SRI International as the head of marketing and communications, and got back to writing my books.
Tell us about Vermillion Harvest: Playtime at the Bagh and what inspired it.
The book comes out in July. It’s been in my head for years, since I’ve graduated college in 1993, but I never formally put it together into a book.
I started writing this book in 2018 because I woke up to the fact that this massacre’s anniversary was about to be 100 years. Of course, I didn’t reach that timeline because it’s now 2024.
What’s your book about?
It was a story that evolved, and it had to be a love story. I will often pitch it as Titanic meets Gandhi. Titanic in the sense that it was a love story set against a disaster, and Gandhi because of the time period.
It’s an interfaith love story where an Anglo-Indian teacher [Aruna] falls in love with a Muslim law student [Ayaz]. They begin courting, but these were the days that would lead up to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
There was a law that had been established during World War I, a few years before this story, and it prevented freedom of speech and movement. It was wartime law, and even though the war ended, the law continued in India because the British government was afraid of uprisings and nationalistic feelings amongst the Indians that might threaten the British empire.
Any freedom of speech was restricted; if they found anything they said that could be a threat to the British government, they would be detained.
In my story, Ayaz gets involved in the Home Rule movement, and Aruna gets wind of the fact that there’s this British official who’s going to establish a curfew. She doesn’t know what that something is, but she goes to warn Ayaz to not gather in Jallianwala Bagh which is this enclosed space, a walled enclosure with one way in and out.
April 13th of every year is the harvest festival, and there was this political meeting that was going to take place to discuss Home Rule. Aruna goes to warn him, but it’s too late. The general (Reginald Dyer) goes in and according to unofficial figures, somewhere between 1500 and 2000 people get killed.
I grew up, and Indians grew up, learning about this incident, but maybe in a two-paragraph section of their history in school.
I know your story is fiction, but it’s rooted in real, historical events. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this event in school!
In 2019, during the 100th year anniversary of the massacre, there was a move by the Indians to Queen Elizabeth II of England, where they asked her to please extend an apology. That didn’t happen.
It’s shameful that thousands can die in a planned terrorist attack, and no one knows about this. There has never, ever been a fictional story set against this massacre either.
The issues, which are very real issues, could not be more relevant today. Even in India, if you look at the freedom of expression issues in the last several years, it really begs the question: Have we learned anything in the past 100 years, both in India and around the world?
It is not acceptable that these planned terrorist attacks takes place and nobody learns from them, and they’re forgotten about and swept under the carpet.
What do you want your readers to feel after reading Vermilion Harvest?
My last book, Operation Mom, was a young adult [YA] rom-com, dysfunctional mother-daughter situation. It won awards for humor and satire and YA rom-com.
I never thought of it as a romance, though. I thought it was a fun YA comedy. But, it won more romance awards than my other books. The romance market is so huge and that’s what women (who comprise most readers, by the way) want.
Vermillion Harvest does not fit the romance formula of a happily ever after or a happy finale. The most beautiful love stories that are emotional and touching and filled with pathos. I wanted to convey that a love story does not have to be tied up in a bow. There is so much more beauty in a love story than there is in a romance.
I really, really love that. That’s a wonderful quote and extremely relatable. I think you’re one of the most brilliant authors I have ever had the privilege of interviewing.
Thank you, that means so much.
Let’s say Netflix wanted to make your book into a limited 5-episode series. Who would you cast as the leads?
Aruna is half Indian and half British. The Anglo-Indian community was outcast both ways – they were nether British or Indian. Many were products of British army generals and local Indian women. Aruna’s mother was actually raped by a British general. Indians hated the Anglo-Indians. I would like to see somebody who is a British-Indian actress, like Parminder Nagra.
One of the problems I have with my female protagonists, traditionally with Bollywood, is that our actresses are too beautiful. They’re not real enough. Other wonderful South Asian actresses are too American to play an Indian role. So someone like Mindy Kaling wouldn’t work.
For Ayaz, a Muslim activist law student and her love interest, I would love to see Kumail Nanjiani. Most of us know him as a comedy actor, but he has come a long way since his comedic Silicone Valley roots. I would love to see him in a role like this.
With General Dyer, it could go many ways. I love Jeremy Irons.
What are some of your upcoming projects?
Life happens despite our plans. There is so much bitter sweetness in life. I’ve had a traumatic few years because I lost my father a few years ago. I came from a very misogynistic environment.
I’ve got a beautiful book coming out about the memoirs of a father and daughter — Ace of Blades. Life is not always perfect, but there is so much art and beauty and a great story that can come out of it.
For more information, please visit Reenita.com.
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