Interview with Mayank Sharma

Seldom I encounters such interviews where I just lost track of time and continues reading the answers of the author. It was extremely great fun having chat with Mayank Sharma, author of MIRAGE. Enjoy the interview, you'll not regret reading this!

*****

So, tell us something about yourself.

‘Good Question’ ‘Very Good Question’ ‘Bole to mamu jhakkas’….. “Next Question”

I don’t know how to answer this one, as I find a different me with every passing day. However I love travelling, meeting new people, Breathing in the divinity and taking life to the edge, bringing back, and again with full swing. I don’t like defining myself, I believe it confines.

So when did you first start writing/journey as a writer?

End of the past which was present once, and that’s how it began. I was 19, relishing the last year of my teenage and began penning down through poems.

Tell us about your school life and your college life and any one such instance where you realized that you are born to be a storyteller/ writer.

I was a shy guy in school. A guy next door, who speaks less, interacts not often and kept himself confined to certain people. As far as college life is concerned, I have never been to it. There’s no sad story behind, I just didn’t like doing it, studies weren’t my mug of beer since the very beginning, I preferred practical knowledge ;).  I still don’t think I’m born to be a writer, I write because I love doing it, it makes me feel happy. Penning down a couple of pages make me feel alive.

Tell us something about your debut novel ‘A cocktail of love’.

A cocktail of love is a teenager’s story. A journey where he defines love being in school, college and after getting settled in life and eventually lives with love one day without even knowing the reason. The story narrates how ‘we’ take a single fall (as in love) as a massacre or some massive tragedy and leave aside the ‘logic of being alive’. Being logical, I don’t find smart enough to judge ‘love’ and chose it at the age when a person can’t even chose his UG without getting confused.

Any one such review [negative or positive] which you will never forget [for your both novels].

For the first one almost all were same ‘we found our story’ while for the second one ‘Neither I can read further nor I can drop it (the person crying over call)’.

How often do you read and who is that one author who has inspired you to write? Or who is your favorite author?

I read a lot but not the romantic novels and if you’ll notice my both the novels (till date) old a hidden meaning behind a love story.

What are some of the things that you used to write about and perhaps will write about in the future?

I like writing about society and its norms, caged souls beneath a materialistic body and living bodies and freedom.

Tell us our readers something about MIRAGE. How this is different from other books?

MIRAGE… is and will remain my dream story. It helped me find me to a lot extent. It isn’t just a confined love story of a couple but it narrates how love can make you feel alive and grasped in its pure essence.

Now a day people are knowingly portraying their gf’s as dead or resort to narrating sad stories of their lives in order to get sympathy. What’s your take on this, did you wrote such a novel for this purpose, yes or no and if no then why and what difference you have in you in comparison to other authors?

HaHa…!! I’m sure you’d be more than happy to know that all my ex girlfriends are living a healthy life (some with husband and some with boyfriend). I talk to them on regular intervals and also with the ex girlfriends of my friends. SO this implies I don’t have any ‘SAD STORY’ (as they say ‘Pain, Dukh, Dard… ;) humse na ho paaega). I don’t know if other authors do it intentionally or not but I believe in spreading love. How, where and to whom and this is what I portrayed in Mirage.

Your title and blurb is totally different in comparison to the story, why is it so, and what exactly MIRAGE means?

Walking/driving through any highway in burning summer, we can feel the heat soaking all our body water (or of the arena). To an extent we feel the importance and need of water and that’s when we see a Mirage over a distance. In a desert with no man around, we miss society and humans or our home (being precise) and that’s when we see a Mirage. That Mirage which we consider just an optical illusion, I believe is nature’s way of treating us with our need (water, home and so on… Apart from Aishwarya, john or blab la bla… that’ll be hallucination). The blurb narrates a part of story. While writing it I wanted to keep the real essence of story hidden. May be I like being incognito ;).

What has your experience been in Indian publishing industry and what changes you think are necessary for the growth of authors/publishers. Comment.

I had been kind of  ‘ok shokay’ till now. I believe a proper distribution is all the Author and publisher needs. Author wants this to take his/her book to masses while publisher will earn money and can market his name simultaneously.

If you have to define yourself in 3 lines , what will it be?

A free spirited guy. Lives life irrespective of anything that might stop. And Travel, travel and travel…. (the day I’ll stop travelling might be the day my soul will die)

What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to get into writing?

Write what you feel and feel what you write…

Any suggestion or any message from your end for your readers or well wishers.

Never ever make yourself fall prey to presumptions and caged thoughts. You might not have been to Venice but it exists, you didn’t invaded Mt. Everest but many did. Try believing people, spread love as love is the key to success. I’ll explain this:

Hardwork is key to success (as we always heard BUT)

Hardwork comes with dedication, dedication comes with passion and passion is a synonym of love. As I said there are always meaning hidden behind the narrations we received.

When you held the first paperback copy of your novel, how did you feel?

I didn’t believe for long and even today after writing any piece of work, I wonder how I did. ;)

Do you wish to continue writing your current genre or will you change it ever in future?

If you’ll notice, I started changing it. A cocktail of love had lot of love, sex and booze while for second eternity comes in and the third and the coming one’s will be about society, Humans, perspectives and undefined norms that are the biggest obstacle in being alive.

Whenever you face writer block, what usually you do?

Music and travel heals me. I’ll take my guitar, pack my bag and will start the journey. The block vanishes as soon as I unveil my doors of life and love.

Any one place whose serene beauty persuades you to write?

Can’t name one but sitting beside water body, greenery, mountains at a place where I can keep myself away from the crowd.

*****

This is it. If you like to order his book MIRAGE, you can follow this link.