1.
Can you
tell us a little about yourself your aspirations and your hobbies?
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2.
How did
you first get involved in writing? Are you an imaginative person?
I would give credit to my mummy who used to
tell me bedtime stories every night without fail for many years. There was a
time when the stories became repetitive but instead of getting bored I observed
new aspects of the story that I had failed to observe before. I started imagining
alternative endings to Aesop fables, Akbar-Birbal stories etc. Hell, I had even
penned down different endings for movies like Sholay, Andaz Apna Apna, Baazigar etc. So yes, I
guess I’m an imaginative person.
3.
Were
you always interested in the romantic genre?
Well, to be honest, the trend among the
Indian authors is to debut with a romance novel. So, I too started writing
romantic short stories only to find out that I was too cheesy and my writing of
romance resembled that of Mills n Boons. I’m not proud of it but it did help me
win the affection of a lot of female readers. I don’t enjoy writing romantic
stories but people tell me that I’m able to pen down decent stories in this
genre.
4.
How did
Tere Hi Liye happen?
In the month of March, Indiblogger and
Harper Collins had organized a ‘Get Published’ contest and my story failed to
make it to the final 10.Here I was contemplating with my first failure when I
saw a FB post about another PAN India contest. I edited the same story and
mailed it. Imagine my surprise when three months later, I was the first person
who they announced as one of the 27 contributing authors.
5.
Tell us
something about Kaleidoscope?
I joined Indiblogger in March and made many
friends there. One of them suggested me to send my supernatural-erotica story
“Karma is a Bitch” for a contest organized by Parlance Publishers with the
judge being Ashwin Sanghi. I still remember that moment when a day before my birthday,
I got a call from the editor congratulating me on being a part of the
anthology. This was the moment my boyhood dreams came true. Though Kaleidoscope
failed to create any ripples in the vast ocean of literature, I made many new
friends and it was the dawn of a new era.
6.
What
about the other published works?
My supernatural-thriller story Reborn
about a psychopath hunting for a new victim is being published in ‘I’.
Also, ’25 Strokes of Kindness’ published by Grapevine India will contain
my story Pentimento about an orphan girl who has to cope living with a
person who considers her as his own daughter. My poem Loss of Innocence
is also being published and I was surprised when it got selected because I’m an
amateur poet. I want to be known as a versatile writer and hence I choose to
participate in those contests only which are being judged by established
writers and not those one-time hit “national bestsellers”.
7.
Where
do you see yourself blogging wise in the next 6 months and 5 years down the
road?
I believe in quality over quantity. I’ve
written only 60 posts in a span of five years but still people who’ve read my
stories appreciate them. I don’t write just for the love of writing because
that way I’ll never learn the fine techniques of writing. I set goals like
attempting a humour story or a horror one and after completing them, I ask
different people to review them. For example, if I’ve written a humour story, I
ask bloggers like C. Suresh and Rickie Khosla to go through them or I ask authors
like Coppola and Dr. Vivek Banerjee if I’ve written a horror story. Their
reviews have helped me to become better. We are all students in the vast
universe of literature and it is eventually upto us whom we select to be our
mentors. So the span of 5 years is too far ahead as I concentrate on only one
genre at a time.
8.
How did
the ‘The Indian Raconteur’ get its innovation?
We, Indians, pride ourselves as being one
of the most creative and intellectual people alive. Be it Mahabharata,
Ramayana, Panchtantra or even Bollywood for that matter, we’ve always come up
with brilliant stories and I wanted to do the same with my blog. I just wanted
a medium to tell my stories and I thought a blog presented the perfect
opportunity for it. People keep telling me that going through my blog isn’t
time consuming and I believe a simple presentation is the reason for it. Having
a decent legible font size with a light coloured background can do wonders.
9.
Were
you good in studies? What was the most interesting part?
I had a fast grasping power and I enjoyed
English, History and even Science to an extent. But engineering was an entirely
different ball and game altogether. Never had I felt so helpless like I felt
these past 4 four years on several occasions. But engineering taught me to
complete my work before deadlines and the most interesting part was doing
‘Jugaad’ whenever appicable. Doctors can save lives, bankers can manage finance
but an engineer can find a solution for any problem.
10.
What is
your favorite genre? What are your thoughts on that especially In the Indian
scenario?
My favorite genre is crime. I’ve grown
reading novels of Mario Puzo & Elmore Leonard and watching movies of Coppola
& Scorsese. This is one genre I can’t get enough of and that’s why I’ve
decided to write my debut novel on crime. You can read the prologue here: http://rafaadalvi.blogspot.in/2013/06/the-greatest-artist-that-ever-lived.html
11.
Any
specific tips you have for newbie Authors who want to make it in the publishing
Industry?
Don’t lose hope when your stories don’t
make it to the final list. Keep trying hard and don’t ever lose hope. Edit your
stories at least thrice in a month and read your story aloud. Try to complete
your work a fortnight before the deadline as editing is the key to success. My
story in Kaleidoscope got good reviews but it wasn’t edited well as I was just
a newbie and it left me disappointed. From that moment onwards, I gave equal
importance to editing too.
12.
What
would you prioritize? Narration or Words?
Both. You won’t like a story if it isn’t
written from the heart. Then again, you won’t like it if it isn’t crisp and
doesn’t appeal to your intellect level. One without the other cannot survive
and they both go hand in hand.
13.
What’s
the best thing a writer can give to his readers?
Honesty. As long as a writer respects his
readers, writes for his pleasure and not for commercial success, the output
would be genuine and original. The moment a writer becomes a sellout and starts
writing just for the heck of it or for making fast money, his readers lose
faith in him. Harry Potter turned many people into writers who tried to make
money writing below-par fantasy stories. In the same manner, Twilight resulted
in many bad vampire love stories on Amazon and now 50 Shades of Grey is
continuing the tradition by being the role model to thousands of erotic novels.
This trend of reaping the benefits of others and trying to ride on their
success is killing literature slowly. A writer shouldn’t waste paper by being a
part of this travesty.
14.
A lot
of people are interested in for the money earning potential of a writer. What
are some tips for people interesting in making money from it? What are some
realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?
You can’t make money in the current Indian
market because people tend to buy pirated copies even if they need to pay only
Rs 20 more for the original copy. Moreover, with the amount of novels and
publishing houses coming in the market, a reader easily gets confused and ends
up buying pirated copies. Online stores like Flipkart, Infibeam, Homeshop18 etc
don’t make profits from books and only sell books in the hope that the buyers
of discounted books will someday buy electronic and household items from them.
Unless you’re an established name in the literary world, making money shouldn’t
be a realistic expectation and you should concentrate more on writing quality
honest stories.
15.
What
motivates you most in life?
The will to excel always and be known for
my quality work motivates me. I want to be remembered as a talented guy who
knew what he was doing with his life. Finally, everyone tries to become the
yardstick to which every other writer is measured and I’m no different.
16.
What
has been your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and your work?
There’s no strategy as such. Social
networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have helped and also Indiblogger,
Blog Adda, WriteUp Café etc have proved to be excellent platforms to showcase
talent. Moreover, participating in
contest swas equally important as they showed where I stood with others and
provided a huge scope for improvement.
17.
What was the most challenging moment in your
content development process and why?
The start is always the most challenging
part. Once you know how you’re going to go about the entire process, it becomes
a bit easier. As long as you stick to the plan and don’t get distracted, things
will gradually fall into place. Writers
block happens to everyone and I was no exception. I took this time to catch up
with my reading and watch few movies. Before I knew, I had formed plots in my
mind but I still wasn’t able to write. After a two month hiatus, I wrote
stories for my team ‘Westerlies’ in IBL 2.0 and we ended up winning IBL. So be
positive and don’t let anything or anyone slow you down.
18.
Everyone
has a favorite/least favorite writer. Name yours and why?
Michael Crichton. He’s the author of numerous brilliantly
researched bestsellers like Jurassic Park, Lost World, Timeline, Prey, Congo,
Next, Andromeda Strain, Great Bank Robbery, Disclosure among many others. Charles
Dickens comes second.
19.
Name
some of the writers whom you look up to and why?
O. Henry, Roald Dahl and Oscar Wilde are those versatile writers whose short
stories I enjoy reading the most. The manner in which they can spin an extra
ordinary tale with an ordinary background is a huge feat. Among the present
lot, I like Khaled Hosseini, Dan Brown, Frederick Forsyth, Salil Desai and
Vikas Swarup for their creativity and story-telling ability.
20.
What is
the story behind your blogging journey? Was it by chance?
I
always imagined numerous plots and scenarios in my head as a kid and having a
blog was the only logical choice. A blog presented the perfect opportunity for
me to tell my stories. I started with articles on WWE and then moved to amateur
poems and movie reviews. But now, I only write stories and a yearly review of
the top 10 Bollywood & Hollywood movies on my blog. The traffic or no. of
posts or no. of comments on my blog has never bothered me and never will.
21.
Your
connection with any others writers and what your efforts on that?
I keep in touch with various bloggers and
published authors. I avoid only those
who remember me only when their books are being launched and act ignorant
otherwise. The best thing about being a part of numerous anthologies, Facebook
groups or Indian Bloggers League is getting an opportunity to interact with
various people who voice different opinions but have a common love for writing.
22.
Which
genre do you feel gets the raw deal?
Erotica
is a taboo in India and people esp. women writing it are considered to be
immoral by the society which is actually quite stupid. Don’t we belong to the
nation that is the birth place of Kamasutra?
Humor
is another genre which gets the raw deal. Most of the Indian readers haven’t
even heard of P. G. Wodehouse, so we can’t expect much from this genre in
India.
23.
Five
adjectives that describe you.
Altruist
Sarcastic
Honest
Multi-tasker
Carefree
24.
What
book would you say has made the biggest impact good or bad on you?
I read Wuthering Heights in my 5th
std. and that was the first novel I read. It was an eye-opener and I realized
relationships could be so devastating that fuck up your lives. I lost my
innocence after reading Oliver Twist and To Kill A Mockingbird in
my 7th std. The last book which had a big impact on me was A Thousand
Splendid Suns. I doubt anyone can read that piece of literary gem without
shedding tears.
25.
Do you
get easily provoked by positive/negative comments?
Negative comments only fuel me to write
better while the positive ones fail to affect me in any manner whatsoever. One
must realize that people who criticize us can simply ignore our writings but
instead they spend time and energy to do so only for our betterment.
26.
Do you
plan to write novel in collaboration?
I don’t
believe I can do justice if I write a novel in collaboration. Though I
appreciate the effort undertaken by the authors of ’Ohh! Gods are Online’ as
they penned down a surprisingly good novel.
27.
What
genre attracts you the most and which genre you avoid?
Like I said earlier, crime attracts me the
most. I love writing about death. It’s an enigma I would love to explore a lot
without actually meeting it. Romance is the genre I want to avoid as it’s been
done to death in India. Also, I’ve decided to stop writing on erotica after
reading Himadri Shrivastava as I realized I can’t do justice to it and end up
porn-writing.
28.
Everyone has a favourite/least favourite
post. Name yours and why?
My IBL Booker Prize winning post: http://rafaadalvi.blogspot.in/2013/07/27.html
My first published short story: http://rafaadalvi.blogspot.in/2013/06/karma-is-bitch.html
The story closest to my heart: http://rafaadalvi.blogspot.in/2011/01/it-is-sensational-him-and-her.html
29.
Name some of the bloggers whom you
look up to and why?
I love Suresh C ‘http://www.jambudweepam.blogspot.in/’ and Rickie Khosla ‘http://reekycoleslaw.com/’ for their sense of humor, Vikram Karve ‘http://karvediat.blogspot.in/’ for his dedication for writing, Stephan AK
for his versatility ‘http://www.thesolitarywriter.com/’ and Sriram R. ‘http://www.gametheori.com/’ for his intellectual writing.
30.
Is
winning award/s really necessary?
An award function is a place where people
from all categories get awards and everybody is under one roof. Now, if I’m a
Bengali writer who’s got an award for writing posts in Bengali, people who’re
waiting for other awards get to know me. The word of mouth spreads. Lo and
behold! You’re famous. Now that’s a good thing right? But then again there are
many instances where jealousy seeps in and people resort to unprofessional and
anti-social behavior like slandering which should be avoided. I’ve won the IBL
Booker Prize along with two other bloggers and nothing has changed. At the end
of the day, it’s an achievement irrespective of what people say and you can
live without it too.
31.
Your views on contests and increasing
plagiarism?
Contests help you to interact with new
people and they also help you to come out of your niche and try new genres. But
if you’re one to sulk, then I sincerely request you to stop participating
because you’re not winning anything and using your creative skills in the wrong
place.
I don’t understand why few people
copy-paste the work of others. Just a few pats on the shoulder? It just takes
away the fun from it all. I wish there were strict laws for such an offence so
that people thought twice before pressing Ctrl C + Ctrl V.
32.
Words
for me and my blogs Desire v/s Destiny and Blogger Interviews.
I like your initiative and how you’re
gradually working towards achieving it. Don’t hurry and avoid typos. Always
edit your posts before posting them. You never know you may have good content
but may lose readers who lack patience.
33.
Tell us
the next thing we will hear from you. Maybe your Novel release.
The team of Westerlies is planning to
launch a multi-genre anthology comprising of 20 stories of 4.5k-5k words each.
We’ve made sure that all genres and various aspects of life are covered. I
expect the book to be out by early 2014.
I’m simultaneously working on my novel.
I’ve finalized the characters and I’m working on my plot right now.
Rahul, I’ve enjoyed giving this interview
and I hope sky is the limit for you.
Note from the Interviewer Rahul Miglani :- I started as an erotic story teller and was highly misunderstood with in Indiblogger itself where some of the most famous bloggers did not even knew the difference between Erotica and Porn .So when I started doing homework on Rafaa I was more than Happy.Well It has been a pleasure knowing him and I am sure the people reading this would have loved this interview as well.Keep the good work going on Rafaa.Enjoy People.
