Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
12 YEARS AT SEA INSPIRED ME TO COME UP WITH MY FIRST BOOK KUCH KHWAAB SAGAR SE, LAUNCHED IN 2014 BY HONOURABLE SPEAKER OF LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY .I WAS CALLED TO FRANCE FOR THE LITERARY MEET AND DISCUSS MY WORKS AND WAS FELICITATED THERE BY “HOUSE OF LIFE”, A LITERARY SOCIETY AND ROTARY CLUB, NANTES.IT WAS DECIDED BY THE SOCIETY TO TRANSLATE MY WORK TO FRENCH.I WAS FELICITATED BY NAUTICAL INSTITUTE,LONDON FOR MY BOOK AND NOMINATED FOR SAILORS TODAY AWARD 2014 IN EXEMPLARY PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORY .MY BOOK IS PLACED IN THE LIBRARY OF SAHITYA ACADEMY AND PRESIDENT HOUSE AND GOT A PERSONAL CALL FROM THE HOUSE CONGRATULATING ME FOR MY WORK.DURING THIS PERIOD I WAS INTERVIEWED BY VARIOUS NEWSPAPERS WITH THE LIKES OF HINDUSTAN TIMES,GARWAL POST,AMAR UJALA,DANIK JAGRAN,RASHTRIYA SAHARA, I NEXT AND RADIO INTERVIEW ON RADIO KHUSHI AND RECENT ONE IN RADIO ZINDAGI ON 8TH JANUARY 2016 ALONG WITH BOOK REVIEW BY DANIK JAGARAN , REVIEW STATION,BOOKWORMMUSING,WHITESCAPE ETC.
FRENCH TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK IS AVAILABLE BY THE NAME OF “LE MOINEAU DANS LE MIROIR”AVAILABLE IN ALL MAJOR BOOK STORES IN FRANCE AND OFFLINE ELSEWHERE.
RECENTLY MY EPIC POETIC BOOK “UNANSWERED”WAS RELEASED AT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, GURGAON ON 5TH DECEMBER BY FAMOUS DIRECTOR MR SUDHEER MISHRA FOLLOWED BY PANEL DISCUSSION BYACTRESS SHABANA AZMI AND PALLAVI JOSHI. BOOK WAS APPRECIATED IN BOTH BOLLYWOOD AS WELL AS LITERARY WORLDS. DUE TO THE GROWING POPULARITY OF THE BOOK, UNANSWERED IS AGAIN BEING LAUNCHED AT DEHRADUN ON 17TH JANUARY BY HONORABLE GOVERNOR OF UTTARAKHAND, INDIA.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Unanswered, I know it is quite an unusual kind of title for a book of poems barring a few articles. Before I say anything more about my book, I would like to say something about myself and my thought process. Born and brought up in Dehradun,India. I have always shared a close affinity with nature. I used to love, I still do, watching nature and ponder how it can be loving and cruel at the same time. I grew up with my thoughts and took to sailing, a job were I fit in perfectly. My roving mind now had more to ponder about. Often have I stood alone on the deck of my ship, feeling the vibrations of a surging ocean underneath and watching the sky change its colours and mood without any indication. At times I have been frightened…. bewildered… mesmerized…all at once. I respect nature in all its aspects…its benevolence… its fury…its colours… its stillness…its suddenness…its unpredictability…everything!
Then I look at us…I mean we humans…we are the most superior…the most intelligent…the most progressive of all living creatures and yet the most miserable of all living creatures so long as we are shrouded in false ego and ignorance. Nature has its laws fixed and does not discriminate. It is we who draw what we call bad luck. I quote Cassius from Julius Ceaser” fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings…”All that is required is an insight into ourselves and faith in divine providence. Here lies the crux of my book ‘unanswered’.
Unanswered is all about finding the answers which lay deeply hidden in the core of our hearts but we fail to discover it as we are covered with fog of ego and desires. Unanswered is all about revealing those answers.
Non fiction cum poetic novel are based on life as question and answers. Each poem is supported by an article explaining the poem and reason behind writing same.
So much of questions in me which in turn coming from this mortal world led me to find answers for same and giving solace in this painful world.Why is there pain and sufferings, why do we die,what is morality,how can we become immortals are among those many questions which one will find answers to in my book in a very very simplified form. If my writing can bring peace into someone’s life that would solve the purpose for which book was written.
“From where it came,there shall it go”
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
O yes, my best poetry, article or essays come out when my heart is strained with roughs of life, of weather or fury of sea. When i was surrounded by cyclone, poetry on death came out and when attacked by pirates, wheel of time took shape. Each and every person around me is poetry, all i need is to read his life through his face and pen it down.
You should be short and simple, that’s why I prefer poetry as compared to prose and prose to fiction. Poetry opens your mind to vast universe of if’s and but’s depending on persons own interpretation and intellectuality. Poem, irrespective of fiction, let you be what you want to be rather than catching you into a web which a writer creates and make you think what he want you to think.
The world was created out of poetry, vedas are poetry, bhagwad geeta ,song of almighty is the greatest poetic adventure of all times. Thus poetry is what brings you closest to yourself.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Khalil gibran are among those great many poets whom i religiously follow and is constantly influenced by. But my greatest inspiration has been mahayogi, great spiritual poet Sri Aurobindo ghosh and his epic poetic adventure “Savitri”. Whenever i am stuck somewhere, in my thought process, in word building i look upto him and there i find all answers to my questions.
My favourite fiction book being mother by Maxim Gorki, the real man by Boris Pelisvi and great expectation by Charles dickens.
What are you working on now?
My next work is fiction novel “Journey to the next level” which is a story of a man who is in a rescue mission of a soul who has been taken away by death god. It deals with an adventure which a soul faces in his journey to those level which has never been traversed by anyone alive. It is basically explanation of life after death and what happens after that.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social media is the best platform one can utilize to promote his or her books. Any thing available should be utilized to make your book available to everyone around. You main task should be to make it known to people that a book by this name exists, read or not read is secondary.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing, dont think, just keep writing, write for your happiness, success will automatically follow.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Why only poetry, try fiction, people will relate to you more easily”
What are you reading now?
Life, faces and heart, reading them is what i am good with and will keep doing it since they are the one which guide me to bliss. I can never get fed up reading them.
What’s next for you as a writer?
To get my books to reach to each and every person round the globe, so that they find relief from their traumatic lives through them. My life is for them, my spiritual experiences to bring peace to their pains and sufferings.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Robinson crusoe, Life of a pie and of course Unanswered
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