Q: Not everyone writes, nor can everyone write. Tell us what inspired you to pick up a pen and start writing, along with a brief introduction of yourself.

A: First, briefly, I was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and grew up in Dar es Salaam. I trained as a physicist at MIT and UPenn. My ancestry is Gujarati (Kathiawadi). You can look up my website for more information.
I think all creative artists feel a need to express themselves, you don’t decide to pick up a pen or a paintbrush, etc. That need is an urge, a madness, if you will. I often wish I didn’t have that madness. I loved to write essays and stories in high school. When I seriously began to write, in Toronto, I felt a need to tell my story and the stories of the people and time I came from–my family, my community, my country, etc, because there was no knowing if I would go back And if I didn’t, I feared that the stories would be lost.
 

Q: As one correctly said, every writer has their own reasons for writing—whom they write for and why. How has the feedback from your readership been regarding the book under discussion ?

A: The most surprising feedback for my first novel, The Gunny Sack, was from people in my community because they had never seen themselves described in a book. There was also positive feedback from people in Tanzania, British expatriates, and Asian exiles in the UK, and even in India (where the book was also published and Khushwant Singh wrote about it.) I am often surprised and moved when someone comes to me—in Canada, Nairobi, or Dar es Salaam- and tells me how much my writing means to them, that I am telling their stories.
With the current novel, there have been good responses in Canada, but I found the response in India quite wonderful. Of course, the novel is about an Indo-Pakistani scientist.

Q: Our readers would be interested in learning more about your work. Could you elaborate on the story behind this book?

A: You mean, “Everything There Is,” the recent novel. I was trained as a physicist and it had always intrigued me how a person like the physicist Abdus Salaam, working with the formulations of the most fundamental structures of matter, renowned for his work, could go down on his knees and pray to an all-knowing God. Physicists of that caliber in the West are at most agnostics. (Read the epigraphs to my novel.) I toyed with this conundrum for a few years and wrote this novel—which is about a physicist as a human being. From that original conundrum, other questions arose, about love and commitment, the conscience of a scientist, patriotism and faith, etc. Should a scientist contribute to the development of weapons? One has to read the novel! 

Q: The writing process is unique to each writer. After all, it is dynamic. What is your writing process?

A: When my kids were younger, I would work late at night, after everyone had gone to bed and family time was over. For my research, I would bring tomes from the university library. When the kids grew up and went away, I began writing early in the morning—and using the Internet for my research. Nowadays I go away to a hiding place far away for a few months to write and think and meditate.

Q: Writer’s block is often discussed. Has it ever affected you? If so, when, and how did you deal with it?

A: I’ve never understood writer’s block. If I’m not writing—and this includes rewriting and editing—I feel depressed. I have to be writing. If I get stuck on a novel, I write a story make points for a story, or do some research. I’ve thought—perhaps wrongly—that writer’s block was a luxury, an excuse, or an affectation that implies you are not a serious writer if you’ve not suffered writer’s block.

Q: “Fiction is the reality of the fiction we live.” What is your take on that statement?

A: I don’t understand it. I’m an instinctual writer—I don’t like to think about writing when I am writing.

Q: Three decades ago, one could sit and read fiction without much concern for facts. Today, readers are obsessed with accuracy due to their information-driven mindsets, often making it difficult for them to fully enjoy a piece of fiction. In your opinion, how has this overwhelming access to information impacted readers’ literary appreciation?

A: To get a date wrong, or misname a weapon (for crime writers) is no big deal. But nowadays we are more aware of racism and other forms of bigotry, which fed all kinds of oppression and subjugation of peoples in the past. We have been victims of that. Most serious lovers of literature—stories with profound themes and beautiful language—will make allowances for works written in the past—call a writer a racist and a person of their times, but what else does he have to say?—if the offense is not too egregious, too malicious. I have found racist instances in some of the stories of Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown. Much of medieval narratives display casual antisemitism. There is Eliot, of course, whose poetry I love. Naipaul is another example.

Q: What are your thoughts on the digitalization of books and its impact on readers, literature, and overall human well-being, which literature ultimately aims to enhance?

A: I’ve not come across this concept.

Q: Would you mind giving us a hint about your future work?

A: A novel set in medieval India.

Q: Any parting words?

A: I won’t take the risk!

By Dhanuka Dickwella