Saurabh Tankha
Author Agatha Christie worked as a full-time pharmacist assistant and Pulitzer prize winning poet Wallace Stevens was as an insurance executive. So it doesn’t come as a surprise to find DR SIDDHARTH NIRWAN, an ENT consultant and assistant professor at Jaipur’s SMS Medical College & Hospital, penning books on horror. Born to a doctor couple and married to one, Dr Nirwan is all set to for the release of his third horror novel, Dead People’s Town: The End Begins Now! (Locksley Hall Publishers; Rs 299; 225 pages).
Excerpts from an interview:
When did an ENT surgeon decide to pen a book based on horror and suspense?
My affiliation to horror genre dates back to the time when I was eight. A chance watching the classic Ramsay Brothers, Purana Mandir, hooked me to the mystic world of ghosts, spirits, demons and supernatural creatures. After that, I watched almost every Bollywood and Hollywood horror film I could get hold of. Back then, I used to think what if could make a similar film myself. But since I come from a hardcore academic and middle-class background, thinking about filmmaking was absurd. Years later, while doing my Mastery of Surgery in ENT, an idea struck. I had seen Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project that were made with cheap budget but garnered fame and box-office revenue. I thought ‘what if I could do something like that?’ So with the help of my sister-in-law’s handy cam and support of a few friends, I made a film based on a paranormal activity in the medical college hostel and released it on YouTube. Though amateurish, it fulfilled my dream and I managed a lot of attention. But I didn’t know the hunger for creating something in horror genre had spurted. A new horror story, on a larger scale, began to take shape in my head but it was beyond my capacity to make a film on it. The idea was quickly shunned. As fate had it, I happened to visit the Jaipur Literature Festival years later and was stunned to know that there existed an amazing world of readers who read and breathed books. It was then I decided that if I could not share my stories in visual media, I could do so in print. That was the day my journey as a writer began.
How was the response to your two earlier works (The Last Witch Trial, Dead Never Die)?
Beyond expectations. Since both are based in small towns and villages of Rajasthan, and the supernatural legends that lurk in that region, readers instantly developed a liking as it was something they hadn’t come across before. I received good reviews and messages from readers that motivated me to write more.
The most influential work of horror you’ve read in last five years and why do you consider it so?
It has to be William Peter Blatty’s Legion. It broke all the rules of storytelling and re-established the fact that true horror is horror generated by one’s own mind and not by any supernatural entity or a haunted place.
Which horror writer do you prefer reading the most and why?
Stephen King for the reason that his stories are non-linear, unpredictable and makes the readers uncomfortable. And that’s what really is the most important element in a good horror story. Something that you do not expect and you are not at peace with.
Where do you prefer writing? Do you have a specific word count you try to hit, or a number of hours you try to work?
Since I am a full-time professional and a family man, I don’t have the luxury of devoting a certain number of hours to writing daily. During the phase when I am actively working on a project, I try to grab every minute I can and write wherever I possibly can – home, outside or even hospital. Even the device on which I write doesn’t matter. The first draft of Dead People’s Town has been written on the Word App on my phone!
What does it take to be a good storyteller?
In one simple word, honesty. A story can involve a reader only if it is written with utter honesty. By honesty, I mean that the writer shouldn’t restrain himself or herself while expressing a character’s mind, no matter how evil and disgusting it might be.
What is that one thing which is the most important part of a book?
The most important part of a book is definitely the story. If it is lacking, no amount of good structured writing can move the reader.
Is writing energising or exhausting?
Writing is anything but exhausting. It is a state of trance which seems to be incomparable to any other material pleasure.
The word “creative” to you is…
…being myself and telling the stories which I want to tell. Not what others are doing or what works in the publishing market.
I keep getting inspired everyday by people from all walks of life, even if they are not famous or great achievers. There is always something we can learn from or get inspired by everyone
Do book covers matter as much as the content?
Absolutely. Since we are living in an age where our attention is already dominated by visual hackers like Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, PlayStation etc, getting a person attracted to a printed story is a huge task. A good book cover fulfills that task and makes the reader surf through the synopsis of the book which, of course, has to be good enough for the reader to purchase the book.
Who has been the most inspirational person in your life and why?
I keep getting inspired every day by people from all walks of life, even if they are not famous or great achievers. There is always something that we can learn from or get inspired by everyone.
Your future projects.
I’m, at present, working on relaunching my first book, The Last Witch Trial, with a new cover and re-edited version. When it was published for the first time, I was a novice and felt there were few things that could have been better. Also, I have completed two more books. One is an out and out horror, something like The Exorcist meets Evil Dead, and the other is a romantic thriller, a story never been experimented before.
