'I Was Born to Write'

NEW DELHI: Nickunj Malik’s journalistic career began when she walked into the office of Khaleej Times in Dubai twenty-two years ago. Since then, her articles have appeared in various newspapers including Star (South Africa), Business Times (Tanzania), Bahrain Tribune (Bahrain) and Jordan Times (Jordan).

“Tailspin” is her debut novel. It is a collection of her columns and as Bikram Vohra, Former Editor of Khaleej Times puts it, “It is not an easy task to take up commonplace subjects and find in them a thread that resonates with the larger public. Nickunj Malik’s skill is to select the most trivial scenarios and convert them into a cheerful and sunkissed yarn.”

The book is witty, playful, touching and contemplative all at once. The Citizen caught up with Nickunj before the book’s launch in New Delhi.

The Citizen: You've been writing for over two decades. What inspired you to become a writer?

Nickunj Malik: It was almost as if I was born to write. Expressing my thoughts in writing came as naturally to me as breathing. So, I did not have to wait for any inspiration to strike me, I just wrote and sent in my pieces to various newspapers that published them. It was as simple as that.

TC: Your writing has the ability to turn the mundane into an experience worth sharing and reading about. Tell us what do you do for inspiration and unleashing your creativity?

NM: Like any other writer, I am quite observant. I notice the finer nuances in any situation and subconsciously this gets recorded in my memory. When I sit down to write, all of it flows through my pen, so to speak.

TC: As much of your writing is personal, where do you draw the line between personal and private? Are there parts of your life that you deliberately keep away from your columns?

NM: Writers do draw a lot from their personal lives, that is a fact. Personal experiences when shared explicitly find an echo in the readers also and they empathise with it. But this does not mean I share every bit of everything with everyone. When friends or family tell me things in confidence, it remains private and does not go into print.

TC: What draws you to this more personal genre of writing?

NM: Column writing is always personalised, it is an expression of a particular writer’s version of how he or she views the world. It does not need to be spoofed and what draws me to this genre is the genuineness that it depicts. I simply love it.

TC: The title of your book is "Talespin." Tell us what that means and how did it come about?

NM: Talespin is a very literal term that means spinning of stories. Like Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights I love creating tales out of thin air. When I moved to Jordan with my husband four years ago. I thought up this name for my brand new column that Jordan Times assigned me to write. This book is a collection of one hundred of my favourite columns from there and I decided to call it Talespin as well.

TC: Tell us how "Talespin" the book came about. What (or who) encouraged you to bring out your columns as a book?

NM: Ever since I took up professional writing in the year 1992 with the Khaleej Times newspaper I had a selection of readers who urged me to publish a book. They liked my subtle humour. But columnists are a lazy lot, everyone knows that. We need something earth shattering to enable us to take our work seriously. Early this year I turned fifty years old and for me personally it was a milestone moment, a now or never sort of event. So ten months ago I decided to sift through two decades of my work and pull out one hundred of my best columns. I requested Osama Hajjaj, Jordan’s top cartoonist to make illustrations to go with it. Farrukh Dhondy, the celebrated English novelist very graciously wrote a foreword and the book was ready for publishing.

TC: Tell us about the process behind selecting these columns. Is there a theme, message or intent tying this selection together, and if so, what?

NM: There is no planned method as such with the selection of these columns. I simply picked the ones that got the maximum response from my readers and sort of resonated with them. Also the ones that I most enjoyed while writing them.

TC: Of all the columns in the book, do you have any favourites? Ones that stand out or mean a little more to you than the others. If yes, which ones?

NM: Well, some columns are definitely my favourite and they are the ones in which I paid a literary tribute to my father and mother who are no more. I lost them several years ago and writing about them gave me immense pleasure. Also, in passing the strict nuns of my convent school.

TC: Would you say you learned something through the process of bringing this book out? If yes, what?

NM: For the last twenty two years all that I have done is write. Whether it was interviews, book reviews, film reviews, cricket controversy, fashion shows, art exhibitions et al, I would write and send it to my Editors, and my job was done. I had no idea how the articles made their way into print format. Putting this book together was an education for me and I learned everything about what goes into making a tome. It was worth every minute of the hard work I put in the last ten months.

TC. Do you have any advice for the many aspiring writers out there?

NM: This is my debut book so I don’t think I qualify to give much advice to anybody. I am in need of good suggestions myself. But all I would tell aspiring writers is to find the discipline to write for a few hours everyday. The flow gradually picks up.

TC. Tell us about the writers that inspired you and your writing.

NM: I get inspired by humorists. I like Bill Bryson and his easy method of writing and also like to read autobiographies and travel books. There is a columnist called Stanley Bing, which is the pen name of Gil Schwartz who had a column “While you were out” for Fortune magazine. Though I am not from a financial background I greatly admired his style of business writing that was laced with humour.

TC: If you had to name five books as your favourite reads, which would they be?

NM: Down Under, A House for Mr Biswas, The Great Gatsby, Anna Karenina, The Importance of Being Earnest.

TC: Is there another book in the pipeline?

NM: I am planning to write a novel this year. A work of fiction laced with humour.

TC: If you were not a writer, what would you be?

NM: If I was not a writer I would be a stand up comedienne. Definitely!

Book Details
Malik, N. (2015), “Talespin” Ocean Books Pvt. Ltd.
Price: Rupees 450/-