‘I’m a Writer without Regrets’

Well, you just get a feeling of uplift or the feeling that we are so temporary and these mountains are permanent. The moment I remember the best was when I was in Jersey in the Channel Islands, leaving India as a boy. I was very unhappy and unsure of my future. I wanted to be a writer and I walked along the seafront. There was a storm brewing and the waves were crashing in and there was nobody else on the seafront. Then I suddenly felt within me that I am going to do what I want to do. I decided to go back to India, make a living out of writing and make a name for myself. That was the sort of promise I made to myself. It was with the help of natural elements around me.

That will be a great commercial for god.

I don't mind if god takes the credit.

The choice of not having a family of your own directly...

True, and that's why, perhaps, over the years, as my adopted family — or they've adopted me, you could say — has grown around me, it's been wonderful to have the responsibility to bring up the children, or help to bring them up.

So why the choice of not having a family directly? You were not running away. In fact, you wanted the responsibility.

I think it just didn't happen the way people normally get married.

Were there moments you came close?

Oh yes, there were, but I don't think when I was in my 20s, 30s, I was a very good catch. I was not making much money. Parents of girls would not have approved of me as a prospective son-in-law.

Did you fall in love?

Several times. In fact, there is a title of one of my story collections, Falling in Love Again, and again, and again.

... contd.

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