Q.1 Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?
A. I am fun loving, emotional,
philosophical, rational, and maverick. I have my own philosophy of seeing life, and yet, I am not averse to an alternative approach to it. For now, I am
trying to give the expression of my ideas through my words.
Q.2 Are we going to read more from
you in the near future? Any new project you’re working on?
A. Yes, indeed. I am always working
on my ideas, though penning them down happens only when I’m convinced of doing
so. Right now, I am working on a couple of writings, in a different genre.
Q.3 What did you do with your first
advance?
A. I never got it. I have no regrets
about that either. For me, my book was a baby, the birth of which I awaited
eagerly. Nothing else mattered.
Q.4 What advice do you have for
writers?
A. For aspiring authors, I’d say that
each one of you is unique in your capabilities and writing skills. Be original,
even if your ideas are weird. Remember, an editor will always find faults with
your manuscript, but that’s her/his job. If you seek approval of your work from
so many people, then you are not sure of it. In that case, reconsider your options
to be an author.
Q.5 Does writing energize or exhaust you?
A. I don’t write more than a couple
of pages at a time. I am, indeed, so much rejuvenated by my writing that in
between I often take a stroll, and gulp some water as though to cool myself off.
There are times when I marvel at my own writing and feel a rush of so many good
hormones from within.
Q.6 If you could tell your younger
writing self-anything, what would it be?
A. When I started writing Snakes in the Meadows, I was raw and immature as a writer. But I was so much full of
passion. Ten years later, when I finished it, I was a different author. In
those ten years, I realized one hard fact, if you are unable to separate your
personal emotions from your work, you won’t be able to write a great story.
That’s what I could have said to a younger me.
Q.7 What are the most important
magazines or websites for writers to subscribe to?
A. At any given point in time, my
table can be seen loaded with various magazines like India Today, Time, etc. But these
days I hardly read any. An aspiring author should at least be on cataloging
websites like Goodreads.
Q.8 What was an early experience where you learned that
language had power?
A. I was raised with that belief. My father is also an
author of the vernacular. As a kid I would listen devoutly to his poetry and
prose, sometimes, being broadcasted on Radio Jammu. By the age of sixteen, I
started to jot couplets and gazals in Urdu.
Q.9Do you believe in writer’s block?
A. For me, it’s more like a dilemma to
choose from among many ideas, each of which might appear better than the
others. But, thus far, I haven’t really faced the so-called ‘writer’s block.’
Q.10How do you select the name of
your characters?
A. The name Ashwar in SITM is very
rare, and unique to the people of Pir Panjal. Similarly, the name Avdal is actually Abdul which is
mispronounced by the locals, and I let it be. I believe that if I have to name
my character, I must know the background she/he comes from, and what names are
acceptable in that context. I take a lot of time on deciding the names of my
characters.
Q.11 Does your family support your career as a writer?
A. Yes, absolutely. But they see the
Civil Servant in me first and then the writer.
Q.12 Where do you get your ideas?
A. I talk to weird and awkward people,
I observe, I read and I am a movie buff. But most of all, I can use my mind to
create ideas, to make a hill out of a speck. Once I choose a theme, myriad
ideas pour in and coalesce so naturally that, sometimes, like I have mentioned
before, I am faced with the dilemma to choose some and discard others.
Q.13 What is the most difficult thing
about writing characters from the opposite sex?
A. I really never faced any
difficulty in writing about women. Indeed, in SITM there are more women as
major characters than men. The difficulties in describing the character from
the opposite sex come only if the writer has an incomplete understanding of the
work she or he has chosen to write about.
Q.14 Do you have any unique and quirky
writing habits?
A. Yes! I tend to create humor even
in an otherwise sad situation, and I check myself just in time. And then I try
to make my writing lyrical. Maybe, someday I’ll write a whole book in lyrics,
like Les Miserable.
Q.15 What do you consider to be your
best accomplishment?
A. Cracking Civil Services and
Publishing my book Snakes in the Meadows both are equally important to me, and
my best accomplishments.
Q.16 What is the most unethical
practice in the publishing industry?
A. From the perspective of a debut
novelist, I’d say that big publishing houses judge your work differently than
they do of established authors. There are people in every publishing house who
will tell you, ‘this idea is not possible’, while they have great praises, for
instance, for Salman Rushdie when he says that a man fell from an airplane and
survived and became a goat and then later he became a man again. The publishing agreement with the debut
writer is so discriminatory and biased against him.
Q.17 Who edited your book and how did
you select him/her?
A. Ms. Sakshi Nanda was my beta
editor. I chose her because her husband is my service senior. Then Rupa has in
house team for editing, which did the job.
Q.18 Which famous person, living or
dead would you like to meet and why?
A. Salman Rushdie and Christopher
Nolan. With Salman Rushdie, I want to
discuss so many things - Kashmir, in particular. I want to know about his lifestyle. And I want to tell him that his writing is so weird, but I love it. With
Christopher Nolan, I want to discuss an idea about a movie.
Q.19 What is your favorite book and
why?
A. A Thousand Splendid Suns. It made
me cry, while I was reading it. This isn’t just a book, it’s a colossal tragedy
of all the conflict zones in every region. The wars and conflicts are terrible
things, the worst sufferers of which are the marginalized, poor, women, and
children. Snakes in the Meadows is yet another reflection of this misery.
Q.20 Share the experience of your journey so far?
A. It has been a very tough journey
for me to be a published author. It took me ten years to complete my first
book. My circumstances were such that I had to manage between so many things.
But then, everyone else does that. Having written it was just half the task. I
have faced criticism, rejection, the silent treatment and backhanded compliments
for my book. I kept telling myself – I
can take much more than that. Now, having endured all that, bundles of praises
for my book are coming my way. I finally feel rewarded.
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