Thursday 21 June 2018

Christine Weber - a Swiss writer dreaming in our Blueberry room

Christine Weber - Swiss Writer dreaming in our Blueberry room

As the monsoons descended over Goa in early June, Swiss writer Christine Weber came riding the rains all the way from Switzerland to cosy up in our Blueberry room with open terrace. (Joe and Marietta’s Guesthouse, Calangute, Goa).

Christine - outside the Blueberry room

She had booked for 4 nights (June 6 -10), but was so charmed with her stay, she extended it to 10 nights. “I see your guesthouse; it is so wonderful. I have seen dirty rooms in other places,” she said. By the way, she judged us a "EXCEPTIONAL"  and gave us 10 out of 10 in her review of our guesthouse on Booking.Com. See screenshot -

Born in Berne and living in Lucerne, 48-year old Christine describes herself as a “journalist-writer” and runs her own “small agency” called WORTUNDOHR, which she says translates to WORDS AND EAR. “It means speaking and listening,” she said.

“I am a journalist-writer. I write short stories about drama in life. What I observe in real life, I fictionalise. I publish my stories in a literary blog www.zentralplus.ch. (Alas! It’s German!) Now I am trying to publish a book – compilation of my short stories”, said Christine.

Putting her dreams on laptop
She is in India with a friend - a lady who is a Swiss national of Indian origin. She was given for adoption to a Swiss couple at birth. Now, 28 years later, and for the first time, she has come to the land of her birth. She has no clue about the woman who gave her birth. Nor does she hope to find her parents. She is here on a very private pilgrimage of sorts.

Christine said, “She knows nothing about her mother but she wants to know more about India, its people, its culture and how the city Bombay moves. She was very happy to see Bombay; she loves India. I will write about her India experience and publish it in a Swiss magazine.”

Monsoon mojo for Christine
Before turning to journalism and writing, Christine got a degree in teaching. Her father Paul (82) and mother Evi (77) were both teachers. Now retired, they live in Lucerne where Christine visits them sometimes.

Christine never married. “I had no time. I am married to my business and my stories are my babies. Now I can do many things that I would not have been able to do if I had married,” she said.

She came to India 10 years ago. Besides Bombay, she remembers visiting Agonda beach (South Goa) and Hampi in Karnataka. She enjoyed her visit then. Among things Indian, she likes mushroom curry, vegetable biryani and paneer but is rather pained about the garbage situation in India. “Juhu beach was very beautiful then. Now there is too much garbage,” she said.

Christine and Marietta - Alamanda Eves
What makes Christine tick? “I am hoping to find more free time to write. Now I have to do other work to put food on the table. My dream is to be a famous writer. That would be great! To write a best-seller that would be translated into Hindi and made into a Bollywood film…..(laughs heartily).”

Incidentally, she has already chosen (tentatively) a title for her book – one of her short stories. It’s called “The Dark Space”.

If Christine hires me to translate her book into Hindi, I have already chosen a title for the movie – “Anderi Raat, Pakda tera haath!” (Too good, nah?) O Bollywood! Here we come! Christine and I!


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