Kaavya



Ever since Kaavya burst into the literary scene and unceremoniously ushered out, a few of my friends have been talking to me about it.

As usual, those who missed it, here's the backdrop. Kaavya Viswanathan, 18, a Harvard sophomore, wrote a book called 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life'. A typical chick-lit novel became the news when the publisher paid an unheard of $500,000 royalty advance and even signed her up for a second book. The book was released with much fanfare and while Kaavya was busy signing copies and attending interviews, reports of plagiarism began surfacing. New York Times published many passages from Opal Mehta that resembled 'Sloppy Firsts' and 'Second Helpings' by Megan McCafferty. Initially, Kaavya was silent on these allegations and later another UK author claimed that many phrases and even ideas were lifted from her book, the last straw was laid. The book was withdrawn and later the publisher cancelled the book deal with Kaavya.

So what do I have to say in this? Many asked me about his because they related this episode to my infamous aversion to plagiarism and piracy.

I have been following Kaavya's story ever since she hit the headlines due to her obscenely high advance. From then on, my wonderment is mainly about how an eighteen year old will come out with a novel convincing enough for a grownup adult woman.

I wasn't expecting Kaavya to plagiarise and this episode cannot be simply categorised a 'lifting'. I'm saying this because of her age.

At 18, you generally don't have much ideas on your own. Many of them would be borrowed ones. Unless you are a Mozart, you mainly air views based on the books you read or the people you meet. It's like a kindergarten kids saying they want to be teachers when they grow up because that's the only professional they meet with. So my reservations with Kaavya were about what she has to say to a working woman of twenties. It simply turned that she didn't have anything new. As she herself confessed after the scandal broke out she was 'excited about those books so much' and 'internalised the ideas and words' when she was writing, she couldn't distinguish her ideas from McCarthy's. Problem was Kaavya probably didn't have much ideas on her own because she was too young for that.

Meanwhile, many Indian magazines started debating whether plagiarism is an Indian habit. It like saying the drug trafficking is a Columbian habit. But is it true? I would certainly say no. We may be tolerant towards plagiarists but we're not a nation mastered that crime. And it doesn't apply to Kaavya's case because she is an American. The publisher simply wanted to cash-in on the sensational idea of an eighteen year old sophomore writing a chick-lit and the plan backfired. Kaavya was to be made a new role-model and she ended up becoming a poor, young victim who, perhaps hasn't even realised what hit her.

My friend asked me, now that the book is off the shelves, whether I want to read it. I said I didn't want to even when it was on the shelves.

Note: Chick-lit is a term used to denote a genre of popular fiction for young, working, especially single women in their twenties. Chick is an American slang for young woman and lit is a short for literature. The book that is believed to have started this genre was Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.