Mythically inclined

Ashwin Sanghi prefers to call himself a storyteller. The businessman-turned-writer whose forte lies in fiction is out with his third book.

And keeping up with his expertise in mythology and legends, the thriller deals with Lord Krishna and a serial killer who is delusional enough to believe that he’s the tenth avatar of Vishnu! Ashwin has already sold the rights of his second book to a movie production house and it won’t be a surprise if he manages to do the same with his latest work. In a chat with CS, Ashwin speaks about the need to relate to our common history and our distinct future:

Pic/ Bipin Kokate

Let’s dig our past
To me, a myth is a lie that somehow tells the truth. Also, I believe in the universality of religion because if we go back a few thousand years, we’ll come across multiple points of origin. All one needs is a realm of popular fiction and then we can infiltrate this landscape with the available info about our recorded history as well as legends. Like simply saying Krishna was great or Mahabharata was an epic isn’t enough. On the contrary, if we say the ancient city of Dwarka was recently found undersea, then it becomes more digestible.

Trends are changing
In the last few years, there has been a flurry in commercial writing which was never the case a decade ago. It wasn’t okay for an Indian writer in English of literary fiction to write something as mundane as a mystery, adventure or a thriller. At least that was the mindset of the publishing industry in the country. Thankfully, not anymore. We’re witnessing convergence of different genres. Now I’m seeing that commercial fiction and non-fiction together constitute volumes.

Switching profession
As a businessman, you see ups and downs, negotiate tough deals, be with people who are difficult and try tou00a0survive. And one day, you end up with this huge data bank of incidents and anecdotes in your head and they u00a0gradually start emerging on the page. Any person from any background brings some elements of their job when they write. u00a0Low attention spanu00a0I get bored very easily so I constantly put myself in my readers’ place and ask whether I’d be hooked if I were one of them. This deficit helps me challenge myself.u00a0

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