Tell something about you.
Well, to start with I would like to introduce myself as an Ayurvedic Specialist pertaining to Shalya Chikitsa (Surgery). I’m an emotional person and easily moved by the pain and suffering of people. Right from the beginning, the sad and complicated stories of human life catch my attention and disturb my mind to the extent of finding the reasons behind them. I think that life is unpredictable and mysterious, so as the human nature I remain very passionate about knowing the complexities of human behaviour.
When did you start your work on first creation and what made you pen down the thoughts.
During my college life I would write poems and short stories in Hindi. Those were the days when there were no computers and no emails and I had to post my work to the Hindi newspapers and magazines, a costly affair. Despite that, I would save money by curtailing other expenses and try my best to get my write-ups published. Unfortunately, I couldn’t succeed in publishing even a single story or a poem anywhere. One day, when I couldn’t endure the burden of unpublished material returned with the tag of formal sorry from the editors, I went to the roof of my ancestral house in my village and within seconds, pieces of the papers containing my thoughts inscribed over them were flying into the air and lost into the fields. After tearing my diary, I was feeling light and slept like a man free from bondage. But, I was wrong. Those small pieces of my diary got implanted like seeds into my heart and brain to be germinated later and I started to write again, though after a huge gap of twenty years. I was moved to write when I interacted with my patients and came to know their sufferings.
In the world of love stories, where do you see yourself standing and how you cooperate?
Hmm, love is an important longing and emotion of our lives man has craved since the dawn of life as the hate, greed, anger, jealousy and others. According to our vedas, the life in nature is governed by three main attributes namely; Satva, Raj, and Tam. And the presence of only one attribute cannot run the life. Whereas Love is Saatvik (Pure), the other falls under the domain of either Rajasik (Materialistic) or Tamasik (Impure). Therefore the subject matter of my stories and novels revolves around all of them including love making them a wholesome reading material.
What type of thoughts run in your mind when you sit to write?
Well, firstly, I try to grasp an interesting and compelling story from the happenings around me by observing and interacting with people including my patients and even strangers and sometimes through newspapers. Then, I decide the theme and weave the plot based on the aims and objects of the characters. The final job of writing starts with the development of characters as per their goals and interests. I take care that the actions of the characters should synchronize with their nature and self-interest. One more thing I do is that I portray the story as it is without justifying whether it’s good or bad, social or unsocial, legal or illegal or whatever, simply because they are relative terms. I believe that something good for a person may be bad for another and so on. So I don’t interfere into the main story.
As we know, you have faced many of rejection for work from publisher; will you please give light to it to let us know how you conquer the defeat?
Initially, I got a publisher for my Hindi story-book Saat Paheliyan in 2010 which increased my confidence to pursue writing English novels. When I finished my first novel ‘Life On The Edge’ in 2011, I started the submissions not only in India but worldwide through emails. Consequently, rejections started to pour in my mailbox. But after a painstaking perseverance, I was successful in managing an American literary agent named Ms. Jane Dowary who liked my work and addressed me as a wonderful writer. That day I got a confidence that at least I can write and will be published one day. The confidence gained through this exercise prompted me to start my second novel ‘Even God Doesn’t Know!’ Unfortunately, Jane couldn’t get success in convincing a publisher to publish my first novel Life On The Edge, which is yet to publish.
Ultimately, my perseverance showed the color and my second novel ‘Even God Doesn’t Know!’ found a home—Blackbuck Publications, New Delhi in 2014. Once I happened to read an article by Ashwin Sanghi where he suggested a writer should be thick skinned enough to deter any disappointment arising out of rejections. I too followed this rule and made myself immune to rejections. Now, I’ve a treasure of almost five hundred rejections saved in my email folder named Personal.
Your book Even God Doesn’t Know and Aquarium are appreciated by readers. How you take appreciation and criticism?
Appreciation and criticism are the two sides of the same coin. Where appreciation boosts your morale to write further, criticism encourages, refines, and polishes you to write better. Both should come with honesty and sincerity from scrupulous persons and means and not from those who either try to flatter or are quasi experts.
What you expect from your readers?
A writer’s success is defined by the number of readers he/she has. Readers are the ultimate king-makers. But I would like to suggest the readers not to get carried away just by the tag of bestseller. They must find and read new writers also and I’m sure they will get a few gems out of the sand--far better, far superior than the so called bestsellers.
Any plan of new book? Would you like to discuss in brief?
A writer should never cease to write. During all this hustle-bustle, I managed to complete my third novel ‘Wedding Vows’. The gist of the novel is that—everybody takes wedding vows in some form or the other, religion-wise, but nobody cares for those vows afterwards.
Also, I'm writing my fourth novel ‘The Tracker and A Heart Stealer’. It’s the story of an electronic surveillance expert; a super tracker in police who fails to track the right directions in his own life.
Message to your readers.
One more thing I would like to request is that the readers should apprise the writer about their views about the book for the betterment of one and all.
Love you all.
Kamal Paneru
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