The Next Big Thing

The interview was going to be published in the next monthly edition of non-arguably the best-of-the-time magazine "The Next Big Thing". This magazine had shot to fame due to the eccentric nature of their ace interviewer, Rini. She interviewed the recent hot shots, who were being touted as the next big things that were going to happen.

 

Rini herself was the first person to be interviewed for the magazine after a massively successful stint of four years at radio jockeying where she grabbed the best RJ award twice amongst the plethora of other recognition she had. Soon after she was chosen to be the lead interviewer that threw open the giant fortune gates for the magazine.

An interview in the magazine meant a step closer to hearts of the wide audience it catered to. The concept of the magazine was that people from different avenues like sports, art, theatre etc. who have come up over the last month were hand-picked, shortlisted and interviewed. There was a "Star of the Show" section which was exclusively held for the individual who was the best of the lot to watch out for. Ofcourse, Rini was the interviewer for that section. The questions were direct and could be personal at times. The stars who indulged had to be of great mental strength to divulge themselves in front of thousands of readers.

Zahir couldn't sleep the last night and his eyes had no signs of sleep-deprivation as he stood in front of the office he was going to be interviewed in. Moments after, Zahir was waiting in a cool air-conditioned room, with all the paraphernalia neatly and meticulously placed around him. Rini entered the room and both of them greeted each other warmly. Rini's questions were no stereotype but she made sure her guests shared the comfort she felt inside the room. The interview was kick-started:

Rini: Your debut novel is a major hit. You've already reached households. There has been news of many movie makers trying to get rights of your book. Tell us something non-wikipedic about it.

Zahir: When I was writing this book, there were moments when I felt whether this would be a hit or not, whether this would be received well or not and all such sort of things. I must confess that these were distracting and initially road-blocking. There were numerous occasions when I felt blocked to write anything. I had stopped reading altogether, wasn't even reading newspapers. I think I had written 80 pages when I thought it won't work out and stopped. I got back to my old routine. I read anything that I got, newspapers, online articles, bureaucratic essays etc. It was then that it came to my notice that transcripts from my blog were being stolen and published on numerous sites and those got huge accolades. It pissed me off for a while. But what that also did was gave me the requisite impetus to pick up what I had relinquished. I read all the 80 pages, re-wrote them and further. When I look back today, that act of plagiarism by strangers who somehow had a humongous viewership instilled the lost confidence in me. I believe this book is a result of that. That's how it is.

Rini: Interesting, certainly non-wikipedic. You said that you had stopped reading altogether when you were writing this book. How necessary was it to stop reading?

Zahir: Very much. In the early days of the writing of this book, I did not feel the need to cut myself off. As a result, my writing was very distracted when I later read it. I realized, when I had to sit down and re-write those 80 odd pages, that I was getting far too trivial than what I set out initially. We are impacted by things around us and it is almost natural for us to derive inspiration from whatever we see and experience. Writing a book meant swimming to the depths of characters and a relentless search for diamond in a gold mine. Unfortunately, all these things don't happen in the real world, regularly.

Rini: Diamond in a gold mine! (laughs)

Your Wikipedia page says you were a blogger prior to the release of this book. Did the success of your blog made you get into writing a book?

Zahir: Well, my blog wasn't even a hit to be honest. There were people who read it but the number was very limited. Like many other bloggers, I too faced a problem of viewership. I changed the design of my blog, I started reading many other blogs to establish links but after a point of time, it became too cumbersome to spend so much effort into selling yourself. There were only some countable people, on and off the blogging world who went all out with me to envisage this dream. Their expectations kept me going.

to be continued..