Read an interview with the author Uske Hisse Ka Pyar – Ashish Dalal. He talks to Amit Mishra from The Indian Authors platform. Ashish talks about his book, his writing and his further plans in the literary field. Hope you will like this interview.
Amit Mishra: For the readers who are yet to read your book, what would you say if someone asks what is the major theme of your short story collection?
Ashish Dalal: The title of the book reveals the theme itself. “Uske Hisse Ka Pyar” is based on Love theme. When someone talks about love, people generally relate it to a young boy and young girl romance. The stories of my book are not only related to love between young boy and girl but it also tells about love for every age of persons. “Uske Hisse Ka Pyar” is a collection of stories of a young boy, a young girl, married couple, friends, mother & son, son and father and relationship out of marriages. I never hesitate to explore the moment of intimacy in my writing so readers can find some content related to it as well in this book. Love cannot be romantic always, sometimes it gives pain as well but we make it part of our life as we love our beloved. The book explores the different aspect of Love and their associated feelings.
Amit Mishra: You have been writing for magazines and newspapers for long. How did the idea for a book occur in your mind? When did you start working on Uske Hisse Ka Pyar?
Ashish Dalal: Writing is my passion. I started writing at age of 14. I have been writing for magazines and newspapers for long but there was a period when I stopped writing for magazines and newspapers. This was not intended but I could not get enough and quality time to write. I lost my father when I was in 2nd standard. After the death of my father, my uncle took the responsibility of my mother and my siblings. Later the death of my uncle in the year 2007 I was the only earing and responsible person of my family, therefore, I had lots of social responsibility to fulfil in those days. These responsibilities suddenly came to me & I was not completely prepared to handle it.
Due to my family and social responsibilities, I stopped writing but I away thought and developed a story in my mind and noted down the theme/plot in my diary. After the year 2013, I have been settled in my life very well and completed major social responsibilities so I started writing stories and articles again.
One day I was talking with my wife about my writing work. She suggested me to utilize free time to convert my dream to reality. I promised her to write a book. I started working on “Uske Hisse Ka Pyar” diligently from June 2017 onwards but thoughts and theme had already been developed for it since when got the experience of love and marriage life.
Amit Mishra: Did you show your book to some of the close friends after you finished writing it? What was their reaction? Please share some of them which you remember.
Ashish Dalal: My wife is my best friend. She born and brought up in Gujarat so she feels difficulty to read Hindi books. For her convenience, I told her some of the stories from “Uske Hisse Ka Pyar” collection. After listening stories from me, her reaction was “For me, you are romantic but to see you no one can predict that you can write such romantic stories as well.” By nature and look I am very serious kind of person.
I also shared some portion of my stories with my colleagues – Mr. Anand Kunder & Ms. Shabana Patel. Both of them read English books mostly but after reading the content of my book Anand says “I am slow in Hindi reading but your writing force me to read.” On the other hand, Shabana says “A person like me who reads English mostly can also read this book without a problem. I feel the content makes you finish a story when you start.”
Amit Mishra: Do you think there is a trend which the modern writers are following? What do you think the readers want to read today?
Ashish Dalal: New generation is very smart and proactive. They talk not only about movies, political issues, current affairs or gossips but they also think about social issues. Modern writers are not an exception from it. They become bold and do not hesitate to explore the issues related to gender difference, sex etc.
Readers always like to read a book which they find more realistic with their life. Young Generation likes to read love based fictions. This is the very old theme but always evergreen. The only difference I have seen that now readers want to get the solution of their problems from the author whom they like very much. Young generation wants to read about their problem and solutions.
Amit Mishra: There are many authors who write about love and friendship and relationships. If a reader reads your book, what difference he will find in it?
Ashish Dalal: My family, friends and other readers liked the title of the book. They also liked the cover page of “Uske Hisse Ka Pyar”. From my childhood, I am very curious to know how a person plays different role in his life. Based on the different situation in the life their emotions also get changed. I talked about the emotions which are not seen or ignored by the person whom we love. In today’s busy life schedule it happens very frequently and everyone seeks his share of love from their beloved ones. Some person cannot express the love. I would say all the stories are based on Love theme but the perspective of each story is different.
I have written about love marriage and their success & failure, Disturbance in sexual life due to Physical harassment and Rape, Post marriage conflicts in a newly married couple, stories about women who sacrifice with their lives in hope to get love from husband & family. In brief “Uske Hisse Ka Pyar” is not just a romantic fiction but it also tells about the personal and social cause. Readers will find it interesting and able to relate it to today’s’ reality.
Amit Mishra: What do you think about the great authors of Hindi literature? How far have we come from the old decades of writing? What difference, as a reader, you are observing in the modern writing in Hindi versus the older writings?
Ashish Dalal: I have read many authors of Hindi literature but I am inspired by Shivani very much. In Old decades all the great authors wrote about the social cause. They were very much focused to explore social issues and tried to give a solution to the society. They have limited subjects to write. In old decades, Hindi writing was purely based on Hindi, Urdu & Farsi words. Authors used complicated words in their writing so it was not very easy to understand by everyone. In early days, a person can get free time to read and understand the literacy work. In today’s scenario, everyone is struggling to get free time as we live in a nuclear family so writing is also get affected by the changes. The education level of person has been increased & a common housewife also started taking interest to read fictions, therefore, modern author includes household issues in his writing. The biggest difference is that modern author became more courageous to explore the different aspect of personal life. They are not shy to write about a private moment of personal life as well. I am not saying that they are exploring vulgarity but somehow from serious writing, people get some message, some solution.
Amit Mishra: What is the role of an author in the social set-up, Ashish? What are your thoughts in the context of the modern social structure and rapidly changing lifestyle?
Ashish Dalal: An author can change the social set-up by his words. Readers like to follow & implement the changes suggested by their favourite author. An author has ability & power to change the thinking process of a person so good writing can definitely help to change the world.
In modern social structure, Indian families get separated from joint family. Siblings live in different cities or country with their immediate family. Their needs, their desire also changed. In earlier, family values were on the top but now people started giving priorities to their job. A person cannot attend a marriage function of his cousin’s family because he cannot get long leaves. People have adopted these changes but old generation is still not accepting these changes, therefore, a silent war is present almost in each family.
In other words, to adopt changing lifestyle in modern social structure one needs to run, run & run.
Amit Mishra: As your book will be launched soon, what are your plans post the release? Will you start working on some other books or you will just wait and watch for a while?
Ashish Dalal: Well, an author cannot sit ideal. I write something every day – it can be one line expression or can be a whole story but I write every day. For my next venture, I will see the response of “Uske Hisse Ka Pyar” and see what my readers want me to write.
Amit Mishra: Many thanks for your time and the best wishes for your debut book Uske Hisse Ka Pyar!
Ashish Dalal: Thank you very much. I am hoping that I will touch the heart of my readers.
Love to read book.