Humour is the overarching tone of the novel, which never lets you even take the titular character Zeba seriously as a superhero. Was that a conscious authorial choice?

A hundred percent. I feel like people are too angry and too aggressive and too caught up in their own sense of self-importance. And I detest that. The world would be a far better place if everyone meditated and if everyone took themselves lightly and had a sense of humour about it. I think the Buddha said, “Pain is universal, suffering is optional”. A lot of people are choosing suffering but humour is the best antidote; it allows you to live a better life.

During your panel discussion, you mentioned that “women just being people” was an underlying force for your characterization of Zeba. Please elaborate on how you experimented with literary representations when it comes to gender.

We always see gender or sex as binaries, right? However, we now know that it’s not necessarily true. Because we see people as two binary gendered species, a lot of stereotypes become attached to them -- what they can and cannot do. We restrict people in terms of their personal freedoms and their cerebral choices. And that is so limiting. My quest as an individual and also for other people is to create an ecosystem, a space, where people are just people, where they are able to make their choices and live their lives without the burden of their gender being incumbent upon them.

Why does fantasy fiction as a genre interest you?

Because perhaps you can imagine a future which doesn’t exist and it’s a better future than the present that we actually live in. Sometimes, books can be an escape from the harsh truth of reality. I personally have grown up reading Marquez and Murakami. I have that little bit of melancholy in me, and I enjoy that as a reader.But I also like to write more sassy stuff.

This book was born out of the pandemic. How did some of that uncertainty shape your narrative?

All of it, all of it, I think, which is why all the characters in my book are all uncertain. I find it very boring when characters or even real people are so clear about what they want. Life has so many things that it’s throwing at you on a daily basis. A real, authentic person is someone who lives in that uncertainty and tries to live like a grounded life in that chaos.

Any plans for a second book?

I do intend to write a second book. I just need to find the time for it.

Simar Bhasin is an independent journalist.