In 2006 there was a 24-year-old boy working at Infosys, enjoying his gym and a good game of snooker. He met a girl on a wedding website and long phone conversations led to love. They met up twice and were looking forward to their engagement on Valentine’s Day in 2007. Five days before the ring ceremony, she died in a car accident. Unable to bear his pain any longer, the boy — who was never a big reader of books — started to write one. That book is I Too Had A Love Story. And that boy, now 34 years old, is Ravinder Singh — one of India’s most commercially successful and loved writers.
Last Sunday, team t2 witnessed that love first-hand, when Ravinder sat down for a 90-minute chat with six fans.
Ravinder: How did you guys get invited for this chat?
All: We keep writing to t2. It’s our favourite youth paper.
Ravinder: Wow, so you get authentic fans who have been writing in! (Turns to Manaswita Sinha, sitting next to him) First tell me, what do you do?
Manaswita Sinha: I am pursuing Master’s in psychology from Rajabazar Science College.
Ravinder: Did you always want to do psychology or did you just end up with it?
Manaswita: Well, I like to talk a lot… and observe people’s behaviour, so my interest comes from there.
Ravinder: I do the same thing, just that I don’t know the science of it. I observe people and I write about them.... Tell me one thing that you have learnt in psychology, something that made you go, ‘Oh my God!’
Manaswita: Well, psychology has taught me not to be judgemental of people. I used to judge. I’ve learnt to be impartial… to understand others’ problems and try to understand why they reacted in a particular manner.
Ravinder: This is exactly what my latest book (This Love That Feels Right, Penguin Metro Reads) talks about! There is a part of this book that talks about a couple being in an open marriage.
Majority of society condemns open marriages, saying these people are like animals driven by lust. My only point is, you can’t judge people until you walk in their shoes. And it’s not like there’s a one-size-fits-all theory. Actually I happened to meet a couple in which the husband was bisexual. (Looks at Ayushi Ray, student of Bethune College.) A lot many times, people will react to this just the way you reacted. But you really can’t understand what goes on in somebody’s mind….
Today we are fighting for decriminalisation of homosexuality. Should a bisexual person be given his or her freedom? Now, a bisexual man can’t marry a man and a woman and live in a love triangle, at least not in a marriage. If that is the case, can there be the concept of an open marriage?
Making of a love story
Manaswita: I couldn’t sleep for two nights after reading I Too Had A Love Story. I was in Class XI. You wrote about an olive green shirt. Do you still have that?
Ravinder: No, I don’t have it anymore, it was years back! But I do remember that shirt. When I was wearing that shirt, little did I know that so much would happen and I would write a book! After she (Khushi) was no more… there was a long gap of two years before the book came out… now when I look back at the journey, it was a roller-coaster ride. I remember being in Calcutta and reading in the newspaper about a writing contest for budding authors being run by Oxford bookstore....
I was working with Infosys in Bhubaneswar that time, I delayed my departure and submitted some sample chapters. I didn’t make it but the lady who read it said it was a good story and it should get published. When the book finally came out, I sent her a copy. She was quite moved.
Ayushi Ray: When I read Can Love Happen Twice?, I was in Class X and I cried for seven days and seven nights!
Ravinder: When I was writing, I never knew this was going to happen. I had a very selfish purpose. I felt I would burst like a pressure cooker, I was like I can’t deal with this pain, I want to share it with as many people as possible.
I Too Had A Love Story came out on December 1, 2008. I got published by a very small publisher who said we are not going to put a single rupee in the promotion of the book. I still felt that I was blessed because every publisher that I knew about had already rejected my book. So my plan D — plan A had bounced, B had bounced, C... I thought chalo isko rehne dete hain — was to reach out to the footpathwalahs of Connaught Place and request them to keep my book. They agreed. So this wannabe author who every known publisher had rejected found some retail sellers!
What makes a bestseller
Ravinder: You know, the CEO of a publishing house has a different vision — which is the new literary breed, where a lit fest will be held, who should be represented for a Man Booker Prize and stuff like that. At the ground level, something different is happening. This is a problem not just with publishers but with so many corporates. We have to be at the ground level to see what is happening out there….
Unlike other worlds, where things start from air-conditioned offices, in the book world, the book being sold on the footpath is the bestseller. You can always give awards, make a jury of five people and announce this is the book of the year. I want to see how many people turn up at the book launches. That is what defines what is a bestseller. At the traffic signal, the guy who is selling those pirated copies, he can at once only pick up, say 20 books. So he has to make a choice. If he picks up your book, then your book is a bestseller, according to me.
Shilpa Bhaskaran: I work in Cognizant, that’s why I can relate to you very well, since you were in Infosys. I still cry when I read Can Love Happen Twice?. Whenever I get time, I go back to your second book....
Manaswita: I have never gone back to your first book and I really don’t want to. It’s a terror for me.
Ravinder: Yes, I have heard this before. A lot of people reread the first book but stop before the last 30 pages. I have seen copies of the book with tear marks on the last few pages….
See, a part of the reason I wrote I Too Had A Love Story was also because I wanted to relive the courtship period one more time. Our ring ceremony was on February 14 and this accident happened on the 9th. So I would close my eyes and try to recall what she was saying, what she was wearing....
When you capture reality, that raw emotion, then it doesn’t matter how good or bad an author you are. I still feel I Too Had A Love Story is the most amateur work of mine. My readers disagree. The critics agree (laughs).
Debolina Datta (St. Xavier’s College): You met Khushi on a matrimonial site. One of my friends who is a little older than me, I made her read your book. And now she is on all matrimonial sites, looking for her Ravinder.
Ravinder: I hope some day matrimonial sites don’t want me to become their ambassador!
‘Math was my fave’
Deveshi: I am in Class X, Pratt Memorial School. I love your books.
Ravinder: Yesterday I met somebody who said she started reading my books in Class VII and she’s finishing college now. And I was like, ‘Wow, am I that old?!’ (Everyone laughs)
Deveshi: In your childhood, what were you scared of?
Ravinder: Hmmm, let me think… Oh yes I was scared of failing an exam. And I was very happy when I got first rank in Class XII… I wrote about it in Like It Happened Yesterday.
Manaswita: What was your favourite subject?
Ravinder: Math (collective gasp in the room). I got 100 on 100 so many times, because my mom said this is one subject where you can score full marks. I got 98 on 100 for my CBSE Class XII. That was in 1999. Now I don’t think I am good in maths anymore. When I went to ISB (International School of Business, Hyderabad), I would see people giving answers like this (snaps his fingers) while I was like, ‘Wait, let me first absorb what exactly you are asking...’ (everyone roars with laughter). I now enjoy history a lot.
Unsung heroes
Shilpa: What makes you tick? What keeps you motivated?
Ravinder: I think most of the time we follow the wrong heroes, including me, if you think me to be a hero too. I am more keen to know about the unsung heroes. When I lost Khushi, I thought it was a brutal shock, how could God do this?! I am a very religious person but I thought I had the right to decide the end of my love story. It was an unsaid battle between me and the one I believed in. I said, no, no, you can’t decide the end of my love story, I will define it, I will bring her back… and see this is what we are doing today, we are talking about Khushi. That is my way of keeping her alive in the pages of a book.
During that time I happened to see on a news channel about a bomb blast in Jammu & Kashmir. A little girl and her younger brother had survived, their parents had not. The girl was in hospital, she had lost a limb. And she tells the reporter, ‘Mera chhota bhai hai, mujhe uska khayal rakhna hai,’. An 11-year-old girl. In that moment I realised ki mera dukh toh iske saamne bahut hi chhota hai. Look at the guts of this girl.
Then our Paralympians. Keep cricket aside, just see what it takes for sportspersons in this country to even go to the Olympics. And then just think of what it must have taken the Paralympians to go... and win medals!
Their first challenge is how to step outside their house! Because this country is not disabled-friendly. The Prime Minister has coined a new term — divyang, instead of viklang — but let’s move from nomenclature to something worthwhile. I will say this country is awesome when any disabled person is able to board a train on his or her own. We will be a superpower that day.
Ritesh Agarwal (teacher): You’ve been accused of not being literary enough. Is writing on social issues an attempt on your part to bridge the gap between popularity and literariness?
Ravinder: No, I am not concerned. Problem toh tab hoga na, but I never get convicted of this accusation. I am not writing for my critics. However I don’t ignore the critics either, as long as the language is not foul. So there’s no trying to bridge the gap. I don’t see a gap.
I am an emotional person. When I open the newspaper, my day starts with so many sad stories, so my books are going to reflect the sadness out there, though publishers would love the idea of a happy ending.
GUPCHUP GUY
Ravinder: I went to this sweet shop, Nakur… for all the sandesh. And I can see more sandesh here! By evening I think I will have ants on me! I had visited Nakur two years back, when I came for the launch of Your Dreams Are Mine Now. I loved their stuff. Unfortunately they don’t do spongy rosogollas though.
t2: You also had a lot of street food near Vardaan Market — jhaalmuri, phuchka, kulfi…
Ravinder: Yes, yes… I do not love the golguppe of north India. I love phuchka and gupchup. In my town in Odisha where I come from, phuchka is called gupchup. Such a sweet, cute name, people tell me.
TIPS FOR ASPIRING WRITERS
Debolina: So many young writers are inspired by you. How should they promote their books?
Ravinder: Unfortunately, in this country, you can’t take writing as a full-time job. Even now at family weddings, uncles-aunties ask, what are you doing these days? And when I say I write books, they’re like, ‘Woh toh theek hai par kaam kya karte ho?’ (Everyone bursts out laughing)
Coming back to your question, you can start your own page online... write a blog, write on Twitter, and make your inner circle read it. Keep plugging on a daily, weekly, monthly basis — whatever frequency works for you. Study the power of social media.
Now there are so many publishers who are keen on debut authors. I am running one (Black Ink). The only problem is, I get 500 manuscripts and I have to pick three. So 497 people are going to have heartbreak. What I tell them is, ‘I may be rejecting a superb manuscript — because somebody rejected mine at one point and it turned out to be superb — I may not have that vision for your book.’
Another thing I ask them is, have you made others read your work? They say yes, my best friend and my family. Arrey, woh toh bolenge hi bahut achha hai, bhai! Give it to a neutral group, post some excerpts on social media and see how others react to it.
Before you submit your work to publishers, make sure it is edited by a professional editor. You have just five minutes to impress the editor who is reading your manuscript. See, I am not a grammatically correct person but there’s a basic sanitation that you need to do and there are professional services for these things. Your first impression is the last impression.
t2: What kind movies do you watch?
Ravinder: I’m a big Aamir Khan fan. I am not a Shah Rukh or Salman fan… in fact I can’t watch a Shah Rukh or Salman movie, no matter how great it is! I’m waiting to watch Pink. And the day I watched the teaser of M.S. Dhoni — The Untold Story, where they are showing Sushant (Singh Rajput) sitting on the platform and the train coming, and in the background the commentary is going on, ‘Dhoni finishes off in style....’ Oh that moment!
I love real, creative work. I love Shoojit Sircar’s work. But I want one thing to change in the film industry — the perception, the status and the pay packet of writers. Not many would know who wrote Piku. It’s the same lady who wrote Vicky Donor — Juhi Chaturvedi. Or that Advaita Kala wrote Kahaani. The thing about these movies is that the script is the real hero.
That’s my problem with writing for film, web series or TV, which I have been offered many times — that I want an equal share of the credit. Here the writer is not the face of the movie or show. Let’s say, for example, the Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling is the face of the books and the films. In India, only Chetan Bhagat is the face of his movies.
t2: What book are you reading now?
Ravinder: Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. Among Indian writers, I really like R.K. Narayan and Khushwant Singh. And Devdutt Pattanaik.
Samhita Chakraborty and Zeba Akhtar of t2 sat in on the chat
If I had five minutes with Ravinder, I would... Complete the sentence and write to t2@abp.in
