French writer recalls Calcutta connection

When we face a situation where we have lost everything, it is very easy to fall back and lose hope, but it is more important to go on, says Tiffany Tavernier, French novelist and screenwriter. “At such a time, love, kindness and compassion gives us hope. This is what happened during the pandemic. People met with crises but sudden kindness from unusual and unexpected places helped them survive,” says the author of Roissy, while in conversation with Naveen Kishore, publisher, on the topic of ‘Kindness in Fractured Times’ at the Times Litfest.

She adds that healing is very important to go on in life. “Colours, music, language become very important in the process. It’s the light when you are drowning,” says the author, who lost both her parents — screenwriter Colo Tavernier and the director Bertrand Tavernier — in the past year and struggled with the void in her life.

She says that she puts her personal experiences into her characters to bring them to life. “Roissy is lost in her own disaster like a lot of us during the pandemic and she finds a way out through love and kindness.”

The author lived in Kolkata when she was19 and still fondly remembers the place. “When I visited the place again two years ago, I was glad to see that the compassion in the people there is still the same. The place has a mix of intelligence and suffering. It helps you question your existence,” she says.

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