Interview: Vivek Banerjee

Hi everyone! Please welcome Dr. Vivek Banerjee, author of "The Long Road" for an interview on my blog today. If you recall, I interviewed his book a few days ago.

1. I'd like to begin this interview by asking you what kind of booksare there on your bookshelf? What books are you reading right now? Which genre of books do you generally read? Which books do you re-read again and again?
I am a huge fan of fiction. From classics to adventure to mystery to horror to contemporary Indian English writing, I read them all. I also have Bangla and Hindi books in my bookshelf, though not as many as English ones. The books I have read multiple times are Doctors by Eric Segal, To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee, and almost all books by Jack Higgins, Alister Maclean and Wilbur Smith. I have also read Dan Brown multiple times. For the last two months, I have been busy with the Book Reading Challenge conducted by your blog and Book Readers Lounge. So it has been Indian authors for the last two months.

2. Tell us something about your work before "The Long Road"?I used to blog on Rediff  iLand in its heydays. You can say that I developed confidence in my writing abilities thanks to Rediff  blogs. Many of my early short stories are still posted there.

3. Did you always want to be a writer? How did you get into writing? What inspired you to write "The Long Road"?
I guess I always wanted to be a doctor. Writing was just a whim I developed suddenly. (maybe a part of my bucket list) I was talking on the phone with my old school-teacher Ms. C. Sinha and said that I wanted to write a novel. She kind of encouraged me and I started thinking about it seriously. I started writing blogs, limericks and short stories to test the water. Even The long road started as a serial story on Rediff.( It was titled Doctors, by the way) The response of my co- bloggers to the story was fantastic. I ended the story after the Mumbai attacks when Sarika and Rahul get reunited. This elicited a howl of protest from my readers who wanted me to carry on with the story. I did and thus the book took shape.

4. What kind of people do you think this book will reach out to?It should appeal to the urban Indian reader, the young and the young at heart. I sincerely hope that it does not remain confined to doctors and medical students.

5. What is your favourite thing about books and reading? How havebooks made an impact on your life?Books are wonderful. The best thing about them is that they are always there for you. I have been reading them ever since I learned to read. I believe books have shaped my personality and made me what I am today.

6. Quick take. Answer the following with the first words/phrase that comes to your mind, in five words or less:
- Love – The best feeling ever…
- Life – Do your best…
- Marriage – My biggest strength…
- Medicine (as a profession) – Very taxing but satisfying…
- Books – are everything…


Nothing is impossible. One must dream and do his/ her best in life. I guess the following quote says it all.


Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that
you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
-- Mark Twain

(Sakhi: That is my favorite quote too! As anyone who's ever emailed me would know.)

Interview: Prem Rao

Hi, today I have on my blog Prem Rao, author of "It Cant be You" that I reviewed here a few days ago. Welcome to my blog!

1. I'd like to begin this interview by asking you what kind of books are there on your bookshelf? What books are you reading right now? Which genre of books do you generally read? Which books do you re-read again and again? 
You will find heaps of thrillers and plenty of P.G.Wodehouse. I just finished “Aftertaste” by Namita Devidayal- a very interesting book about a business family in India. I have started on “More Salt Than Pepper” by Karan Thapar. The best part of P.G. Wodehouse is that you can read and re-read his books so many times. I grant we seldom do that for a thriller!

2. Tell us something about your work before "It Cant Be You"?
I was a talent management specialist and executive coach. I have worked closely with people for over 35 years. It has been my good fortune to have worked with a wide cross-section of society from manual unskilled labor to sophisticated CEOs and members of the Board. I held top management positions in companies like Wipro, Fujitsu ICIM and Bajaj Auto before I started my own HR consulting firm called People 1st Consulting which I ran for ten years.

3. Did you always want to be a writer? How did you get into writing? What inspired you to write "It Cant Be You"?
Reading Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, James Hadley Chase and Ian Fleming, I had this dream that some day I should write a book and it should be a thriller. This urge stemmed from my days as a voracious reader during my childhood. The national Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo as it is popularly called gave me the impetus to write “It Can’t Be You”. As you know in this competition thousands of people from all over the world write 50,000 words of their novel in the calendar month of November. I did this successfully in November 2009. I then worked on refining this until it was published as “It Can’t Be You” in November 2010.

4. What kind of people do you think this book will reach out to?
The best thing about thrillers is that have appeal for fans across age groups. People are intrigued by suspense. They have the urge to solve mysteries. In this context, I think “It Can’t Be You” will apply to a wide range of readers. Teenagers will like it as much as their grandparents would. The book is at the intersection of two of my major interests, psychology and the military. I guess it will appeal to thosewho like these subjects too. It is set in contemporary India and has a lot of
aspects that I believe most people will be able to easily relate to.

5. What is your favourite thing about books and reading? How have books made an impact on your life? 
I enjoy reading because it gives me new perspectives into the minds of people. This is reflected in the way characters in the book, if not the author himself/herself, think. In addition, books have always been a stress buster for me. I maintain that a few pages of P. G. Wodehouse would do you a world of good in moments of stress. Books have opened up new vistas for me; they have made me far better informed and aware than if I hadn’t been such a voracious reader. Last but not the least; they have in turn inspired me to try to entertain others with my stories.

6. Quick take. Answer the following with the first words/phrase that comes to your mind, in five words or less:

- Relationships – What you make of it

- Life – Be happy with what you have

- Human mind – Nothing is more complex

- Murder – Often the thirst for vengeance

- Books – Quality entertainment at reasonable cost