A powerful tale of intermingled violence,
love and ambition.
I married a man who everyone assumes is Chinese because of the epicanthic folds of his eyelids. I didn’t know Laos was a country until I heard my husband explain over and over again that no, Laos was not another name for Cambodia. Through our personal travel to visit his family, but more so the stories I heard over lunch and dinner, my interest in this landlocked part of Southeast Asia developed. Everyone knew about Vietnam, and most now have a frame of reference for Cambodia, but Laos, this was a word that could stop conversations.
Yet during the 1960s and 70s, more bombs were dropped on this landlocked part of Southeast Asia than in any other war. The turbulent history of the Land of a Thousand Elephants is the backdrop for my latest novel. The Opposite of Hate opens a window onto a forgotten corner of Southeast Asia and brings little known history to life through vivid characters and settings.
Three years of writing, research (reading everything I could get my hands on which was not much), and listening to family stories helped me put together a trajectory for a set of characters who were buffeted by history in this complex setting. One of the places I got stuck was when the characters in my story departed from the real lives of my in-laws.
Should I stay faithful to real life? Or could I take Hollywood screenwriter like liberties and let the wheels I’d put in motion find their own paths? That’s what happened in the end: I wrote a story inspired by family lore but no longer a representation of specific lives but rather informed by historical, personal, and imagined experience.
The Opposite of Hate explores the intersections of family, loyalty, and nationalism as Vientiane, the capital of Laos, is being taken over by Communists. The political instability drives Seng, a widowed engineer, to marry his best friend’s teenage daughter, Neela, so they can escape re-education or even worse, death. The unlikely husband and wife cross the Mekong River into Thailand as strangers.
Life in the refugee camp brings surprises along with the grime. As they struggle for survival, romances blossoms into an unplanned pregnancy. Seng and Neela get their wish of immigrating to the United States. Succeeding in suburbia, however, presents another unique set of challenges, ones that are not black and white. A story of hope, violence, love and ambition, Seng and Neela embody the struggle of thousands who fled the threats of communist only to face the challenges of democracy.
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar
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Mohanalakshmi
Rajakumar is a South Asian American who has lived in Qatar since 2005. Moving
to the Arabian Desert was fortuitous in many ways since this is where she met
her husband, had two sons, and became a writer. She has since published eight
e-books, including a momoir for first time mothers, Mommy But Still Me;
a guide for aspiring writers, So You Want to Sell a Million Copies; a
short story collection, Coloured and Other Stories; and a novel about
women’s friendships, Saving Peace. Her
coming of age novel, An Unlikely Goddess,
won the SheWrites New Novelist competition in 2011. Her
recent books have focused on various aspects of life in Qatar. From Dunes to
Dior, named as a Best Indie book
in 2013, is a collection of essays related to her experiences as a
female South Asian American living in the Arabian Gulf. Love Comes Later was the winner of the Best Indie Book Award for
Romance in 2013 and is a literary romance set in Qatar and London. The Dohmestics is an inside look into
compound life, the day-to-day dynamics between housemaids and their employers. After
she joined the e-book revolution, Mohana dreams in plotlines. Learn more about
her work on her website at www.mohadoha.com
or follow her latest on Twitter: @moha_doha.
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