Me: Tell us something about your book Love was Never Mine.
Kunal: Well, this book is actually a story of a simple guy Rahul, who falls in love with a sweet yet materialistic girl Shreya. This story is all about such small incidents, their impact on the protagonist. I have tried to convey a story of many lovers who are in place of Rahul.
How he tries to impress a girl whom he was almost sure, would never reciprocate same feelings. Does Shreya realize true love, or does Rahul eventually re-define his own meaning of love. The story is all about that.
Me: Are experiences based in this book related to someone you know, or events in your own life?
Kunal: A writer always has his/her soul in the first book. But this experience is not only taken from my own life, but your life, everyone else's lives. It’s a story which has been repeated umpteen numbers of times in many of our lives
Me: What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Kunal: The climax!! Particularly the prologues…
I wanted to have such a climax which should actually make people understand the indispensability of love n understanding. Even if 1% of ppl do understand it, my job is done
Me:When did you first consider yourself as a writer?
Kunal:Some one year back... When I wrote some 40-50 pages....n my friend just sneaked in. She suggested giving the story a try as it’s too good to be published. That certainly boosted my confidence.
Me:Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Kunal: Yes...there are quite a few in order.
1. Life is not a race, everyone needs stability. But we always love to fly like a butterfly without caring for the same
2. Wanted to convey the impact of smaller instances which we feel kiddish to discuss...but which each of us bury within ourselves as a deep pain
3. Love does happen all of a sudden. But like our own fete, we can't see when it’s coming, and realize its importance only when it’s gone
Me:Kunal, your novel title is very interesting. How did you come up with the title?
Kunal:The title suddenly popped up when I was half way through the novel.
I was not sure to give it a happy/sad ending....Once I decided a sad ending, it just came from within but I changed it after having few discussions with my friends.
Me:After love was never mine, what next?
Kunal:Well, right now I am working on a story which will be quite different from this genre. The story is about a guy from a small town, who faces a lot of turbulence in his life due to increasing criminal activities in his hometown. He loses his grandpa who was his support. He then aims to be a politician to change the system, but once when he enters ends up being one of them.
Does his conscience win? Or does the dirty politics sink in one more or in fact two more people…
Me:Anything specific you have to say to your readers?
Kunal:
1. The book ‘Love was never Mine’ is the first book and more than anything else I have tried to give readers an experience which is same as watching Avatar. As in the readers will feel as if they r living the entire scenes n characters
2. I wish to communicate the agony of a guy/girl who could never express their love for someone through this simple story. Hope even 1% people get it communicated.
3. I could have written a literary masterpiece, but then I don't want just appreciation. I need people (simple people) to read it and thus a simple style and story.
There are more to come n hope readers have their love n faith intact with them.
If you like the interview and want to checkout the sites on which the book is available:
For international users : Amazon.com
For indian users : Flipkart, Book Shop of India
11 comments:
Nice post and interview but one thing bothered me and that is the remark about the book being for simple people and thus not a literary masterpiece.
will read and find out why its for simple people..didn't get the point..
I like this interview. I dont understand a few parts of what the author said, like how he could have and didnt want to write a literary masterpiece (because he didnt just want the appreciation of the people?) and how someone can be 'sweet and materialistic' (but I guess thats just a personal bias).
Still want to read the book.
Hi All,
From "simple people" I meant masses who are not into reading books that much. There are a lot of people who are not into reading books and probably a story related to them conveyed in a simple language through a simple story could well connect with them.
I have tried to do the same with my book.
Apologies for any confusions. Hope I get the same support of you all.
i didnt find the story very different from the genre of a disastrous stream of novels that followed the success of Chetan Bhagat's Five Point someone. Stories are indeed meant to be felt, but only when they capture the subtleties being portrayed and not when the author uses extravagant language to put his point across. I felt the story was quite ordinary, with unrelenting and needless efforts to spice it up. Had the author concentrated more on just writing from his heart and less on following a genre that has given few famous novels in past, the outcome might have been different.
Well anonymous...
Five point someone is not a love story... Its about frndship and IIT.
This book don't even have a hint of that. Give it a try if u wanna check
Thanks for sharing your opinion Anonymous! you could have at least disclosed your identity too. I dnt knw whether you have read the book or not, because rather than story this book is more towards subtle emotions and heart felt, unspoken feelings..its all about expressing the inexpressible!
although the story was pretty good enough for a debut novel...although if i compare it with the current best selling author chetan bhagat it was still ordinary....but i am quite sure that the author may be able to improve with time and experience....well...surely having a slow and steady progress is much better than doing a chetan bhagat...who was quite awesome with his 1st but his following 3 novels were ...well to say the least....horrible at least for me...but at somepoints mr. kunal looked to me more of a movie story writer than a novel writer.....but again...i really believe he can improve on that...congratz!!
Hi Anonymous,
I really appreciate taking your time out and commenting. Critics are always welcome for me to improve. But I am still not sure why u r comparing Chetan Bhagat wid my book. Both are in different genres. Probably u can compare it wid That kiss in the rain, I too had a love story, The illusions of love, Truly madly deeply etc.
However,if u could let us know a detailed feedback with few examples, that will certainly help me in my upcoming novels.
Your book sounds fascinating and I look forward to reading it.
My best, Mari
http://www.mariscamera.blogspot.com/
Thanks Mari! My pleasure :-)
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