CHENNAI: Every person has a story to tell. Sometimes it ’s about love while at other times it’s about their sorrows. When Ravinder Singh decided to write his first book in 2007, after a tragic personal incident, little did he know he would write seven more books. He has authored books like I Too Had a Love Story, Can Love Happen Twice?, Like it happened Yesterday, Love Stories That Touched My Heart and Tell Me A Story. Ravinder was recently in the city to release his next titled Will You Still Love Me. We caught up with the author for a chat as he shared with us his journey, thoughts on Bollywood and why he writes love plays a crucial role in all his books.
Were you an avid reader?
I grew up in a remote area called Burla in Odisha. A small town, till today we don’t even have a traffic light there. I spent 24 years of my life there, and we didn't have one bookstore in my neighbourhood. So my exposure to books was limited, and I never read much except for my school textbooks.
Like many others, you too are an engineer-turned author. Why did you choose this path?
I think everyone has a lot of stories to tell, but I guess for an engineer there is so much more. From the preparations to cracking the exams and then those years in college...is in itself a story. I did my engineering and then my MBA as well, and here I am, an author.
Most of your books are on love.
I wrote my first book because of a personal tragedy and I walked the path to become an author. It was all about recalling memories I shared with my girlfriend who passed away. I would close my eyes, experience that moment; it was emotional but then it helped me heal in a way. But as far as my other works are concerned, I realised that once people enjoy a certain genre that you offer, there is a lot of acceptance you get as an author if you stick with the same. Although predominantly I don’t enjoy writing on the genre ‘romance’, my focus is always on the plot that I choose. For instance, the plot of one of my books was to make a young Indian gain interest in politics and it had to do with the Nirbhaya case. So this is the subject that I want to write about, where I used romance to wrap the story in. I realised that if I sugar coat my story with romance, the issues within it too will be read and becomes more interesting.
What inspires you to write each chapter?
Other authors and poets inspire me to write. I would just be sitting in the morning, sipping my cup of tea, reading a piece of poetry, and all of a sudden I feel inspired by the writing, regardless of the subject and language. I feel energised at that moment.
Do you plan to adapt your books into movies?
I am open to it, however, Bollywood is a difficult world. So many people have to be on the same page for something to happen. In case of a book, I am the director, writer, actor and everything. It is my story. So when it is being adapted into a movie, there will be so many people involved and it I have to ensure that the story’s essence shouldn’t be lost. I would be heartbroken to see my stories being played around with, because they are really close to my heart.