Amit Varma, the man behind one of India's most successful blogs, talks about the curious case of a crime reporter and a jealous lizard in his debut novel
Amit Varma, the man behind one of India's most successful blogs, talks about the curious case of a crime reporter and a jealous lizard in his debut novel
A journalist-turned-blogger-turned-author doesn't want to be known as any of that, thinks he's poor, and still can't believe his debut cover has a pink heart on it.
Amit Varma, owner of the popular blog India Uncut, walks through IPL fields, Zoozoo zoos and political battlefields on his online outings, but when it comes to paperback, he makes his protagonist take the chhipkali gully.
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His book My Friend Sancho is about a smart-alecky scribe who sets out to write a story on an innocent encounter victim's life through his daughter Muneeza aka Sancho, and ends up changing his own.
Your protagonist is into crime reporting, a profession difficult to decode unless you've been in it yourself. Do you think imagination makes better writers than facts?
Oh, I totally believe that writers should write about what they know. But they don't need to have done it themselves. I've been a journalist, even though I've never worked in a newsroom, so I know what it involves. Furthermore, I did a fair bit of research on how crime reporters function. That's important.
An author first, or a blogger?
I'd never face such a choice. But I've wanted to be a novelist ever since I could read, and regard that as my primary preoccupation.
Journalism, as your blog says, is about judgment, and that's why you decided to quit it. But isn't the power of judgment what makes the world go round?
What I meant was that as a columnist and op-ed writer, you are often required to pass judgment on the world. As a novelist, you should not pass judgment on your characters, because if you do, you will never have the empathy to write convincingly about them. Literature aims to examine the human condition, unflinchingly and without passing judgment. You should leave passing judgment to the readers.
Your book has an amusing reptile as a central character. How lizard-like are you?
I'm not really like a lizard, except that I find cockroaches tasty.
What is the book not about?
The book is not autobiographical, and nor is the main character, Abir (Ganguly, crime reporter), anything like me.
What's tougher? Writing a book or a blog?
Blogging requires byte-sized pieces of writing done in short periods of time. While writing a novel, one has to sustain a narrative over more than 200 pages, and it takes enormous discipline. Doing either well is hard; doing either badly is easy.
Who's Amit beyond the money-minting blogger?
I am not a money-minter. Writers are poor.u00a0
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But people think blogging is all about money. Any advice?
There is no money in either blogging or writing novels. Do it only for the love of it. No other reason makes sense.
The funniest thing that happened while writing the book?
I never imagined that my first novel would have a pink heart on it! But, never say never.
Many blogger-turned-authors haven't been able to make it big off the Blogosphere. Does that scare you?
I am not a blogger-turned-author. I am an author who just happens to have a blog. My novels will sink or swim on their own merit.
One complaint that you have from blogging as a career, or writing as a second one?
I don't see blogging as a career, it's a hobby. I have no complaints from it. And I don't see writing as a career either, but as a passion.
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