Writer’sBlock
Fury by Salman Rushdie and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy are two books that I picked up and didn’t finish
Ahmed Faiyaz is a chartered accountant and management consultant by accident, a civil servant by day and a writer by night. He has written two novels — Love, Life and All That Jazz and Another Chance.
QDescribe your favourite writing space?
I tend to write in cafes, I like the peace in quiet, the aroma of coffee beans and the sound of music. I also write at home on weekends.QDo you have a writing schedule?
I don’t have a writing schedule. Writing isn’t something that you can start and stop everyday at fixed points of time. I tend to write when I am able to isolate myself, which is very important.QEver struggled with writer’s block?
I have, to be honest. But it doesn’t last for too long. All it takes is a nice long walk by the beach and some music to relax. You need to take breaks and unwind.QWhat inspires you to write? Do you have a secret trick, or a book/author that helps?
I never had this ambition to become an author. The people I’ve met and interacted with, or those whom I’ve observed from a distance are my sources of inspiration. I don’t have a secret trick or author that inspires me to write. But at some level I might have been inspired by Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.QCoffee/tea/cigarettes — numbers please — while you are writing?
Two to three cups of coffee while I write. Sometimes a cup more or a cup of green/mint tea, particularly past 2 am, and I’m still at it.QWho are your favourite authors?
A lot of them actually — Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, James Christopher Frey, Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond, Ian McEwan, Amitav Ghosh, Haruki Murakami, Rohinton Mistry, Graham Greene and Khaled Hosseini.QWhich book/author should be banned on grounds of bad taste?
Fury by Salman Rushdie and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy are two books that I picked up and didn’t finish. These are accomplished writers, but these books didn’t work for me.QWhich is the most under-rated book?
Books by Ruskin Bond, Premchand and R.K. Narayan are under-rated. They deserve a lot more attention and praise. Their books will stand the test of time and will be relevant even a 100 years from now, because they reflect a deep understanding of society and the landscape where these stories are set.QWhich are your favourite children’s books?
I grew up on the classics. My picks would be Oliver Twist, Three Musketeers, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, A Tale of Two Cities, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Fantastic Mr Fox and short stories by O. Henry.QWho is your favourite literary character?
There are a number of endearing, conflicted and at times wonderful characters. I am most fond of Pip, Estella, Jaggers and Mrs Havisham from Great Expectations, Hassan in The Kite Runner and Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray, to name a few.
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