Andaleeb Wajid's Blog, page 6
August 13, 2015
Reading Hour with Samar Halarnkar
If you’re in Bangalore, you must visit Atta Galatta in Koramangala. It’s a lovely book shop and cafe that is also home to numerous cultural events. I’ve held quite a few events for my books here and was invited to be a part of Reading Hour in 2014 with Kavery Nambisan and Nandita Bose was the most gracious host of the event.
Here’s an hour long video of the event in case you actually have an hour to spare. He he! Just kidding.
So, imagine my surprise when Lakshmi who runs Atta Galatta with her husband Subodh called me and asked if I would like to host the event in its new avatar. I agreed almost immediately.
Reading Hour is held in collaboration with the Reading Hour magazine that is run by Vaishali and Arun, and they are extremely passionate about bringing back the culture of reading into our lives.
We started Reading Hour in June and we invited Samar Halarnkar as our first guest. Samar is the author of The Married Man’s Guide to Creative Cooking and the editor of Indiaspend.
I enjoyed reading his cookbook. Not only did it have unusual recipes, it had some really quirky illustrations.
Samar spoke to the audience about the economic repercussions of men not cooking and it made for some fascinating listening.
We moved on to talk about the warm and funny elements in his book that perfectly offset the nostalgic overtone. I wanted to know why Samar happily called himself a glutton in this era of Masterchef connoisseurs and his explanation was simple. He calls himself a jugaad or jhatka cook, often assembling ingredients for a meal with the pan on the stove. It was interesting to hear him explain how he managed to conjure meals for his family without being all metrosexual about it.
Samar spoke to us about his love for seafood and fish and of course Old Monk rum as well. We even spoke of how he’s pretty much achieved some sort of foodie nirvana these days.
The audience too wanted to ask him questions about the supposed stigma that’s attached to men cooking for their families as home cooks as opposed to the respect they get by being professional chefs.
It was a perfect June evening for a lovely round of conversation with Samar and a receptive audience who engaged in meaningful conversation.
August 12, 2015
Book no. 8
Hello! I’m thrilled to report that book no. 8, When she Went Away is coming out in October, 2015. My lovely publishers, Duckbill, finally gave the go ahead and asked me to share the cover with the world at large, so here I am.
This book is a young adult novel, and I’ll be sharing the synopsis soon. Duckbill is one of the publishing houses I really respect and I love their work. I’m thrilled to be publishing a book with them.
I’m all agog on social media, sharing this cover with everyone, clogging up their timelines and causing people to probably block me. But it’s an amazing feeling when you can share the cover of a book that you’ve written with the world.
When you start writing a book, that first page, those first few lines, those doubts – believe me, it takes guts to forge ahead and just write. And write. And that is just the easy part.
Editing, marketing and publishing all these take up so much time and there’s a whole lot of effort that goes into it. So yes, the day I get to share the cover with everyone is indeed a special day. And no, it does not grow old. Even if you’ve already published seven novels.
August 10, 2015
Five Writing Tips
Many people have asked me over the years about how I write and I’ve always felt weird giving this answer. See, I may be writing my 12th novel, even as I blog here, but I don’t feel like I can honestly tell others how to do it.
Still, people ask me for tips and I thought I could come up with a series of tweets about this and I tweeted them today.
I thought I could get into this, a little bit more in detail here in my blog.
1.
Don’t deliberate – If you’ve always wanted to write something, don’t wait for the perfect moment. Don’t wait to retire or wait for your kids to grow up. Life goes on and writing is like that. It has to go on. The right moment will never come. You have to take a deep breath and plunge into it. And pray it will work.
2.
When I wrote my first novel Kite Strings, I wrote it blind. I had no idea how to move forward from the first page on to the next. I had a vague idea of how I wanted the book to end and I stuck to that. But it took me a really long time to fill the space between page 1 and the last page. So despite being a creative person who normally hates plans, I like them when it comes to books. I like formulating the story beforehand. I usually follow a stream of consciousness method of putting down the story and anyone who has made an actual plan might laugh at it but it’s what works for me. It’s just me talking to myself. That’s my plan.
3.
Sometimes having something in front of you visually, triggers words inside that may not be there otherwise. Give it a shot. Put up a cork board or even a thick cardboard sheet above your desk. Paste cutouts or use a marker to scribble on it.
4.
This is crucial. Finish a chapter and you will feel amazed at how soon your novel will get over. Never leave a chapter hanging. Even if you don’t like how it’s going, go ahead and still write it. You can always change it in the morning. I try to finish one chapter every day when I’m working on a book. When I get more than a chapter written, it’s amazing. But it takes a toll physically. Hands, shoulders, neck usually start hurting so I try to stick to a chapter every day. Once you get that flow going, you won’t want to stop!
5.
I love stationery especially notebooks. So I use any excuse to hoard notebooks and since I’m a writer, I don’t really need an excuse. I like to dedicate a notebook to every novel I write. I scribble about characters, about events, about possible endings in the notebook. Then I also like to make notes in Google Keep. It syncs across my devices and I can access it easily. Evernote users can stick to that and there are plenty of note apps out there. I prefer Keep though. Putting ideas down solidifies your intent. Eventually you may not use it but you can go back to it when you’re stuck and find a way to get out of a corner.
So that’s it for now. Hope this has helped! I hope to come up with more such tips and little pointers. Just a request. If you find me obnoxious and pretentious with my advice, just tell me! I’ll probably hate you, but yeah, I’d like to know.
December 27, 2012
More than Just Biryani
More than Just Biryani is one of the books closest to my heart. I wrote it after much soul searching and agonising decision making but it was a journey that I will never forget. It spans three generations of women from one family – Ruqayya, Tahera and Zubi. It’s their food story and in effect, the story of their lives.
Amaryllis is publishing More than Just Biryani in early 2013. I really hope that you will enjoy it, love it and turn to it again and again, if not for the story, maybe for the food!
Also, there’s a somewhat snarky food blog that I’ve begun which is trying to document the recipes of the food in the book. I’m uploading a new recipe every week along with my own food story. Do take a look at it here.
If you’re on Facebook, you might want to like my page because I’m putting up all these interesting quotes from the book there in the form of snazzy retro-ish posters (thank you, Picasa).
About me
Since I won’t be getting a fancy content writer to write about me in the third person, let me tell it like it is.
I’m Andaleeb Wajid. That’s what my website is called. And a pretty narcissistic move according to my brother. Well, never mind him. Siblings will always help you stay grounded, no matter how famous you get.
I’m a writer. I wrote Kite Strings in 2005 and got it published in 2009, a good four years and 13 rejection letters later. I followed it up with Blinkers Off that I wrote in 2010 and managed to land a publisher(Rupa) within months and it was published in 2011. I kind of got a bit addicted to writing after that so I wrote four more books in quick succession, and here I am now with the word ‘prolific’ being bandied about a lot in my presence.
So, I have two books More than Just Biryani (Amaryllis) and My Brother’s Wedding (Rupa) being published in 2013. As for the other books, it’s up to my publishers, really.
One of the things that people always ask me is if I can sing. You see, my name means Nightingale in Persian. I don’t quite get the connection because, you know, you can’t be your name right? (Imagine a Deepak emitting light or a Kavita spewing poems…you get my drift)
Also, I’ll have you know that I still get addressed as Mr. Andaleeb Wajid on email because people find my name to be most androgynous. I don’t know why. I mean, do I look like a Mr. Andaleeb to you?
The Sum of All my Parts
I am a tightly wound ball, cold and combustible. A little spark and I will burn. I am waiting.
This tightness, this ache, this burn – I don’t understand it. Eyes closed, I expect the explosion but instead, all it takes is one tug and I lie unspooled, unwound, all the yarn of my life in glorious disarray. I lift each strand in wonder, amazed that there is so much that has escaped my eyes. But no more.
I am glad then, of these busy, nosey and beautiful young women who have come to me, albeit reluctantly. I watch them each day as they wind the yarn, a little lift, a little twist, a crisscross motion of the fingers and there, one more is done.
They chat, they gossip, they laugh and they make me smile. They think I do not understand their little jokes. They think I do not see the sadness behind the eyes, their sense of longing or bafflement. I want to tell them that I know it all but then, when has youth ever listened to old age? I never did.
Youth insulates and isolates them from listening to what their heart says. Or rather what I have been meaning to say to them. I look at each shining face, heads bent together over patterns and sheets, referring to each other, asking their help but no longer coming to me. I want to tell so much to them but not right now, when they think they’re doing me a favour. I glance critically at what they have accomplished and I nod, my face breaking into a smile.
Maybe, tomorrow.
Four different women. One crochet class that changes their lives. At the centre of it is Mariam. She’s old but she has lived her life. This is her story. After all, have you ever wondered at the secrets an old woman can have?
The Big 3-Ohh!!
For some women, a number acquires a shape that has nothing to do with its numerical value. So, while 18 has always been a graceful swan emerging from the rather coltish teens, 30 looms ahead, fat and round, yet, shapeless and amorphous. The thought of becoming a thirty year old is not at all exciting for these women. They’d prefer to be 27 all their life. Why? Because 27 feels svelte, slim and sexy.
Meet four young working women who are on the verge of turning thirty this year. Mini – loud, brash and unapologetic is trying to recover from a breakup, and isn’t looking forward to becoming a thirty year old. She wants to become a writer and cannot forget her ex, Akash who she met at creative writing classes a year back.
There’s Namrata – a woman who still lives in a bygone era despite belonging to one of the most urbane cities in India, Bangalore. She lives with her mother, her brother and his wife and has a desperate but quiet crush on Vinay, a hot software engineer in her office.
Then there’s Farida – Her quirky style of dressing is all that she’s inherited from her quirkier parents who died when she was 13, leaving her under the care of a monstrous aunt and her lecherous husband. Farida often feels that the story of her life was written by a drunken scriptwriter who writes very bad Hindi movies. Not without reason of course.
Finally, there’s Priya – Pretty, flirtatious and not known to mind her own business, Priya often likens herself to Jane Austen’s Emma or Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Her machinations are often disastrous but that doesn’t stop her from meddling in the lives of her friends. And yes, she simply hates the thought of turning thirty.
This story of four technical writers in a software company is set in Bangalore and revolves around their lives and loves, weaving between characters with ease. An easy read, The Big 3-0hh!! nevertheless probes the fear of turning thirty for most women, with the realisation that it really is no big deal.
Publishing details about The Big 3-Ohh!! will be available soon.
My Brother’s Wedding
Q,Y,X,T,T,B are not just high scoring Scrabble tiles. They’re the names of people in Saba’s life who feature in her blog My Brother’s Wedding. Her brother is getting married and from the day her mother and sister started looking up prospective brides, there’s never been a dull moment at home!
Saba discovers that venting or ranting on the blogosphere is a good enough way to let the world know how a wedding can make everything around you dysfunctional. There’s her super annoying, gorgeous and bitchy sister Q whose marriage isn’t as perfect as it seems. Or the bridegroom, her brother Y, who seems to be on a mission to get married as soon as possible. And of course, her cousin T who became hunky and attractive when Saba wasn’t looking. None of them know that they feature prominently in her blog but then, she doesn’t expect it to spill over into her life. Or affect the real people whose names she had reduced to initials.
Andaleeb Wajid’s third novel My Brother’s Wedding is a rollercoaster ride into the world of engagements, weddings and richly embellished ghagras, all with a good dose of romance and even a dash of mystery. My Brother’s Wedding is being published by Rupa and will be in bookstores in May, 2013.
Curtains
I think I was ten when I wrote my first story, all on my own without deriving heavy influences from Enid Blyton. I think it had to do with a little boy who didn’t want to take a bath, but then his name was Unhygienix, so what did you expect?? I remember being thrilled with joy at having written it. It was the same kind of thrill I felt when Curtains was released in 2005. My first ever book. So what if I was sharing credit with 8 other women? So what if none of us ever became famous? (One of us did by the way. Ever heard of Sarita Mandanna? Who wrote Tiger Hills? She was a part of Curtains too!)
