Diplomat-writer Vikas Swarup, who is posted as the consul-general in Osaka, does not want to be a full-time author, saying he wants to continue writing part-time and work full time as an Indian diplomat.
Mr Swarup, who launched his latest book, Accidental Apprentice, at the Hay Festival in Wales, made headlines after his first novel Q&A was adapted into a film, Slumdog Millionaire, by Danny Boyle, which went to win eight Oscars. Q&A was translated into 44 languages and was also made into radio plays and audio books.
“I am strictly a weekend writer. I have only produced three books since I wrote Q&A in 2003. I do not see myself as a fulltime writer. I took three months off and tried to practise as a full-time writer at that time, but I didn’t particularly enjoy the experience,” he said on Monday evening at Nehru Centre in London. “Meeting people because of job and the conversations I have with them provide me the sparks of ideas for my work,” he added.
He does not feel that his work as a diplomat does not adversely affect his creative works. “The civil service rules actually mean I don’t need permission to publish a book. I write about present day India, the way where there is corruption, where there are scandals, and if that corruption is discovered then action is taken. I am only true to my characters and the plot,” says Mr Swarup, who started writing with Q&A, which he wrote during his stint in London in 2003.
Despite his distance from India because of his job, the 49-year-old describes himself as a totally “Indian Indian writer” and not a diaspora Indian writer like Manil Suri or Jhumpa Lahiri.
“I see myself as an Indian Indian writer even though I have lived abroad for extended periods. I feel very connected to India, especially thanks to the modern communication and the media,” he says. “Sometimes the fact that you are at a slight remove from the action can be an advantage… Maybe distance lends a certain perspective to look at India and its problems.”
“I hope my books help readers to get to know my country, India, a little better,” he says, adding that he likes writing about contemporary India.
Mr Swarup, a married father of two sons, says he is very upbeat about contemporary India. “The only two things that really bother me about India are infrastructure deficit in terms of amount of power we need, roads we need, bridges we need and the social deficit — the gap between the rich and the poor,” he says. “As a writer, I find the contradictions of India fascinating. Where else will you find a country that while still addressing primary issues like health, shelter and literacy is simultaneously able to compete at a global level in technology, business and culture.”
The diplomat-writer reveals he is interested in cinema. “I would like to try screenplay writing,” he says, adding that he has been approached by top Indian filmmakers to write screenplays for them. “I do have a very visual imagination, in the sense the way I write is that I first visualise the scene in my head and then I write from that perspective.”
Mr Swarup, whose book has a 23-year-old woman as its central character, says he started writing his book almost two years before women’s issues became news with the Delhi gangrape case in December 2012. “It just became right book for the right time,” he says.