Give us a really detailed insight into your book?
The book, as I said is a ‘bildungsroman’, which is a
popular genre in European writing. So in a way, I trace the
growth of the main protagonist, Nanaki. I would say just
like her, the book embodies a sufi consciousness- one that
emerges out of empathy for the 'other' , is radical,
embodies a unique aesthetic and at the same time, does
not forsake social responsibility.
How did you go about creating the various
characters in the book?
I don't want to sound all vague but I genuinely feel fiction
writing is somewhat a numinous process, in the sense that
it cannot be understood with reason
alone. It is an alchemy that fuses
imagination, experience and reality
in a way that it is difficult to pre
plan to the tee. One can, at best
have an outline because I feel unless
you give your characters the free
reign to grow, sometimes to even
take your vision over, the writing
remains too contrived for fiction.
Some element of beating your own
vision has to take place. Otherwise
it remains mediocre and
unimaginative. Like Neil Gaiman
says that writing a novel is akin to
driving in fog, you only see a
limited distance ahead of you.
Additionally, my favourite narrative
device in this book is the two
tramps, the ‘Mirasis’, who exchange
a witty repartee about the goings on
after three sections. ‘Mirasis’, the
traditional folk performer
entertainers are known to inject irony in their slapstick,
while bringing out issues of grave political importance.
Tell our readers why should they buy your book?
I guess, it's a decision I will best leave to them.
How was your journey into the book world?
It was in 2016 that the idea of writing this book first
came to my mind and Elina Majumdar at a top publishing
house liked and commissioned my book. I signed the
contract in November 2018 and they brought out the
book in the promised one and a half years.
What was the kind of support you got from family
and friends?
Without family support, it is not possible to write. As for
me, all the stereotypes of an absent minded writer who
cannot keep track of time and space have begun to
manifest themselves in these years. And it is very real,
because especially in fiction, you inhabit two parallel
universes. So I guess my family puts up with a lot. Parents
and siblings have been most understanding. My husband,
a high court lawyer, has been a writer and a blogger for
many years and so understands writerly withdrawal and
we intuitively make space for each other. My sister is a
poet whose feedback is very critical for me. As for
friends, I am lucky to have a couple of kindred spirits I
can reach out even at 3 in the morning. We have read over
coffee in parking lots, we have taken stuff to leisure valley
to read parts of the manuscript between lectures, and
done many other crazy things together.
How do you strike a balance between writing, home
and work?
For a woman to have “a room of one's own” becomes
that much more daunting. I had taken
off work in 2017 when I was actively
writing this book because I am not
much of a multi tasking person. As
you grow as a writer, you develop a
more defined style and every writer
has her/his idiosyncrasies around
working style and schedule. Writers
need the solid time to write, the space
to write and more often than not,
humungous amount of will power to
navigate a process that most people
see little or no worth in because it is
so immaterial and intangible. So it
takes will power and time
management but if what I call grace
(inherent talent as a writer) is missing,
then no matter what you do, it will
not manifest.
Your message to upcoming
writers?
If you think you have it, listen to it,
develop that inner dialogue with yourself. You have to go
beyond social conditioning, beyond definitions of success
as developed by society at large. You have to work on
your craft and really answer the most important question:
What kind of a writer you want to be? The world out
there is keen to mould you into their way of looking at
things. You will have to read widely, have an outer and
inner dialogue and practice your craft for so many hours
that by the end of it, your ideology and craft of writing
merge in a larger unity.
Share with us your writing plans for the next 2 years?
There are two projects in the offing. It is too early for me
to reveal the details, but I can share that one is historic
fiction.
Sakoon Singh’s book has been released on Kindle worldwide
and the physical copies would be available after the lockdown is
relaxed and situation comes back to normal.
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LITERARY DIGEST / May 2020