"I was bored to tears at weddings"

In her latest novel, The Counsel of Strangers, Gouri Dange places a motley group of six in her own personal nightmare situation — an Indian wedding. Ranging from 14 to 71 in age, and each equipped with personal baggage, they find refuge, and confidantes, in a viewing gallery far from the maddening crowd. In an interview with DNA, Dange offers her candid opinion on a few subjects…

On disastrous weddings: I could have chosen an airport lounge as the setting of my novel but the quintessential ‘Big Fat Indian Weddings’ are everywhere and I have personally been to so many where I was bored to tears.

On being a ‘people watcher’: I see many things and then file them away in my mind. In my earlier novel, 3, Zakia Mansion, I used a phrase I overheard at an Udupi Cafe. Two young girls were discussing relationships and one of them said to the other, ‘You should always have your jerk meter prepared’. I love that term — jerk meter. I use it even today.

On a family counselor’s family problems: I face problems regularly. It’s like how doctors are not immune to being ill. I have many coping strategies like friends.