Sujith Balakrishnan was born in Kerala, India. An Engineer By Profession Graduate from Govt. Engineering College-Thrissur with MBA in Operations Management and Comprehensive Creative Writing Course from Writers Bureau, UK. He currently resides in Dubai. “Dubai Stories” – a collection of 11 Short Stories is his fourth book.
Amy: Firstly, Big Congratulations on your book “Dubai Stories”.
Sujith: Thank you so much.
Amy: What inspired you to start writing?
Sujith: It was inherent in me, but it took me a while to realize that flame. Although I have thought deeply about the inspiration behind my passion for writing, I have not been able to get a clear answer. If I don’t write for a long, it causes some unexplainable pain that puts me back on track for writing.
Amy: How long have you been writing?
Sujith: I have been writing seriously for the past two decades. My ardent passion for film making had delayed my literary career until my early twenties. When I moved to Muscat in 1999, I developed an intense desire to write. In addition to my workload, I realized I could no longer move as freely as before. Therefore, the only thing I could do to satisfy my artistic craving was to read and compose.
Amy: When did you start writing?
Sujith: As I mentioned earlier, I am late. I started serious writing in my late twenties. So, I could say, twenty odd years in writing. I have always wondered how writers like Rimbaud and Kafka were able to end their oeuvres before they reached their forties, contributing opulent literary masterpieces and leaving behind a legacy that will last for centuries to come.
Amy: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Sujith: Yes, and No.
Writing is a very serious business. I take writing deep inside me and approach it in a sub conscious mind. Whenever I immerse myself in writing, it becomes a kind of compulsion for me to experience some unexplainable pleasure. The void of not writing makes me feel as if I am losing something treasured from my life. I nudge and nudge my life forward with these sublimating and intense moments.
Amy: How long does it take you to write a book?
Sujith: Depends – it took 8 to 9 years for my first novel, less than a year for my second novel. But short stories are so intense and difficult to write. With your naive aesthetic mind, try to write what you know, what you heard, and what you experienced.
Amy: Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
Sujith: Yes. It’s a secret.
Amy:What is the key theme and/or message in the book?
Sujith: As the blurb states, Life starts and end in a family. This is applicable for the majority. I sense pity for the people who are alone……who suffers loneliness in its real terms. It takes a while to experience this loneliness when you find you can recuperate the things you lost.
The stories deal with vivid themes such as love, alcoholism, domestic violence, desperation, midlife crisis, hope, loneliness, abandonment, insecurity, hedonism, dishonesty, betrayal, dominancy in relationships, women empowerment, feminism, midlife romance, emotional infidelity, Placebo Effect, adventure, lost tradition, hypocrisy, connection and so on.
Amy: What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
Sujith: Nothing…Its just words and words I have weaved and if they relate some coincidence, experience, a sense of connection to relate to their life from the characters and their journey, then it will have some effect. Reading experience varies from reader to reader and I can’t predict what they could exactly extract from each stories which is left purely with the reader.
Amy: If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?
Sujith: In fact, the Short Story “Bonobos”, I made an experiment and made it to a short movie. It was one of the most difficult story out of the eleven stories to convert to a visual experience.
Shabana Azmi and Kajole would be my favorite picks to portray my characters.
Amy: Why don’t you start writing a love story??
Sujith: I will try.
Amy: Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
Sujith: Without life any art is worthless. It should be like a mirror which can show some reflections to the readers. I don’t want to claim that the writer should always write a work with a moral and social sense, but the writer should cover all the angles of the character’s even if the antagonist is an ultimate cruel master. I always go with the principle to write what you know.
Amy: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Sujith: Movies and Guitar.
Amy: What does your family think of your writing?
Sujith: I don’t know. You can ask them directly.
Amy: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
Sujith: I have heard Characters often stray out of the writers’ control during the course of writing. I experienced this while writing the short story “Knockin On Heavens Door”, where the mother choses her own path going out from the writers control.
Amy: Which book is your favorite?
Sujith: Stories by Ernest Hemingway, Bombay Stories by Sadat Hassan Manto, Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger…………………
Amy: How many plot ideas are just waiting to be written? Can you tell us about one?
Sujith: Plenty of ideas suffocate me, but how many of them would accomplish the journey is volatile.
Amy: Suggestions for budding authors???
Sujith: Every writer has the bad habit to procrastinate and wait for the best to come for writing. No creation is fundamental to its real sense. So what you feel is right to the moment, don’t wait. And the natural advice any writer can give is to read and read.
Amanyas Creative World 