Writing is my salvation: Ashwin Sanghi

DNA's Daniel Pinto talks to Ashwin Sanghi, the writer of The Rozabal Line, a thriller that is based on the conspiracy theory that Jesus Christ came to India.

Sanghi talks about his recent novel Chanakya's Chant among other things.

Tell us a little about yourself. What made you turn from management to fiction?
I was born in a Marwari business family. Circumstances meant that my life was mapped out for me before I was born. It was expected that I would start working for the family business at an early age (I started at 16); it was expected that I would complete an MBA (I did, from Yale, in 1993). At times, this predictability can be a source of security, but it can also mean a life of boredom. I was always a creative person but I had been thrust into the mould of a baniya. The first reaction was to be creative at work. Unfortunately, business is one of those things where money is involved and there are limits to the creativity that one can exhibit when it comes to hard-earned family assets.

I soon realised that I would need to compartmentalise my life. Business was the means to feed my family, but I also needed to have a parallel life that would feed my soul! Writing is my salvation, my means to place myself in an imaginary world and conjure up fantastic stories... it is my path to escape boredom. Some journalists ask me "Why not write books on management or business?" and I find that so very funny. The very reason for writing is to escape from what I do in my ordinary less-exciting avatar, why in heaven's name would I want to write about it?

What is like to have a best-seller (2007's The Rozabal Line) under your belt?
The Rozabal Line gave me much more satisfaction than Chanakya's Chant even though the latter has been a much bigger success. The Rozabal Line was a chance for me to prove to myself that I had what it took to write a hundred thousand words of a novel. It was also my chance to struggle to find a niche in the publishing world and to do it without the usual advantages that I enjoy as a businessman. The fact that The Rozabal Line remained a bestseller for several months after its release by Tata-Westland was a personal vindication of sorts.

There were eerie coincidences in your first book and the tragic events that played out in 26/11. What is your take on this?
The coincidences were both eerie and unfortunate. To a certain extent though, they were inevitable. My brand of fiction is usually based upon a bedrock of research. When you write a story about a group of terrorists who are part of an elite sub-group of the Lashkar and when the publication of this story is followed by a 26/11 type attack, there are bound to be parallels drawn. I was shaken as well as upset. I did not want my fiction to playout as fact!
 
What is your book Chanakya's Chant about?
There are two parallel stories that are narrated in Chanakya's Chant. The first is the story of Chanakya, 2300 years ago. It is a fictional retelling of the political machinations that brought Chandragupta Maurya to the throne. The second is a modern-day fictional tale of a Brahmin from Uttar Pradesh - Gangasagar Mishra - who decides that a poor girl from a Kanpur slum is the ideal candidate to be made prime minister of India. The contemporary tale describes the Kautilyan strategies employed by Gangasagar to bring his dream to fruition.

Why did you turn to history after writing a conspiracy theory-based thriller? And why did you choose Chanakya, who has already received a  fair amount of attention from the media?
In the eighteenth century, it was Edmund Burke who famously said, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." I find that when I observe current events around me, I instinctively correlate these with events that happened in the past. When I read about modern-day conflicts between Islam and the western world, I can't help thinking of the religious Crusades that were fought for most of the three hundred years following the eleventh century. When I see Anna Hazare fasting at Ramlila, I am reminded of Mahatma Gandhi's two longest fasts, in 1924 and 1943. When I see the debt crisis of the US and the financial collapse of European nations such as Greece, Spain, and Italy, I am reminded of the Great Depression of 1929. History inevitably repeats itself, one simply needs to observe the patterns.

This pattern is what interests me most and this is what is central to my fiction. With The Rozabal Line, I was exploring religious history whereas Chanakya's Chant gave me a chance to explore political history.
 
How much research went into this work and where did you decide take liberties?
With Chanakya's Chant, the research was at two levels because, as you know, there are two parallel stories in this book. The ancient story required historical reading, including the Arthashastra as well as several other books penned on Chanakya. I also read an Engish translation of the Mudrarakshasa - a historical play in Sanskrit by Vishakhadatta who lived in the 4th century. The modern-day story simply involved lots of newspaper reading. The drama of politics is enacted before us each day in the front pages… one doesn't need to stray any further! It is my belief that the ancient historical tale presented in the novel is around sixty percent true but one should not read it as history.

With your sub-plot of the slum kid why did you decide to juxtapose the past with the present?
I think that the story is much more interesting when one places the ancient and the modern side-by-side and see both the stories pan out in parallel. What this method of storytelling achieves is to draw the reader's attention to the fact that characters, backdrops, timelines, places, and props may change but overall political strategy and human nature has not changed.
 
What are your inspirations? Do you have any specific western influences?
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren was the book that got me interested in politics. Another one of my favourites is The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam because it taught me about wine, women and song - and God. Finally, there was Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov which made me realise that there isn't much difference between sex and politics!

What are your thoughts on the current trends of fiction writing in India?
I am very happy to see the emergence of a new breed of commercial fiction writers in India. For too long, we've perpetuated the myth that Indian fiction implies award-winning literary fiction. The equally preposterous assumption is that anything non-literary must necessarily be 'chick lit' or IIM-centred. India is a country of stories, storytellers, myths, legends and history... we do not need to stray very far to find our own versions of mysteries, thrillers, whodunnits and adventures. I am delighted to see that this is actually happening.