About The Author : Aakash Khanwani is a 24 year old poet based in New Delhi, India. He is more connected to his words than he seems to himself. He is a stand up poet and a script writer. A boy who started writing for himself 5 years back, has now published his first book ‘Kuch Ansunney Alfaaz’, He’s currently writing a romance thriller novel which will soon be available. Currently pursuing an MBA and doing freelance script writing, he has written a script for a film called ‘All I see is you’. Aakash has grown up reading and taking inspirations from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab, Gulzar Sahab, Jaun Eliya Sahab, Waseem Barelvi Sahab, Mirza Ghalib Sahab and Zakhir Khan Sahab. With an eye for small details, he puts his thoughts into words by taking inspiration from all things around him. He believes, ‘Poetry can be felt everywhere, you just need to have an eye for it.’
The Literature Times: Welcome to The Literature Times, author. Congratulations on the release of your book. What responses are you getting from your readers? Please share your experience with this book.
Aakash khanwani : Responses are good till now, people are actually connecting to my words from the depth of their hearts. Every word is written with deep emotions and readers are feeling those emotions deeply too. I’m glad with the positive response of the book.
The Literature Times: What encourages you to become an Author?
Aakash khanwani : My love for words, I’ve been writing since 5 years now, when I started reading and taking inspirations Nusrat sahab, Gulzar Sahab and many more, I could only notice magic in their words, I wanted to create that same magic with my words, I wanted people to define my work as magic too, Hence, the encouragement to become an author was pure magic.
The Literature Times: What are your favorite topics of writing? Please tell us something about your interest areas in the literature.
Aakash khanwani :My favourite topic of writing is Sufism. From the beginning, love and poetry have been intimately related with Sufism. A poet seeks to evoke moods and convey meaning by drawing attention to the problem of language by way of language itself—with striking images and metaphors, structural and phonemic patterning, and the beat of rhyme and meter, and that’s what I have done in this book, made a world of words and gave readers a chance to live in that world.
The Literature Times: We were hoping you could tell us about some of those writers who had inspired you and whom you follow!
Aakash khanwani :No writing journey can begin without reading the legend, god of writing Ghalib, I fell in love with ideas and hence my interest got build up and also as I have been a passionate fan of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab, he tops the list. I started my writing journey by listening to qawalis of Nusrat Sahab. Slowly, I started listening to Gulzar Sahab and became his devotee. His words have the power to take you to a divine land filled with compassion, bliss, and love. Then I fell in love with Ahmed Faraz Sahab, Waseem Barelvi Sahab, Jaun Eliya, Munawwar Rana Sahab and Zakir Khan, Zakir Bhai taught me simplicity and how one can create magic with simplicity. All these writers play a very very big role in inspiring me.
The Literature Times: The titles seem different and catchy; how you decided it? Please let us know the story behind it.
Aakash khanwani :‘Kuch Ansunney Alfaaz’, As I was writing my book I used to think of a title simple and lovable and suddenly this title just poped in my head and I was like yes, this is it, this seems perfect, Kuch ansunney alfaaz – some unheard words out there in world waiting to be heard, I wanted readers to complete the motive of some unheard words and make them alive by reading them.
The Literature Times: What are your achievements so far? Tell us something about your writing career.
Aakash khanwani :My achievements are not very big but yes I have truly won myself in this writing journey. I used to write for myself then started writing blogs after sometime I just started uploading it everywhere and the response I got from people was very motivating, Unknown people taking out the time and messaging me as to how they feel good and how could they relate to it deeply after listening to my poetry, my nazm and my shayaris. I have done Stand up poetry in Mumbai, Delhi and Ncr. I have written short films for various youtube channels. My writing career has just started and there’s no looking back now.
The Literature Times: What is your current goal in writing a career? How do you see your future in writing?
Aakash khanwani :As an Author and a Script Writer, I just want to write and make a good living out of it in the future, I want to write for Indian Cinema and Indian Industry, I know it’s a lot when you say this but I want to change the writing in the Indian television industry, I want to write deeply about love, heart breaks, emotions, feelings and yes the truth. I want to create magic with my upcoming stories and yes I have started working on them. I want to create an ocean of deeply felt stories and I hope I will make my dream come true.
The Literature Times: Are there any other books being worked by you? Please let us know about your future projects.
Aakash khanwani :Currently I am writing a romantic drama novel, It’s a love story with realistic emotions. It will be published soon.
The Literature Times: How you see Indian writing in the 21st century? What changes do you see in the modern way of writing? Do you feel it has been changed by the time?
Aakash khanwani :Literature has changed by the way readers perceive the tone and mood. Personal opinion and preference have impacted books over time. Just like technology Indian writing is upgrading, people write with the same emotions but portray them in a very new and heart felt way, which is important for this era, people evolve with time and so do writers.
The Literature Times: How easy/ difficult it was for you to publish your book? What message would you like to give to budding authors?
Aakash Khanwani: To be honest, yes it was difficult. To write a book you need clarity in your brain and in your words which can be difficult for people out there, after that, most difficult part is to literally read your work thousands of time so that no error is there when it gets published, any error can upset the reader and you don’t want upset your new readers. Also, to find the perfect publisher for your book takes a lot of time, you need to talk to every publisher, see what they have to offer you and every offer can’t suit you. So it’s a world within a world, to publish your book with full satisfaction, you need to put in way too much efforts because you love your words, and when you love something so precious, you can’t take the easy way out.
