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.
Author: Thank you, I really feel blessed that my very first book has received a lot of praise from readers, writers, and critics. Fortunately, this book is published at the same time as this year’s Amarnath Yatra, which is the subject matter of my book, so this book has been taken hand in hand by the pilgrims and other readers interested in reading about religion and travel. The book has received a lot of praise in the local media, including radio, TV, and newspapers, as well as on social media, and has received a lot of suggestions from readers regarding its subject matter. Many readers have urged writers to write more such books while appreciating this wonderful confluence of religion and travel. Just last week, I was invited by His Excellency Kalraj Mishra, the Governor of Rajasthan, to discuss this book at Raj Bhavan. In short, in a very short time, this book has been able to make its place among readers, Shiva devotees, and travel lovers. I am very grateful to the readers for their love and their encouragement, this will inspire me in my work in the future.
The Literature Times: What encourages you to become an Author?
Author: To be honest, I never thought that I would write a book like this. But the divine experiences that I and my fellow travellers had during the Amarnath Yatra inspired me to write about my experiences in the form of a book. I felt that the information about the Amarnath Yatra and this holy abode of Lord Shiva should reach everyone. With this inspiration, I started writing this book, and it is in front of you now. If I can inspire even a single traveller to go on the Amarnath Yatra through this book, I will consider myself blessed. This inner inspiration encouraged me to write this book. I had completed the writing work for the entire book in just two months. Throughout the time, I feel that Lord Shiva himself is making me write this book, the thoughts are his, I am only the medium. Becoming a writer is also the result of the grace of Shiva. I will try to write the journey of other scared places of Shiva in the form of a book in the coming time.
The Literature Times: What are your favorite topics of writing? Please tell us something about your interest areas in the literature.
Author: My two favourite subjects for writing are religion and travel. Where religion is a way of life, travelling is a journey to know the unknown. For me, writing on religion is about understanding the religious narratives and beliefs in the current context and using them to improve human life. There are many good things in our religious scriptures and philosophy that the new generation should know and learn, but unfortunately, due to modernity and westernisation, we are moving away from the glory, science, and learnings of Sanatan philosophy. My attempt to write on the religion of Sanatan Dharma is to understand the ancient knowledge from a modern perspective and introduce our rich and scientific culture to the new generation. Another favourite subject of my writing is travel. In fact, the story of the entire development of human life is the story of human travel and love. Years ago, our forefathers travelled to different parts of the world and settled in different places, and human civilization developed. Travel inspires us to take risks and make new discoveries in life, so travelling is my favourite subject. I myself have travelled all over India and to more than 20 countries and have written about the life, people, and traditions there.
The Literature Times: We were hoping you could tell us about some of those writers who had inspired you and whom you follow!
Author: There is a long line of my favourite writers that goes from Babu Devkinandan Khatri to Munshi Premchand, Ruskin Bond, RK Narayan, Jim Corbett, and Arundhati Roy. But the two writers who influenced me the most are Satyajit Ray and Bhagwan Osho Rajneesh. Both of these authors are amazing in their respective fields. In the manner in which an illusion is created by telling the story and depicting the events, hardly any other writer would have been able to do better than Satyajit Babu. His writing seems to speak like his cinema. On the other hand, each and every word of Lord Rajneesh challenges our conservative beliefs and thinking on life and God. He has provided an entirely new perspective on defining human life and the meaning of dharma. Both of these writers were actually born with the boon of Saraswati. Whatever is written by them is established as evidence in the history of mankind. That’s why these two authors are my all-time favourites.
The Literature Times: The titles seem different and catchy; how you decided it? Please let us know the story behind it.
Author: This book of mine, Ek Hi To Dil Hai Bhole-Amarnath Yatra, is not actually a journey sequence; it is just a praise of Lord Shiva. There were many difficulties in our Amarnath Yatra last year; sometimes it seemed that the Yatra would not be possible, and sometimes it seemed that it would be difficult to survive adverse claimatic situations during the yatra. But throughout the journey, Lord Bhole Shambhu appeared to be carrying a trishul in front of us, and whenever there was any difficulty, wherever we stopped or bowed down, that Supreme Lord took away all our troubles without saying anything. At every step, we felt that Bhole is our protector in this journey, and he is winning our hearts every moment with his kindness and mercy. Being influenced by this, the name given to this book is Ek Hi To Dil Hai Bhole (how many times will you take)—the Amarnath Yatra.
The Literature Times: What are your achievements so far? Tell us something about your writing career.
Author: For the last several years, I have been associated with the work of creative writing through short stories and radio programmes; many of these stories have also been published from time to time in various national and local magazines. But I started writing seriously after my first book, Ek Hi Toh Dil Hai Bhole Amarnath Yatra. This book gave me the confidence to compose a huge book by adding small incidents, which would prove to be very helpful for my work in the future.
The Literature Times: What is your current goal in writing a career? How do you see your future in writing?
Author: The way my very first book has received a lot of affection from readers and writers has inspired me to write continuously in the future as well. I feel that I have huge possibilities and a bright future as a writer. One more book of mine is almost ready, and research on the subject matter of two others is going on. In the coming time, I will try to bring more variety to my writing, which will definitely help me become a better writer and creator.
The Literature Times: Are there any other books being worked by you? Please let us know about your future projects.
Author: Currently, I am working on three projects. My first book, which is mostly completed, is a love story. I got the plot of this story during my trip to Australia in April. This is the story of two lovers who come from different countries and cultures and then drift apart. My second book is about the mythological character Raktabeej, who was blessed by Lord Brahma so that every drop of his blood that fell on the earth would give rise to another Raktabeej, an equally powerful demon. The third story My first book, Ek Hi To Dil Hai Bhole, is a travelogue similar to the Amarnath Yatra, in which I have tried to explain the mythological and scientific journeys of Adi Kailash and Om Parvat in the past. To be honest, I am very excited with the kind of affection my first book has received from the readers, and it has inspired me to write more and complete the current projects as soon as possible.
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?
Author: My opinion, the kinds of new experiments that are happening today have never happened before. Social media and online web series have given authors many opportunities and freedom to write on various topics. It has also given them a chance to reach thousands of new readers across the world. Today, Indian authors are being read and recognised all over the world, which is a very good thing. But on the other side, I see that today’s literature has started getting affected a lot by the market. Most of the work of writing is done on the basis of market research, and many times while writing, the norms are fiercely violated in the name of modernity, which is not fair in my opinion.
The Literature Times: How easy/ difficult it was for you to publish your book? What message would you like to give to budding authors?
Author: This is my first book, which is why there were definitely some problems with writing and publishing. The problem related to publication was resolved after contacting the publisher of this book, Evincepub Publication, who helped me a lot from formatting to designing this book. Problems related to writing definitely took some time to prepare the book, like how it took a lot of time to improve the spelling of the language. Some words in Hindi are written in many ways, and each type is considered correct, so the choice of correct spelling is important. It took a lot of labour to get it. Apart from this, writing mythological references and history of various places on a scientific basis was also very challenging. It is a matter of pleasure that the readers supported the research done behind the events given in the book, and many people later told me that they learned many new things about the Amarnath yatra after reading this book. This in itself was a very satisfying experience.
My suggestion to fellow authors is to do a lot of research on the subject matter of your book and see how you can provide the latest information to your readers in an entertaining way.
