Christopher Kloeble’s story proves yet again that love knows no boundaries. The German novelist and scriptwriter first visited India in 2012, where he met Saskya Jain, also a writer and daughter of German-Indian parents.
They fell in love and married. In his non-fiction Home Made in India: A Love Story between Delhi and Berlin, he traces what it means to commute between the continents: perceptive, amusing, and finely nuanced.
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There are clichés and stereotypes on both sides ~ Indians mock the Germans’ impatience and devoutness to rules, whereas the Germans find India exotic. In two readings ~ one at Goethe-Institut and the other at Khoj International Artists’ Association ~ the author talked about the people he met and how he became part of an extended family.
He discussed with Indian author Chandrahas Choudhury (Arzee the Dwarf) about cultural perceptions and misunderstandings. Kloeble says, “I find writing an extremely creative medium, especially for the output of expressions, which is what I actively do through this very versatile medium.
The diversities of my life have helped enrich my style and the content too. Of course, every ‘project’ has its challenges, but these are what helps raise the learning curve, manifold. Is it not?” Kloeble was writer-in-residence at Cambridge University (UK) and Max Kade Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College (US). His debut novel Amongst Lonerswon him the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Prize, and his first screenplay Inclusion received the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Prize.
In 2012, his novel Almost Everything Very Fast was published in Germany, and released in the US in February 2016.
