As a child I liked reading comics by Lee Falk creator of Phantom Mandrake the magician. Still I am fond of reading and watching SF. I like the stories particularly with optimistic note and happy endings. This may be due to the deep sacraments through which an Indian undergoes since his childhood. Most Indian stories have happy endings and a positive thought towards human life. My all time favorite SF writer has been Issac Asimov who still has many admirers in India. His stories have social implications and are appreciated by Indian readers.
Would you say your childhood and teenage reading has had a distinct influence on how you write fiction now, and why?
Oh yes!! Since as a child I used to read comic serial stories which usually had a sense of wonderment and fantasy it persisted on my unconscious mind and oriented me towards sf writing. India's lingua franca is Hindi and my mother tongue as well so I have written many sf stories and have published anthologies to my credit in Hindi. .
Pick one of your favourites among your fiction stories or a story which is an interesting example from your fiction. What makes this story one of your favourites or an interesting example of your fiction?
My favourate story which is also the title of my first anthology “Ek aur Kraunch Vadh “ (Killing of a Crane) emphasizes the angle of human emotions while dealing with experimenting on animals . The main protagonist in the story is a lady researcher who sacrifices the experimental birds owing to her research needs but dislikes the very act of cruelty perpetrated in the name of science and eventually in a dramatic sequence which follows she resigns from the assignment even after publication of her paper in a world famous scientific journal Nature.
Who is another author whose fiction writing you admire and why?
Isaac Asimov is my favourite author and I love his (science) fiction stories owing to their adherence to social issues. With all humility I must submit that any work of fiction if not concerned with issues of man and society is a poor work of literature. Isaac has an uncanny approach towards raising the issues which humanity may face sooner or later in many of his stories and this impresses me.
How would you summarise one of your short stories in one paragraph?
My story ‘Dissillusioned” is in praise of technological breakthroughs which are often feared to supplant man, the creator of those technologies. . But the story narrates an ever lasting friendly association of machines with man. Story is of a lonely disillusioned old man from worldly (earthly!) affairs who ultimately finds a comfortable living and solace in the company of machines in the lonely wilderness of moon.
How would you describe the appeal of this short story to readers?
This story is against the trend which usually depicts dark side of technology and man’s over dependence on machines. But machines may even be a good companion of man who in a world of ever increasing sophistications and detachment is left alone and emotionally unstable. Not man but machines may help and that too very faithfully to rescue a person from this kind of disillusionment. The story appeals audience because of the projected realistic depiction of the deprivation of man from emotion while on the other hand machines are coming to fulfill this gap in big way!
How would you summarise a scene or sub-section from this short story in one paragraph?
For that I would prefer to quote a paragraph from the story itself…(Disillusioned):
“Nipun was listening to him with apt attention. There was some sweet pain inherent in the tone of Prof. Surendra. "Once I get extremely sick. But none of my children took my care. My robot was the one who took care of me. My wife had already died. I had never experienced so much of loneliness ever before. The meaning of life had become meaningless to me. The world thinks of me to be the messiah of automation and cybernetics, but there was no joy in my life. Sometimes I would think of my children, they were so much engrossed in materialism that all of their emotions had dried out! The technological progress and advancement has corrupted the man to that extent that children forgot their filial duties? And their even very biological bonding had been pushed by industrial development? My robots, the automation process, were far better than them and were taking very well care of me. They had become so advanced that they could read changes in my facial expressions and would do things to make me happy. They made me feel better. Now, not only my day time activities, but also night time activities were in control of those robots. After all they were the results of my creation. I used to feel relaxed with this thought. But, human emotions, closeness of relatives were just non existent which used to hurt me very much. And then I took a big decision." he paused for a while. A device alarmed 'only five minutes remaining".
How would you describe the contribution this scene or sub-section makes to the short story?
This amply describes the benevolent role of machines of future in protecting and serving humanity in all capacity and strength. The story advocates technological achievements even without a shred of skepticism that they may be a bane for us one day as believed by many thinkers. This positive side of technology must prevail if we at all want to come out of many miseries created by ourselves only …
Do you aspire to primarily write novels in the future, or are you more interested in writing short stories, and why?
Short stories are my first choice but yes I wish to plan for novels if things and SF publishing industry in India is willing and makes an apt offer to me.
Do you read many short story anthologies, and why?
As I said earlier I am fond of reading short stories and latest in the list which I finished is God’s Debris a novella by Scott Adams. This gives me a sort of “intellectual satiation” and very often new ideas to pen down.
What lengths of short stories do you usually write, and why?
Which could easily be finished in one sitting ….As common man is increasingly getting involved in so many affairs to support his livelihood he always has paucity of time. So he can not devote long time in reading a very long time consuming literary work at least in India. .
Do you submit for many short story competitions, anthologies and magazines, and what are your main motivations for this?
No I usually write for my self satisfaction but yes dissemination of scientific knowledge through literary work is also on my agenda.
Author website: http://indiascifiarvind.blogspot.com/
very good ...
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