Interview with Anurag Anand

Anurag Anand, a marketing professional by day and a passionate writer by night (wait…does that make him sound like some “pseudo Superman/Superauthor”!??!) – recently launched his fourth book –The Quest For Nothing.
It is a contemporary love story, tracing the trials and tribulations in the relationship of a young working couple in light of the never ending career aspirations and the zest to succeed professionally.
And for those who still haven’t read the long-list of the Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2011, The Quest For Nothing is one of the contenders (in the Fiction category) of the coveted title!

BookChums managed to get talking with the busy author for a quick interview. Read on to know more about this humble (and quite modest) author, who has umpteen anecdotes and incidents that inspire him to churn out more fun-tastic books.


A Marketing Professional and a full-fledged author. Would you like to tell us a bit about your professional life? Did you ever think you would take up writing with such fervor? 
Well, for now I continue to balance my writing with my full-time job, so I can’t exactly be termed as a full-fledged author just as yet.

I hail from a small village in Chapra District, Bihar. The lack of desired infrastructure for education ensured that I was made to experience the vagaries of hostel life from the tender age of 5 years. I completed most of my studies from Delhi, including my MBA, before taking a plunge in the corporate world. Through my career (spanning about 9 years currently), I have worked with various organizations across locations ranging from J&K, Gujarat, Delhi and Maharashtra. I am currently employed with an MNC Bank in Mumbai.

Like most children I had dreamt of becoming everything from a pilot to a cricketer and an actor to a scientist, but never an author. I had always been an avid reader though, being constantly scolded by my parents for preferring comic books to the prescribed textbooks in my formative years. And maybe it is the same fervor that I retained while switching sides from being a reader to becoming a writer.

When you shifted to Mumbai (the city of dreams for many), what were things about the city and its people that you really liked? And what made you cringe?
Having spent most of my life in Delhi, I was yet another forced introduction to the city of dreams - Mumbai. During my initial days I hated almost everything about the city, ranging from the cramped roads and grueling traffic to the lack of economical eateries serving North Indian cuisine and invariably I found myself vociferously defending Delhi in every Delhi versus Mumbai debate that happened within an earshot.

The contrast between the culture and ethos of the two cities is striking and glimpses of my struggle to adapt to Mumbai can be read in ‘The Quest for Nothing’. However the city eventually grew up on me, embracing me with open arms and today I like to call myself a proud Mumbaikar who shudders to think about life outside the metropolis.

The one thing that sets Mumbai apart from rest of the country is its cosmopolitan nature and the professionalism exhibited by its inhabitants – a trait, I believe to be fundamentally responsible for its stature of being the ‘city of opportunities’. I sincerely hope and pray that the oft-exhibited resilience of Mumbai helps it retain its core in the wake of the superfluous and motivated attempts at polarization that it has recently been subjected to.
 

Your first book was a non-fiction read - Pillars of Success. And so was your next - Corporate Mantras. What got you interested in to writing non-fiction? Would you like to share certain aspects/sections of the books that are your personal favorites?
During my college years I was engaged with the ‘Youth Development Program's of a Delhi based NGO, UNES. My role included putting together relevant ‘personality development’ presentations and delivering them to school students across the country under the ‘YDP’ banner. The resultant research I undertook and questions that I encountered from the unadulterated minds I was interacting with, formed the basis of my first book, ‘Pillars of Success.’

‘Corporate Mantras’ was a natural extension where I relied on my experiences in corporate world to chalk out a recipe for survival and success in the surroundings one is expected to counter. My favorite section from the book is where I have equated the characteristics of typical bosses to that of popular (and sometime not so) animals, like a ‘Kangaroo Boss’, who due to his overzealous and protective streak deprives his subordinates of possible opportunities to learn and grow.

Amongst the non-fiction writers (Indian and/or International), whose work, would you say, inspires you? Any book (non-fictional) that you’d recommend our readers?
In the non-fiction genre, I am a big fan of biographies and autobiographies. Some of my personal favorites are: It’s not about the bike – Lance Armstrong's autobiography, Losing my virginity – Richard Branson’s autobiography & Long walk to freedom – Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. One common thread that beads together all success stories is that passion and desire makes treading through the most hostile of situations a reality and eventually paves the path to success.

Additionally, I am also a firm believer in the philosophies articulated in, 'The Secret'.



After gathering accolades for your non-fictional writing, you stepped into the world of fiction. What made you look into this genre? Did you not feel that with the recent uprising in this field (where each month we have nothing less than 3 authors launching their creation), your work could be over-shadowed or lost in the crowd?
One major factor behind my shift from non-fiction to fiction writing was commerce. Due to some strange, deep-rooted bias, we Indians don’t seem to take too kindly to homegrown preachers, at least when it comes to the written space. So, while self-help books by non-Indians or Indians residing abroad have found fervor with the domestic readers, domestic authors in the same genre are not even touched by a ten feet pole.

The large numbers of indigenous authors mushrooming by the day only adds variety to the palette of the Indian reader. This is a welcome change since it works towards expanding the base of readers and their appetite for books review. I firmly believe that a good book or story will always find its takers irrespective of the amount of clutter around it and so, I am not at all worried about my work being overshadowed.

However, I am somewhat concerned about the quality of work that is being furnished to the readers under the garb of 'Indian Fiction'. As authors and publishers, we have a moral responsibility to maintain a basic level of hygiene in the works that reach our readers. Some players, blinded by the opportunity, seem to have shed this responsibility and are busy dishing out substandard books which at times are laden with grammatical and language errors. As an author it really pains me when I pick up a book only to find a grammatical error in its title and I am left wondering about what other mysteries are folded in the pages within.

Tic Toc is the story of two individuals leading ordinary lives, chasing their dreams – guided by love, ambition and passion; till such time that they find their lives in a state of total disarray due to separate acts of terror – one that was known and condemned by all and another that was never supposed to come out of the closet. Was there a personal experience that drove you to write a fictional account of, what the country is under the threat of today, terrorism?
During my brief work stint in Srinagar, I had witnessed the perils of terrorism at extremely close quarters which had touched me in an inexplicable manner. Every time another bomb went off somewhere in the country and the intelligentsia gathered on various news channels to condemn the act, I was left wondering about the impotency-like frustration of those having to suffer a direct loss for no fault of their and having not even a possible recourse.

It was this thought that eventually resulted in ‘Tic Toc,’ a story where the protagonist decides against compromising with his loss and instead defines his own rules of the game. Ironically though, the first draft of the manuscript was completed just before the city of Mumbai was under siege at the hands of a handful of gun-wielding terror mongers. The acclaimed filmmaker, Mr. Mahesh Bhatt, while launching the book, complimented its treatment of an issue that was close to over a million hearts.



Any character from the book that resonates with your personality?
Though I would like to be like the protagonist of ‘Tic Toc’ as an individual, the character might just be a little more heroic and aspiration than my actual self. However, the protagonist of ‘The Quest for Nothing’, Akash, can be said to bear a reasonable degree of resemblance with the real Anurag Anand.

Your latest offering – The Quest for Nothing is an emotional thriller set in a corporate backdrop that traces the inherent conflict between the protagonist’s career ambitions and personal desires. This seems to be the reality of modern day Indians. Is the book based on real-life experiences or something that you have observed around? Or are the instances purely fictional?
Though the instances depicted in ‘The Quest for Nothing’ are purely fictional, the characters and the theme draw very liberally from my real life experiences and all that I see transpiring around me everyday. The story aims to drive home a point that is extremely pertinent, given the kind of life we tend to lead in the current times. The book does not preach or tells its readers as to what is the right thing to do, it simply shows them a reflection of the life they are in all probability leading and forces them to pause and think.

What would you say is the USP of “The Quest For Nothing”?
‘The Quest for Nothing’ is a contemporary story that encapsulates the life of a young working couple and their race for the ever-illusive and undefined ‘successful career’. Their relationship, a result of continuously playing second fiddle to their aspirations, tapers down to a mellow and placid reality from the torrid fantasy it once was. An unexpected turn of events finds them facing a catastrophic situation that threatens to demolish everything that they had been chasing in their lives. The gripping climax uses contemporary mediums like social networking to unravel itself to the readers.

The USP of the story is that it is very real. It is the story of every individual who is striving for a career in the corporate world, compromising on the seemingly insignificant aspects like family and friends. As was aptly summarized by the Hindustan Times, “And as you stream through the pages, you are bound to sit up more than once and exclaim, ‘Hey, that’s exactly how it happens with me!’”

Any spurge of feelings on knowing that 'The Quest for Nothing' is now included in the long-list for Vodafone Crossword Book Awards?
The one thing that every writer (or anyone engaged in a creative line of work) thrives on is appreciation and it is no different for me. The Award is possibly the first of its kind in India which looks at recognising works beyond the strict 'literary' genre and it is indeed an achievement to be included in the long-list along with the other interesting works of fiction published in the country during the year 2010.
 
The Quest for Nothing has been appreciated by its readers and the inclusion of the title in the long-list for the award is an acknowledgement of the same. I am excited and humbled at this and hope that i am able to meet the expectations of my readers with my future works as well.

Amongst Indian fiction writers, whose work do you appreciate? Could you name some of your favorite books (Indian and International)?
Some of my favorite works of fiction are:-
Shalimar the Clown – Salman Rushdie
Palace of Illusions – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Animal's People – Indra Sinha
Museum of Innocence – Orhan Pamuk
Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
One hundred years of solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anything and Everything - P G Wodehouse

I also continue to retain my love for comics and can read Archies, Tintin, Astrix, Naagraj, Super Commando Dhruv and Chacha Chowdhary any time of the day.

What do you like doing the most when not writing?
When I am not writing, I am just another guy who loves to party, spend time with friends, travel and watch movies. There are times though, when I prefer some solitude and ‘me time’ – something, I feel, we most often compromise on.

Given a chance to undo one thing in your life –what would it be? (A certain professional or personal choice)
Clichéd as it may sound, but I believe that everything that happens happens for the good. I might have some minor regrets from life but nothing so significant that I would wish to alter it. I am thankful for all that life has bestowed upon me and I don’t think even I could have written a better script for myself than what life has penned down so far.

Any pearls of wisdom that you’d like to share with budding writers?
In the initial stages of a writing career, one often tends to jump the gun and start worrying about factors like getting the right publisher and marketing of the book rather than concentrating on the quality of the product itself. It is thus important to believe in one’s story and give the manuscript our best efforts and if we do create a product with some value, everything else will take care of itself.

What do we see next from the desk of Anurag Anand? Give us some sneak-peek.
‘Reality Bytes ‘Bites’,’ my next book is likely to hit the stands by June 2011. It is a love story set in a high school hostel and is packed with drama, romance, passion, emotion and everything else that one would expect in a youthful plot. I am reproducing below, the blurb at the back of the book for the benefit of your readers:

A sneak peek into life within the boundaries of a co-ed hostel; a compelling search for love - driven not by the callings of the heart but the anxiety of peer pressure; a passionate scandal; a hair-raising brush with certain doom and a plethora of unforgettable incidents weave together the fangs of reality – a bite that can alter lives.

In pursuit of ambitions thrust upon him by his zealous father, Atul finds himself transported to a world very different from the one he had known – the Delhi High School hostel. Amid the cacophony of curious characters, bizarre rituals and peculiar circumstances, he decides to pursue an interest of his own – Ayesha, the quintessential femme fatale.

What happens next? Does Atul succeed in his pursuit for love? Who is ‘She’, the mystery girl? What becomes of him and Bengali and Senti when they step out into yet another unknown world – the one beyond the confines of the hostel walls?

Grab a copy of "The Quest For Nothing" and you'd know why it made it to the long-list for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2011.