FIVE QUESTIONS

 Today, we have Nilutpal Gohain with us whose collaborative dystopian thriller 2035 has just hit the market and is creating ripples.   Let us listen to him talking about himself and the path -breaking book,in FIVE QUESTIONS . 

Santosh Q 1. Marine engineer turned bank officer turned bureaucrat - who is Nilutpal Gohain at heart? A storyteller who embellishes his stories with the experience that he has gained in these myriad fields or just a man with a fertile imagination?

Nilutpal: I have always been a storyteller. The other roles I undertook were to earn my bread and butter. During my engineering days, every evening, after dinner, a few of my friends would huddle around me to listen to ghost stories. Some, I narrated from the fragments my imagination and some, from the personal experiences narrated to me by others. In the process, I noticed that the stories that had some truth in it were adored more by the listeners. I started writing from a young age but it took a serious turn in 2017 and as I talk to you now, I realize that most of my stories are based on personal experiences and anecdotes. They say, ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’ and I truly believe that. As a writer we all know that we need to dramatize things a bit but the premise or the plot would have some reality to it and there is no exception with the horror stories as well.

 

Santosh Q  2. Different writers have different reasons for writing, some find writing spiritual, healing, cathartic, therapeutic, and some write solely for the creative satisfaction it gives them. Why do you write?

Nilutpal: I write for myself. As we get on with our daily lives, we encounter various places, people, situations, problems, events that make us think. I had the habit of putting it down in a diary when a particular thought would start bothering me. It sometimes took the shape of a poem and sometimes a prose. One fine day my wife got hold of the diary and read a few stories. She liked them and advised me to get them published. Soon, I sent one of stories to an online journal called Muse India. They liked the story and accepted it for publication. That’s when the whole idea of getting published got into my mind. But when I started it, it was only for me, to be able to express myself the way and the manner wanted to.

Writing is a fairly easy way of expression where you get a chance to research, rewrite, edit and withdraw your statements. Imagine the plight of a public speaker who has to measure every word he utters or a movie maker who has to depend on a whole team to express his idea,  so, why not take the easy way out.

Santosh Q 3. What genre do you feel the most comfortable writing in?

Nilutpal: Horror and thriller is what I prefer. Assam, my home state is a fertile land for the seekers of the paranormal and mysticism. I grew up listening to horror legends and stories of the region. ‘Namu Ne’, my story in the anthology ’City of Screams’ is based on one such story that was narrated to me by my mother. Secondly, “Mayong’- the village well known as the hamlet of Black Magic has its own share of stories to tell and the number of stories I have heard of the place, would make up for a few books. So, horror and the supernatural have been a part of my growing up and I feel comfortable in that genre.

 

Thriller intrigues me as a genre as the hunt for the criminal is what keeps the story going. And we all love stories which have a twist at the end. I am good at giving twists and the thriller genre does the same. I have tried my hands in other genres such as romance and contemporary fiction but horror and thrillers will always be my first love.

 Santosh Q 4. Yes ,  I remember your story Namu Ne and the goosebumps that it gave me.  Tell me , how do you deal with the writers’ block? In my Ted Talk on Writers’ Block, I emphatically maintain that writers’ Block is a myth and a crutch in the hands of the procrastinators. What is your take on this?

 Nilutpal: I would not say I don’t face writer’s block. I do but it doesn’t happen with the larger plot. When I start writing, I usually have the whole plot in mind but when it comes to intricate details or subplots, I get stuck. I don’t have a particular regime on how to deal with it but usually I stop writing for a while. I would read or watch something on OTTs, or, simply take a walk. But the funny thing is that when the ideas crop up, would be at the worst possible situation. Many times, it happens that I am in the office, in the middle of an important meeting and the idea strikes me. I have faltered while speaking in public meetings because of it. I have an app on my mobile where one can jot down quick notes. I use it a lot in such situations.

Santosh Q P5. Tell us something about 2035, the dystopian thriller you have co-authored with Shruti Jain.

Nilutpal:  2035 is the outcome of a competition named “The Co-Author Project’ organized by the publishers ‘Half Baked Beans’ where six winners were teamed in three pairs to write either a thriller or a romance. I chose thriller and I was paired up with Shruti Jain for the project. The good thing was that we both had a similar kind of idea for the book. We combined our ideas and it resulted in the dystopian novel set in 2035.

Santosh:  That is indeed wonderful! In fact, I was wondering how the two of you could have collaborated on such a theme. Hats off to you for such an intriguing work.

 Nilutpal: It is basically an attempt to imagine how our lives will be in the coming years if we don’t check ourselves in letting the technology to indiscriminately control our lives. What would happen if the world is ruled not by governments but a particular technology giant? What would happen if, in the way the AI is predicting our sentences in emails, it starts predicting our thoughts? What would happen if the AI becomes way smarter than the smartest human being on earth? The book attempts to answer these questions and many other such questions while narrating the story of Siddhanth and Rhea as they attempt to arrest the disturbing growth of technology.

Santosh:  It was wonderful having you with us. Hope to hear more from you in the near future. All the best.