1. When did u find yourself lost in the world of words? 

Pretty early actually. My mom was an MA in English, she was a lecturer in Lady Irwin College, New Delhi. She had this big trunk of English classics – Shakespeare, Dickens, Thackeray — which she used to lug around every time we shifted (which was quite often). Everyone in our family was a voracious reader – my sisters, cousins. I used to spend hours in the neighborhood library – I knew where each book was kept; the guy used to chase me out at closing time. 

In parallel, my writing developed. My English teachers used to like my creative writing a lot. They also used to warn me that if I wrote the way I did, I wouldn’t get marks in my Board Exams (which turned out to be true). Anyway, IIT studies took over and then it was 4 years of Engineering, but even in senior school and at IIT, I used to take part in debates, elocutions…anything literary.

While I used to compose short poems and wrote longer essays on various subjects of interest all through my corporate years, I guess I took up serious fiction writing around 5 years ago.

To an extent, yes. There are genres, like the fantasy for instance, where there doesn’t appear to be much by way of self-experience. Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings, for instance, is an entirely imagined world at one level. However, viewed another way, even in such a fantasy world, the issues, the conflicts, the emotions, places, landscapes – are familiar to us, from the real world we live in. They have to be, otherwise, we wouldn’t relate to them at all. In other genres (especially contemporary literary fiction, which I write), the realism is much deeper.

I find that the power, strength, and conviction in my writing are that much greater when I base it on something I have seen, heard, felt or been able to imagine without too much of a stretch. When I extend it beyond my range of experiences or conception, it feels weaker to me. This doesn’t, of course, mean, everything needs to be autobiographical, or that every character is one you’ve necessarily known. It is the combination of life experiences to create new fictitious people, scenes, and conflicts that the magic lies.

3. Most memorable life event...

Quite the same as for everyone else. My marriage. The birth of my two sons. The one time I had a Trail (I think it was a 777) in teen-patti, and everyone had packed already.  

I can tell you what my views are, and I’ll leave it to others to classify what I am and form their judgments.

      On the basic question of equal rights for men and women, in terms of a right to vote, access to education, property and inheritance rights, job opportunities, equal pay for equal work and so on…I’m all for it. I think there is no doubt that there has been historical discrimination, and that countries and societies must correct it, through affirmative action where necessary (as is done for other such corrections).

      While legal equality has been achieved in some places (right to vote for instance) and in other places the battle still goes on (the women’s reservation bill), societal attitudes will take much longer to change. Patriarchy is seeped into our culture and like with many other areas, the law is one thing, the practice quite another. These attitudes are not prevalent amongst males alone – in many households, women and mothers are equally responsible in practicing discrimination between boys and girls, guiding them towards different career choices and so on. Patriarchy has been dominant for thousands of years; we may want things to change and change fast, but I expect it will take another century at least. A century ago, women couldn’t vote even in the West; now Germany, UK and possibly the US will have women at the top; so definitely progress has been made. Yet there are parts of the world where nothing seems to have changed, including in our own country, so the road is long.

  I’m not a big fan of symbolism, so things like gender-neutral language and excessive political correctness irk me a bit. It’s difficult to write his / her every time, and converting every linguistically traditional ‘man’ to ‘person’ is a pain. The option of using a specifically female example – for instance, when you talk about a customer and say ‘she was angry with the service’ – seems somewhat contrived to me, almost like a flag that says ‘hey, see, I’m being PC.’ I think when you get into controversies around these things, the whole broader movement gets trivialized to some extent. On the other hand, it is true that the privileged never feel they are privileged, and it is only those hurt who feel the insensitivity of the privileged. As an example, being a Tamilian who grew up in Delhi and who can speak fluent Hindi (and can curse fluently, when called upon to do so), I cringe every time I see South Indians caricatured in Bollywood. Mehmood in Padosan was fine, but that was literally an age ago. I have many North Indian friends, though, who can’t understand what’s my problem – they don’t even realize it could be a problem. Maybe this is like that. I don’t know.

     In some regards, I am a traditionalist. Biology dictates that while men and women may be equal, they will never be identical (and the world would be a damn boring place, wouldn’t it, if they were!). So there are going to be roles that going to lean towards one gender or the other. Childbirth, nurturing and caregiving are always going to be titled towards women, and the modern-day equivalents of the good ole hunting-foraging-fighting are going to tilt towards the men. This is not to say that one should force a girl towards one, or a boy towards the other; certainly choice and aptitude need to be taken into consideration. But I do believe every woman needs to have a certain base level degree of competence in say something like cooking (after that level it’s entirely up to their interest) and every guy needs to know how to drive, read a map, change a car tyre and use some tools to undertake basic repairs around the house. And of course, each gender should learn and use the ‘other gender's skills’. I hope people can understand this minimum tip towards the traditions of old, which I think we should retain.

5. How important is for a writer to be a good reader?

 I think it should be fairly obvious from my first answer that I consider it essential. You can’t be a good writer unless you’re a good reader. I read somewhere that some bestselling authors in India said they don’t consider it necessary. I disagree. They may sell a million copies, but I would still not consider them to be good writers (and nor would anyone with any understanding of literature). Good marketers, maybe. 

Every once in a hundred years, the untutored genius comes along in some field, who without any prior exposure or training creates something that breaks all the rules and stuns everybody. That’s a one in a billion chance. For everyone else (and this includes people considered geniuses in their own right), the road involves hard toil – learning the rules, the conventions, observing what other greats have done before, harnessing one’s own creative talents, figuring out what works and what doesn’t, and then developing your own unique style. Michelangelo spent years learning his craft; Beethoven learned from Mozart; Mozart learnt from Bach; Van Gogh toiled in his lonely attic and under the elements for years, learning his craft…If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for our mere mortals.

6. What is social media for you? How do you see social media? 

It has its uses. Certainly, it has helped me connect with old friends, who’ve dispersed around the world, whom I thought I’d never see or hear from again. There’s too much information flying around, though and people are becoming very reactive, forming instant opinions and judgments, attention spans are reducing…so it has its dark side. Like with most things in life, one needs to use in moderation.

7. What would you like to convey to the young literature enthusiasts?

Well, read. Keep reading. It’s a joy for a lifetime. Books will stay with you in good times and bad. Read the classics – they’re classic for a reason. Read whatever catches your fancy, tickles your funny bone, stimulates your imagination.

Learn to recognize trash when you see it. And don’t waste time on it. Time is short; the list of To-be-read fabulous books is long. 

[ Sriram Subramanian is an Engineer from IIT Roorkee and an MBA from IIM Calcutta. His debut novel Rain- A Survivor’s Tale was recently released. ]