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| Sanjay and Tisca Chopra at The Chambers, Taj Bengal, for the seventh edition of An Author’s Afternoon on Friday. Pictures: Rashbehari Das |
The seventh edition of An Author’s Afternoon, presented by Shree Cement with Prabha Khaitan Foundation and Taj Bengal, in association with Jaipur-based literary consultancy Siyahi, was unique in ways more than one. While a serving pilot for the past 18 years, Captain Sanjay Chopra came forth as a surprise author with his collection of short stories Talespin, it was Bollywood actress Tisca Chopra who took over from hubby to lead the chat. A select audience delved deep into the gaps left in history and myths with the author, who has woven together 14 tales spanning Greek, Roman and Persian history on the one hand and the World War II and the Indo-Pak conflict on the other.
Tisca Chopra: I just hope this will not just be a domestic squabble but be rather literary and civilised. Sanjay is unusual by two accounts — one that he is the only man to have tolerated me for 15-odd years; and second, he is the second serving pilot in the world to have turned an author. Tell us something about your book...
Sanjay Chopra: I think I would do without the mike, since the first instinct when I pick up one is to say, “Good evening ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking… (The audience bursts out laughing).”
Tisca made me sound really boring, as if there were only two of us (pilots) who locked themselves up in their hotel rooms and started writing! There are many pilots who have turned authors, though not while they were still in service, like Roald Dahl, Arthur Hailey….
Talespin is a collection of 14 short stories, a mixed bag — there is historical fiction, crime, mafia, Mughal damsels… it is very difficult to describe them.
I started off with writing just one short story (Turache?) and sent it to a contest in the UK called Invisible Ink and when I won it I was a little alarmed and thought maybe the publishing standards have fallen all over the world and now is the time to make my place (laughs).
Tisca: I believe HarperCollins is not the first publisher…
Sanjay: No. A publisher in the US, called Old Line Publishing, had approached me right after reading the contest-winning story and asked me ‘Do you have any more?’ I said, ‘Yes, I have plenty more, how many do you need?’ Back then I had all of five. He asked for 10. I had bare skeletons of another five, so I wrote 10 and sent them across. They were then published in the digital form. That collection was called Said and Done.
Tisca: And how did HarperCollins come about?
Sanjay: It is very difficult to get published, especially by an A-grade house. Once in London, we were invited to tea by Lord Meghnad Desai, whom I didn’t know well back then. So I said, we will only go if he would host us at the House of Lords. So he called us there and I had the most fascinating two hours. He has knowledge about everything, including storytelling, fiction books… he took up these stories and he got really fascinated by them. He used to send me a critique every two days for each of the stories and I will always be thankful to him. He was the one who spoke to HarperCollins for me and even gave a blurb for the book jacket.
Tisca: So how did these stories germinate?
Sanjay: (Indicating a ‘NO’ with his finger) I cannot reveal that. I don’t think any author would do that…. I don’t know where they come from. I think what you need to have is a very strong ‘what if?’ When you read a newspaper article, the question should be, ‘what if the gender were changed... what if the players were changed?’
Tisca: Is it helpful or a deterrent to have an actress wife?
Sanjay: (smiles)
Tisca: No comments?
Sanjay: I think a good question would be if it’s a deterrent to be married at all!
In the dedications I have made in the book, there are my parents, my spiritual guru and Tisca. And I am not exaggerating when I say that ‘Thank God muses live amongst us in this world, so that one day we may marry them’. She’s a very creative person and as such actors per se can visualise things very well; she helps me a lot with the visual aspect of the book. How the characters would look, the scene…
Tisca: Given the fact that we have been surrounded by actors, directors, painters, all sorts of artistes who have been in our house sharing stories or giving suggestions of how the story could be like… I think that as a whole was also very important.
Sanjay: Even a few years back, before I started writing, I just looked at them as a drain on my whisky. But now I really appreciate them (the audience bursts out laughing).
Sanjay: I am sure everyone would also like to know what you are doing; you have a film and a book coming up...
Tisca: I do have a book coming up. It is based on Bollywood, as much as I dislike calling the Hindi film industry so... it is a very difficult area to traverse... I have seen newcomers falling into the same old traps of agents, casting couch... and how one ends up negotiating on everything but the acting. The book is titled Get Your Act Together. About the film, I can just say this much that it is Ankur Arora Murder Case, releasing on May 17.
Tisca: And what about your next work?
Sanjay: My next work is a novel about a girl called Firdaus based in Kashmir, in the backdrop of terrorism. Firdaus is a Persian word which means heaven and Kashmir is often referred to as Firdaus. The girl’s struggle is very symbolic of the struggle of Kashmir itself.
K. Mohanchandran
General manager, Taj Bengal: Two of your favourite authors?
Sanjay: It is a long list, but I am fascinated by people like Stephen King, Robert Ludlum… one particular book that has made a real impact on me is The Far Pavilions (by MM Kaye). She managed to get that entire backdrop (of the British Raj) right at your doorstep.
K. M.: But, there aren’t any short story writers on that long list…
Sanjay: There is Saki, of course. To be absolutely honest, when I first started writing, I didn’t think I would have the kind of time to pen down anything more than a short story. I did an online course with the London School of Journalism and I started specialising in short stories so that the time constraint could be managed.
Saira Shah Halim
Image consultant, communication and branding expert, freelance writer: If you had to choose the most exhilarating moment, which one would it be — your maiden flight and the first feel of taking off or when you finished your book, having pursued your hidden passion?
Sanjay: I am thankful that I can do both. I can actually write about my first experience. Seriously speaking, what happens is there are a few moments in the past that one never forgets, the feel, the emotions that it triggered at that time. If you ask any pilot about their first solo, nobody ever forgets that. The time when the instructor gets out of the cockpit and says “GO”, none of the pilots believe that they will ever come back. It’s like being in a bubble and when you come back and land, you might see that most pilots don’t get out for a couple of minutes. It’s because your legs are shivering at that moment from the exhilaration.... It will be really difficult to choose, as writing for me has also been like that first solo flight.
Bharati Ray
Historian and educationist:
You have written short stories and will be writing a novel — is there a particular theme, a discovery, something that you are searching for through your stories?
Sanjay: I think all writings are cathartic in the sense that it is some particular thing that you are trying to settle within your own system. In my case, unlike the western thoughts about time’s three dimensions, which they consider to be static, I am more fascinated by the eastern thoughts. Maybe it’s a collaboration, maybe it’s not definitive, maybe they are all hand in hand, and the thing that you are seeing here and now is only because you are just seeing this much. So my writing is more about what the past and future have given you today, and what you can do with that.
Tisca: I think each of the short stories in the book has come out of some deeper rush of emotions that one has.
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