Stuff
Sanjay Bahadur: A Self Portrait
Sanjay Bahadur Revealed
About Sanjay Bahadur
Revealing Questions
- Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
- A. Shock Delight Curiosity Experimentation Confusion Struggle Acceptance Enlightenment
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. When all else fails - try truth!
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. Perfect happiness is when you are too ignorant to realize why you should be unhappy or too wise to care.
- Q. What’s your greatest fear?
- A. That there may be someone out there who hates me unconditionally.
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. Aladdin's cave !
- Q. With whom in history do you most identify?
- A. With Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Ashoka, Chengiz Khan, Charlemagne, Montezuma, Tupac, Akbar ... they were all born, they all lived and they all died.
- Q. Which living person do you most admire?
- A. Currently, Angelina Jolie.
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. "I know", "I don't know", "Yes", "No", "But" and "I don't think I can afford this".
- Q. What do you regret most?
- A. I could have been luckier!
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. Magic
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. I am still sane despite the world's efforts.
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. Undiluted self-centricity
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. Undiluted self-centricity
- Q. If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
- A. Lipstick
- Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
- A. I breathe a lot. Both in and out.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
- A. Yossarian from Catch 22
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?
- A. Duryodhana from the Mahabharata
- Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?
- A. Mahatma Gandhi. I would like to ask him, "I know I should turn the other cheek when someone slaps me. But if he also slaps the other cheek, is it alright to punch him in the snoot?"
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. Why do people ask "So tell me, what are you thinking right now?"
- Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
- A. Thinking of how much money I can get out of my writing.
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. Professional ideating
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. beauty; brains; heart
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. Cannabis
- Q. What are your 5 favorite songs?
- A. 'Comfortably Numb' - Pink Floyd; "Hawkmoon 269" - U2; "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Freddie Mercury (Queen); "Ranjish hi sahi" - Farida Khanum; "Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai" - Mohd. Rafi
On Books and Writing
- Q. Who are your favorite authors?
- A. Walter Scott, Alexander Dumas, Bernard Shaw, Munshi Premchand, P.G Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, Gerald Durrell, Vikram Seth, John Steinbeck, Amitav Ghosh, Joseph Conrad, Franz Kafka, Salman Rushdie, Joseph Heller, Shashi Tharoor, Naguib Mahfouz, John Irving, Haruki Murakami, Arundhati Roy, John Grisham, Alistair Maclean, Martin Cruz Smith, Michael Crichton
- Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
- A. Catch 22 (Heller); World According to Garp (Irving); The Trial (Kafka); The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas); The Golden Gate (Seth)
- Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
- A. Catch 22
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. If a close friend tells you not to attempt writing, don't.
- Q. What comment do you hear most often from your readers?
- A. "Wow!" (If comments of my editor, agent, friends and relatives count. My first book is still under production.)
- Q. How did you come to write Sound of Water?
- A. Many monsoons ago a friend informed me about an online writing contest. I had to write out 2500 words. I had a cause and also an excuse. I could avoid it no longer. So one evening, in a state of inebriated abandon, I sat down and wrote. The contest organizers placed my piece on their website among the 20 "best" entries from the 1000 odd they had received but I didn't get the prize. I guess I am vindictive. So I wrote more. And more. My thoughts chased the first 2500 words across sulky keyboards, ideawhite screens and fontblack sheets of paper till they became hot, caught fire and exploded with a bang. I called that sound: The Sound of Water.
