‘Authors shouldn’t be salesmen’

In the city for HLF 2015, Ashok Banker talks about living with words, eating words and feeding on to the language

January 26, 2015 05:36 pm | Updated January 27, 2015 04:35 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

Ashok Banker interacts with his fans at the Hyderabad Literary Festival. Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

Ashok Banker interacts with his fans at the Hyderabad Literary Festival. Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

Easy Library, the little corner library near Shaikpet Dargah has a special visitor for its first anniversary celebrations. Shelves stacked with literary classics, pulp fiction, novels and children’s books smell of glue and printer’s ink as writer Ashok Banker walks around with an air of delight. With his latest book Ten Kings by his side, Ashok perches himself on a stool for a freewheeling chat.

In the city for the Hyderabad Literary Festival, Ashok says he is discovering a new Hyderabad. “I have been to Hyderabad once long ago. Today, I basically drove over a flyover, an expressway named after one ex-prime minister to another expressway named after another ex-prime minister. I have been driving very happily with Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao and that’s how I saw the city,” he says with a laugh and adds, “Hyderabad is lovely. It is beautiful. I think it still has a small town atmosphere in the good sense of the word with modern amenities.”

Engaging sessions Be it the recent The Hindu Lit for Life in Chennai, the just-concluded Jaipur Lit Fest or Hyderabad Literary Festival, the common factor is the engaging and stimulating sessions hosting intellectual minds. What do these festivals mean for writers? “I will give you two answers for this,” states Ashok and elaborates, “For most writers realistically, they are sales and marketing opportunities. For me on the other hand, I often don’t care about whether my books are available on sale or not. I don’t plug my own books, because I think authors shouldn’t be salesmen. I think the shared love of the written word brings us together. For me that intimate camaraderie that you share with someone over a book is what lit fests should be about. I think both ways are valid as long as there is some genuine interest in books.”

What is striking about Ashok’s personality is his infectious enthusiasm and witty humour. “I was dropped on my head as a child by my mother, luckily the writing side survived,” he laughs. “I am infected with words. Language is kind of a benevolent disease and it comes naturally. Margaret Atwood, after she won the Nobel Prize, was asked about how she writes. She said, “Well, I am writing all the time even when someone is introduced to me by my friends, I play with their names. I make up my own version of their names.” And I think that’s what writing is all about. It is about the play with language and keeping your language and use of language alive every minute. I have a phrase that sums this up which is: A writer is always writing even when he is not.’

Talking of Tamil author Perumal Murugan’s decision to quit writing, Ashok says it is a tragic incident. “I think one shouldn’t blame the bird for the direction in which the wind blows. You can’t blame the sun for making you feel hot. In the same way, you can’t blame the artist for his art. It’s a course of nature. It is as integral to human existence as birthing a child, which is why creative arts is often compared to the process of gestation and birth. It is like accusing a bird of making the wind fly the wrong direction or accusing the wind itself of blowing your hat off. The wind didn’t mean it to be personal. Accept that this is the world and you cannot control everything. I think all these people will get their answers sooner or later when they realise the one artist they can’t control is God. Can we censor God? Can we censor what he or she creates? I think that frustration they take out on us, lesser mortals.”

From mythology retellings and crime thrillers to fiction and essays, Ashok straddles multiple genres with ease. “I don’t write genres. I am a radical humanist. I hate labels but if one has to put words to me it has to be that. And, what unites all my writing is the sense of radical humanism. I am concerned with all humanity because I am human so that for me is the sense of all good writing whether it’s mythology, Enid Blyton, crime fiction, spy thrillers or non-fiction. I think it has to be informed by the author’s sensibilities. You have to be true to who you are. It has to come out of some genuine core and that’s why it is not at all difficult for me. The story decides its genre. I write about the people and am writing from the heart.”

Ashok says he never experienced a writer’s block. “A jharna makes the water fall. I think to be a writer that flow has to be there. If there is a water source or water flow then you can channel it but if there’s no water fall than how is there a creation? For me, it is the opposite. I need a tap or a system to stop the flow from time to time or control it.”

Besides writing, Ashok’s time is occupied with writing scripts for television and films. His new shows include: Chakravarthan Ashok Samrat on Colours, Chaand (a 'scifi' series to be aired in October) on Star Plus and a show on Zee called Chanakya . Films include Mahabharat (to be directed by Abhishek Kapoor) and is writing a script along with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. Several books in the historical series will also follow.

A voracious reader Ashok begins and ends his day with a book and reads 500 books every year! “I don’t smoke, drink or party. I always find time to read. It is something I have to do constantly — living with words and eating words and feeding on to the language. The wellspring never dries up.”

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