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Q. Describe your relationship
with writing and how has it evolved over the years?
A: Like many others I also started as
a reader. Surprisingly I started with Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Autumn of the
patriarch, a tough book to digest, but the lines were captivating. Subsequent
reading of lesser writers and easy to read books triggered a thought in me that
some of these books could have been written in a better manner. Eventually it
happened that I thought of writing a book myself, the way I think a book needs
to be.
Initially I fell in the web of writing to get
published, but after my first book got published through after herculean
efforts, I thought self-publishing is the best option, since the book remains
to have your flavour in entirely. Hence my last three books were all
self-published, and happily so.
Q. Are you a methodical writer?
A: I believe a fiction writer can
never be methodical. As somebody said earlier, it is like driving a car in the
night, you drive as you see with the headlights on. Taking the twists and turns
as the road appears in front of you. You cannot plan the complete drive, you
just start driving.
Q. Tell us a little about your current
book “Satyameva Jayate”?
A: Defence and Space are two areas in
which the west doesn’t want others to succeed, as it is their main cash cow. I
have been observing numerous instances which pointed towards foul play, be it
the infamous ISRO spy case, many accidents with the submarines, falling fighter
aircrafts, artificial scams or planted public agitations. General public never
gets to know about these games played out by vested interests, sometimes
business and otherwise political. Ultimately the nation suffers and therefore
the people.
This book is a humble effort towards bringing
attention towards such forces who scuttle India’s progress. Unfortunately, such
forces get lot of support from inside the country.
Q. How did this story, its characters take
shape? Was it influenced by real life events?
A: It goes without saying that the story and
the characters are imaginative. But to make it look realistic bits from our
immediate surroundings are always taken. As a matter of fact, it is impossible
to write a purely imaginative story. As I mentioned earlier, real life events
prompted me to pen this story.
Q. How long was the writing, editing
phase?
A: This book took unusually longer
time when compared to my previous books. The reason being the technical
subjects in the book. It needed a lot of study of the relevant subjects, visit
to the sites to understand the nuances. Some experts were also contacted to
take seminal views. The writing took 18 months and editing 4-5 months. All
together it took more than 2 years’ time for the book to fructify.
Q. Did you ever encounter a writer’s
block and how did you get over it?
A: Yes, in this book to be more specific. I was stuck mid-way until I made
a site visit as part of my work and suddenly an idea struck. Maybe one has to
take a detour sometimes to break the writer’s block.
Q. The readers like us felt deprived of
a longer book where you put in a lot of character building, why did you write
the story in a very concise format?
A: For a comparatively new writer like
me, to get audience for a longer book is very difficult. I can create interest
in people only if it’s a quick read. Nobody would want to invest time and money
in a thick book from a new writer.
Q. Apart from writing what do you do
professionally and how do you manage both?
A: I do work as a marketing
professional for one of India’s topmost companies. And I do travel a lot as
part of my work. Travelling time is best utilized for writing.
Q. Who are your favourite writers and
book?
A: As I told earlier Marquez was the
one I began with reading, but eventually went through all the genres be it by Orwell,
Archer, Forsyth, Murakami, Stephen Hawkings, Dan Simmons, Alistair Maclean and
a couple of excellent Indian authors like Shashi Tharoor, Jhumpa Lahiri and M.
Mukundan.
Favourite books would be 1984, A Brief History
of Time, Love in the Time of Cholera and Guns of Navarone, though not
necessarily in that order.
Q. Your favourite lines from a book?
A: “All animals are equal, but some
animals are more than equal”, from George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Q. When met with despair how do you
gear yourself up?
A: I do take up studies. Recently I had
completed a course in Industrial law from NLSIU, Bengaluru. One I complete a
course; it creates enough active grey cells to take up writing a new book.
Right now I have taken up a research so that it keeps me busy for a couple of
years, if not more.
Q. A message for your readers…
A: Life is too short, hence don’t waste
time. Take up a creative hobby, contribute to society and find happiness in
smaller and mundane things.
