Anurag Anand completed his MBA in Marketing and Human Resources from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management. Currently he is working with a cola major in Gurgaon. His titles, The Quest of Nothing and The Legend of Amrapali, have both made it to the final shortlist in separate editions of the Crossword Book Awards. Let us know more about his writing.
What inspired you to start writing?
Stories have always inspired me. As a child I would often be reprimanded for spending more time with comic books than I did with my prescribed textbooks. However, back then I didn’t have the slightest inkling that one day I would be crafting stories instead of simply reading them.
The tipping point, to my mind, was when I was based in Rajkot, Gujarat, in the initial part of my corporate career. With no friends and family around I had more free time at my disposal than I was hoping for. When I began to look for something to fill this void, my latent interest in the written word came to fore and guided me towards writing. This was when I scripted my first book, a self-help title called Pillars of Success.
What did you like to read when you were a boy?
I have loved reading for as long back as I can remember. From Chacha Chaudhary comic books to Enid Blyton and from Tintin to Hardy Boys, as a child I would read just about anything that I could lay my hands on. In my school we would have an annual book fair where, among other titles, they would have on display translations of Russian titles. My fascination for these books was such that I would start saving my pocket money from the day that the dates of the fair were disclosed. Perhaps it were the strange characters names or just the thrill of reading something altogether different, but I have some very fond childhood memories associated with these books.
What is the greatest challenge in writing a book?
The greatest challenge is to inculcate the discipline that allows an author to complete his manuscript in the desired manner. Writing is a lonely and monotonous job and hence it is no surprise that the number of half-written and never completed manuscripts will far outnumber the completed ones for most established as well as aspiring authors. Similarly there are times when the urge to complete the task at hand overpowers the flow of creativity, prohibiting authors from doing equal justice to each and every paragraph of the manuscript. It is only through the author’s discipline and constant self-motivation that a story can be best shaped, and to ensure this is the one big challenge that authors are faced with.
How much research do you do before writing the book?
The amount of research that goes behind a book is a function of its setting and the peripheral subjects that it touches upon. For instance a period story or a story dealing with aspects that fall beyond the author’s immediate area of specialization (e.g. a medical ailment or a police investigation) might require more in-depth research than a simple slice of life story. However, the need to adequately research every story cannot be overemphasised. If an informed reader ends up spotting glaring loopholes in a plot, the book as well as the author stands to lose their hard-earned credibility in a single stroke.
What motivated you to write the book “Love on 3 Wheels”?
We are a nation of romantics, and romance, be it in the print medium or the visual space, touches our hearts like no other emotion. This perhaps explains the success of several authors who started their journey of writing by penning down their autobiographical love stories. However, most of these stories have been set in urban educational institutions or workplaces. There is hardly any story in this space which deals with everyday characters that surround us through our waking hours. And love, as we all know, is a feeling that transcends all societal barriers of class and status. It was this glaring gap that I wanted to plug through ‘Love on 3 Wheels’ – the story of an auto rickshaw driver who finds himself in love with one of his regular passengers.
Can you tell us more about your latest book “Love on 3 Wheels”?
Love on 3 Wheels is a story that plays out on the streets of National Capital Region (NCR) over a span of three days. The mysterious disappearance of a bundle of cash sets off a chain of events that take all in their midst for a dizzy spin. A plethora of exciting characters – a doctor with more skeletons in his cupboard than an average biology lab, a thug whose heart is set in the right place and a village belle whose pursuit of love brings her to the big city – lend the story vibrantly kaleidoscopic hues. At the centre of all this is an auto rickshaw driver who has committed the crime of falling in love with one of his regular passengers – a crime that he has to pay for. The craftily layered narrative portrays the characters and emotions in a manner that is likely to resonate with its readers.
How did you come up with the idea of writing romantic fiction genre book?
Romantic fiction is an evergreen genre and most of past works are based on the theme of human relationships, including romance. Hence, it was only natural that someday I would come across a story with romance as its central theme. So, instead of looking at ‘Love on 3 Wheels’ as an idea that I stumbled upon, I would prefer to call it a natural progression in my writing.
Who are your favourite authors?
This is a tough one. There simply are too many of them to attempt naming all at one go. But some names that come to mind instantly are Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera, J K Rowling, Murakami, John Green, Tagore, Sankar and P G Wodehouse.
How much time do you dedicate to writing on a daily basis?
As much as I would like to write daily, my day job does not allow me to do so. Hence, when in the midst of a story, I make it a point to write for at least 3-4 days in a week. This ensures that I do not get too far away from the plot to miss out on little nuances. Every time that I sit down to write, the session lasts anywhere between 2 to 3 hours.
What words of wisdom would you like to give to aspiring writers?
If you have a good story to tell, just get down to writing it to the best that you can. Once you have a worthwhile manuscript in your hands, other considerations like finding the right publisher or the right tools to market your work will automatically fall in place.
Buy his book now: