“Sometimes, we do not get a chance to thank each one who has helped us in our journey.” Let the readers get a chance to know about all the important people who have played a part in this ‘Author Journey of Yours’.

As you observe, many people collaborate in an author’s journey. There are so many people I need to thank but let me just mention a few. My mother, for inculcating the reading habit in me, because if you don’t read you will never write. I need to thank my critics, because without good criticism how will you improve? For some years I was a member of a British website where authors would comment on each other’s work. That criticism was very helpful. I need to be thankful to my editors who polished my prose, suggested improvements and pointed out contradictions. There have been many editors but a special word of thanks to Sanjana Roy Choudhary who worked with Hay House earlier, and Wendy Toole. I need to thank my publishers. Although I have been published by big publishing houses such as Hay House, in my experience I have occasionally seen books published by even the biggest publishing houses such as Penguin come apart in bookstores because of poor binding. Sometimes, it is the smaller publishers that give more attention to your books. In this context I’d like to make a special mention of Vision Books (Orient Paperbacks) and Bridging Borders who give a lot of attention to production quality, cover design etc. That reminds me that I’d like to thank the artists and illustrators who worked on my books. In particular, I’d like to thank the illustrator for The Three Greens published by Orient BlackSwan, which made the book that much more attractive for children. Among the artists I have worked with, I need to make special mention of Niharika Singh, who designed some wonderful book covers for me, including the captivating cover for my most recent book: Star-Crossed Lovers in the Blue. I need to thank Ananya Sharma for directing one of my plays during her student days and for creating videos on my books that are posted on YouTube. A special thanks to Lipika Bhushan for helping my books reach a wider audience, and for her warm, helpful nature. I need to thank my readers, even the ones who have been critical, for writing honest reviews and posting comments that have often made me realise things about my own writing. And I believe I also need to thank initiatives such as yours that spread the word about us authors and the world of writing in general and for giving me this opportunity to thank all these people by asking this question.

When and how did the idea of writing a book come to you? Can you tell us a bit about your book ‘Star-Crossed Lovers in the Blue’? Who is your favourite character from the book and why?

I love watching world cinema. For some years it has annoyed me that all the excellent animation films were mainly coming out from Hollywood. We do have the technical expertise here in India, so why should this be the case? I suspect that it’s because we don’t have modern contemporary novels and scripts that can easily be adapted to the animation format. So, I thought I would write a fantasy rooted in Indian culture, which could however, potentially have a global audience if it were turned into a film. There are other books I have written that can be adapted to film, but this is the first time I thought of the film first, and then the book. I should add that my estimate was not wrong, because even before the formal release of the book, barely two days after the book’s cover appeared on Instagram in a pre-release campaign, a Mumbai based agency contacted me to ask if I had already sold the film rights!

Let me tell you a bit about the book now. Star-Crossed Lovers in the Blue is the story of Utir, a mermaid and Arj, a merman who reside in the Newada Sea. They meet by chance, fall in love, and begin loving each other deeply and passionately, until Utir, the mermaid, ends up having an arranged marriage. The two lovers lead separate lives, beset with heartbreak, hardships and trouble, for many years before they encounter each other again. And, then a corona-like epidemic raises its head. 

That’s the basic story which raises the question as to whether the two star-crossed lovers will ever be reunited? Will a cure eventually be discovered that will save the world’s most marvellous beings from dying?

My favourite character is that of Utir, the mermaid. She is very bright, career-oriented, self-sacrificing, has a mind of her own, and an abiding concern for the welfare of others. I believe readers will find her very real and relatable. 

What has been your most cherished experience while writing this book?

The creation of a believable, underwater world was very challenging, but upon completion also deeply satisfying. You see, aside from the marvellous merfolk, there are many other ‘bewitching and magnificent creatures’ in the story to borrow from the expression used by a reader. A whole new world had to be created.

According to you which are the 5 books that everyone should read and who are your top 3 Authors and what impact did they have in your journey as a writer?

Let me start by mentioning my top 3 writers. I have been deeply influenced by Russian, French and English writers. Among the Russians I would consider Dostoevsky as my biggest influence, among the French, I loved Maupassant, and among writers writing in English it would have to be the Irishman, Oscar Wilde. From Dostoevsky I learnt the importance of soulful prose, from Maupassant the importance of precision in stories, of saying more with less, and from Wilde I learnt sophistication. Now coming to the books.

1. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. Collected Short Stories, by Guy de Maupassant
3. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
4. Shame, by Salman Rushdie
5. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

Tell us a bit about your family, likes, and dislikes as a person.

I grew up in an army setting. Dad was in the army and both my brothers are generals, one serving and the other one retired. It might appear from this that we were not a very literary family but that is, strictly speaking, not true. My mother was an avid reader and books kept her company during my father’s long absences, when he was in field area or in the China war, for instance. My father too would now and again recite obscure Urdu and Persian poetry at the dinner table that would leave the rest of us dazzled. It was Mom that inculcated the habit of reading in the three of us, a habit that has continued till this day. Even now, my brothers, Lt General Sanjiv Talwar (retd) and Major General Sumit Talwar, and I share notes on what we are reading and recommend books to each other. 

As a person I would describe myself as easy going and freedom loving. To each his own, as they say.  I enjoy good food, reading, music and travel. What I dread is having to dealing with bureaucracy but that becomes inevitable from time to time with all of us.

Could you share a few tips for Young Authors?

1. Read widely. Not only the literary stuff but all kinds of material. The great poet Pablo Neruda was very fond of James Hadley Chase so take a leaf out of his book and don’t read only highbrow stuff. 
2. Don’t be satisfied with your first draft. Have the patience to rewrite again and again and self-edit.
3. Learn to handle criticism if it is fair and well argued. You need to be thankful to the critic for he, more than your uncritical fans, will help you improve.
4. To start with, write about what you know!

How can a writer keep the mental block or writer’s block away from his/her creativity?

A writer should always remain an observer and never become too self-conscious. There are many cases of writers who became successful, which made them self-conscious, and then found they could not write any more. Arundhati Roy experienced a writer’s block for decades as far as her fiction was concerned possibly on account of the stupendous success of The God of Small Things. Likewise, Mario Puzo confesses that his writing juices froze after the success of The Godfather. He jokes that he ended up becoming a junior partner in the Godfather business. In those two cases it was success that created the writer’s block, but the ego can manifest itself in more subtle ways. If you are too self-conscious your muse will not speak to you.

Are you working on anything at present that you would like to share with your readers?

One of the books I wish to release in paperback over the course of the next few months is a novella with the working title Love in the Time of the Taliban. If Star-Crossed Lovers in the Blue tells the tale of two underwater lovers, this novella will tell my readers what it means to fall deeply, passionately in love in a country where a group with an extremist ideology holds sway. It’s a topical subject given what is currently happening in our neighbourhood. It’s also something I can write about with a degree of authority having spent many years working for the United Nations in Afghanistan.

What are the challenges faced by you while working as a multi-genre writer? Can you tell us a bit about the books you have written?

The challenge has really been to combine office work with the writing of fiction, where you enter an imaginary world. My job with the United Nations keeps me busy but I can switch to the writing of non-fiction before office hours or at night quite easily. This is not such a simple matter while writing fiction. And if you are writing fantasy, as was the case with the Star-Crossed Lovers in the Blue, it becomes yet more challenging! I would only venture to write such imaginative stuff during the weekend or during holidays. 

I have so far written thirty books in different genres. My novels include Simran, on aesthetics, and Inglistan, on cultural contrasts. An Afghan Winter and The Sentimental Terrorist explore the theme of terrorism. How to Kill a Billionaire reveals the workings of the Indian justice system. From the Lips of the Goddess – Mata Vaishno Devi is on the sacred feminine.

My plays cover diverse contemporary themes and historical retellings. They include Inside Gayland, The Bride Who Would Not Burn, Conquest at Noon, The Killings in November, Kaash Kashmir, Aurangzeb: The Darkness in His Heart, Gandhi, Ambedkar and the Four-Legged Scorpion, High Fidelity Transmission and A Nuclear Matricide.

My non-fiction works include The Judiciary on Trial, Courting Injustice: The Nirbhaya Case and Its Aftermath, The Third Sex and Human Rights, The Vanishing of Subhash Bose, The Killing of Aarushi and the Murder of Justice. Self-help books include How to Choose Your Lawyer and Win Your Case, Making Your Own Will, The Divorce Handbook and Indian Laws of E-business.

Books for children include The Three Greens, The Bearded Prince, The Sleepless Beauty, Fabulous Four Battle Zoozoo, the Wizard and Playwrights- A One-Act Play for Children on Human Rights.

At Sharing Stories, we have an ongoing campaign ‘Let’s Empower Our Kids’. Please suggest some books here that you would want your child to read before the age of 15 which could help him in understanding certain dimensions of human life like empathy, sympathy, relationships, etc.

Let me suggest six books, two from India, two from the UK, and the last two are a selection from my own efforts in writing for children. Let me put myself in the company of the greats if no one else will!

• The Mahabharata
• The Panchatantra
• Famous Five (any one of Enid Blyton’s most popular series)
• The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde
• Fabulous Four Battle Zoozoo, the Wizard
• Star-Crossed Lovers in the Blue (for children above the age of 12)

Rapid Fire Round

1. Favourite Place, Actor & Actress, Person, Food, beverage….

Favourite Place: My erstwhile cottage in a small tropical island. I had the wonderful chance to live near the ocean during my stint with the United Nations in a newly emergent country by the name of East Timor. The people there are very Indian looking and the country’s capital Dili is sometimes phonetically confused with our own. I saw wonderful sunrises and sunsets every other day as the ocean was just a javelin throw away from my cottage (thinking of Neeraj Chopra here).

Favourite Actor: Amitabh Bachchan. I don’t say he is the best actor, but my favourite. I admire him not only for his acting but for many other qualities – for his bilingual talents, for his brilliant repartee (Shah Rukh Khan comes a close second); for his modesty (even if it an act, I’m completely convinced!)

Favourite Actress: It’s a tie between Simi Grewal and Sharmila Tagore. None among the present generation of actresses comes even close. I completely understand where Tiger Pataudi came from for he was close to both women, although he could of course only marry one of them! Sharmila outperforms Simi in terms of acting prowess, but Simi is matchless as a classy, dignified interviewer. They are both neck to neck in terms of being gifted with a sharp intelligence and graceful persona.

Favourite Person: My mother. I have found during the course of my life that faraway idols often have clay feet! A couple of years ago, on a flight to Bangkok the next seat was occupied by a famous, mature Bollywood actress who takes up social causes and whose work I admire greatly. But she was so rude to the airline staff! 

Favourite Food: As a Punjabi munda, it would have to be rajma chawal.

Favourite Beverage: Aqua Pura. My preference is to consume it neat most of the time, but some evenings a small addition of a brew, with some ice cubes thrown in, can improve its taste and aftereffects.

2. Your other Talents apart from writing….

I consider myself to be a reasonably good speaker. Sometimes readers expect their favourite authors to be gifted with the ability to speak well, but alas this is not always the case. There are some wonderful writers out there who cannot speak well at all (you could argue that is why you need actors) and conversely you have some not-so-good writers who speak with great eloquence. 

I also play a mean game of table tennis. In my school days in Lucknow, I was chosen for coaching at the State level, and that skill has remained with me ever since.

3. Your First Love…

My first love was reading. I felt like I was talking to a older, wiser, gentler friend.

4. Favourite Quote….

Everything in moderation, including moderation – Oscar Wilde

5. Favourite Character from a book…

Raskolnikov – from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. 

What if Round 

1. What if you had to live with only three things all your life, what would the three things be?

Omar Khayyam in his classic Rubaiyat suggested that if he had a flask of wine, a loaf of bread and the mythical ‘thou beside me’ it would be paradise. 

However, times have changed, and in these changed times, my own requirement would be:

1. A Kindle that has all published books downloaded. No promotion for the product intended!
2. Access to world music, as I cannot be happy without listening to an hour of good music every day.
3. At the risk of offending some feminists, and outraging realists, and making it clear that I do not consider women to be a ‘thing’, I would wish to have with me a feminine presence, who combines the skills of cooking with the ability to care and provide companionship.

2. What if you were given the power to change one thing from this world, what would you change?

It is said that humans need to be selfish because that quality is essential for survival. I actually do agree with that statement but I think we don’t need to be as selfish or narcissistic as a species as we are. So, I’d like to slice off maybe ten percent of that selfish gene, were it possible and I like to believe that not only humans but all living species on the planet would be happier as a consequence. Even our special, blue planet would rejoice.

3. What if you had all the money in this world, what would you do first?

The easy answer to your question would be identify some kind of charity. As Mr Bill Gates discovered it was less challenging to earn money than to spend it and make a tangible difference to the lives of people. Different billionaires are doing different kinds of charitable works from saving the lives of certain animal species (lions, tigers, elephants, etc) to saving human lives lost to malaria and other diseases. All these initiatives are worthwhile, and are deserving of high praise. I confess I don’t have the answers to what human charitable endeavour would impact human lives and the lives of other beings the most – in a beneficial manner of course. While I don’t have the answers, and neither for that matter does my employer, the United Nations, I believe that collectively if we put our heads together, we can and will have answers. So, the first thing I would do would be to launch a global competition in which anyone who has access to Internet can participate with the theme – What is the best way to spend 5 billion dollars with a view to help humanity, other living beings, and the planet itself? A prize money of 5 million dollars for the best proposal to be awarded by an international jury of eminently qualified people which will include eminent people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Azim Premji, Narayan Murthy and the like. There could be a 1000 runner up prizes of a thousand dollars each to encourage wide spread participation from all nations. We could call it the Noble Prize. It will be an annual competition since the world is in flux and priorities can change. Needless to add, I will be the chair of the jury since it will be my money that will be at stake!

One great benefit of the competition quite aside from the money spent on the winning project will be the great intellectual churning and debate it will create among the peoples of the planet – and the hope that it will create for change in these cynical times.

Reach to Mr Rajesh Talwar at below attached Social Media Handles