Author Interview: NS Ravi, Author of Those were the days


Give us an insight into your character and personality.
I was born in Calcutta and after first five years spent the next eighteen years in Delhi as I breezed through my school and college years, before moving around south and west of the country and world in professional capacity. I am thus an out and out cosmopolitan whose character & personality has been influenced by this constant moving and interaction with people of different regions and perceptions. I am a reasonably balanced straightforward person, finicky about time who does not like dishonesty. I have a very high place for my family, friends and country.

What brought you to writing?
My coming to professional writing was a chance development. It was built on a desire to set right the lack of information on the country’s evolution over the last fifty years amongst present day youth.

What qualities you think every writer should possess?
Dedication and confidence with patience to verify facts before banking on them. But then this is true now for every profession and the facilities that are at our command in today’s world of technology are phenomenal.

How do you choose a writing niche?
The subject matter tackled decides the niche for one’s writing. A non-fiction has a different and limited audience whereas fiction has wider range of possible readers. You can twist facts to your convenience in a fiction but in non-fiction at best you can have your opinion and interpretation without being able to alter facts.

Tell us something about your first piece of writing i.e. “Those were the days.”
My first book is a culmination of a thought process which began as a result of variety of discussions I had with some young impressionable executives who were working with me when I was leading a forced bachelor’s life for nearly four years and with whom I had regular discussions on a variety of subjects concerning our country. The discussions made me feel that there was serious communication gap which existed in their understanding of how our country has evolved in the last fifty years. These were well educated qualified engineers and management graduates who had read whatever had been offered to them as a part of their curriculum which unfortunately ignores this crucial aspect of our evolution.

Did you expect something whilst writing your first novel?
Everyone expects something for his efforts and I am no exception. My expectation was and is a function of how well the book would be perceived and received. As of now most people who read it have complemented me .For those who are in the age bracket of 35 plus it helps them to recall their own experiences and for the younger generation an insight into something which is not found in text books.



What makes the book unique and special?
For me it is unique and special because it is a culmination of a process which when I started I was not sure about. It is also unique and special from the reader’s point of view because it will touch a chord in the life every reader who would have gone through similar experience.

According to you, what readers would love about the story?
I would think they would like every bit of it since it is not anything controversial where there could be different interpretations. People would have definitely heard some part of what is written and able to connect with something they would have geard from their parents and elders in the family.

Name some of your most liked books and writers.
I started my book reading habit with the Ramayana and Mahabharata written by Rajaji .For me these two books still hold a special place for the lucid style in which the author has narrated well known stories underlying our Indian way of life emphasising victory of good over evil. Thanks to book lending libraries of my time I could read lots of comics before graduating to books. Even today I will pick up an Archie or Dennis whenever I can lay hands on them.

I have over the years read a lot for pleasure and my reading has progressed as years passed by. I have read murder mysteries by Gardner, Christie, Rex Stout, Chase, Doyle, Wallace and many others. I graduated to reading Cronin. Maugham, Wodehouse, Henri Cecil etc before moving on to big league writers like Mclean, Uris, Wallace, Segal, Archer, Ludlum, Follet, Forsyth, Higgins, etc. Of late I read a lot of Indian authors and am partial to the new interpretations being attempted of our ancient scriptures.

I always consider myself to be lucky that I have this habit of book reading as it helps in spending time usefully.

Would you like to brief us about your upcoming projects?
I have just finished my first fiction and it is now with my publisher who has to take a call on how and when this would be taken forward. It is based on our film industry. I have two more books on which I am working at present. Both are fictions.One owes its origin to our textile industry .For the other I am using my African experience as a story source.


Thanks for the wonderful answers and giving your time. Wishing you a bright future.