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Interview

Manav Kaul's works, including 'Rooh' and 'A Bird on My Windowsill', explore the experiences of Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims amidst conflict. He reflects on how his memories of home shape his writing, emphasizing that he carries his home within him rather than in a physical sense. Influenced by various literary figures, Kaul believes that reading and travel are vital to his creative process, allowing him to connect deeply with the stories he tells.

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6 views2 pages

Interview

Manav Kaul's works, including 'Rooh' and 'A Bird on My Windowsill', explore the experiences of Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims amidst conflict. He reflects on how his memories of home shape his writing, emphasizing that he carries his home within him rather than in a physical sense. Influenced by various literary figures, Kaul believes that reading and travel are vital to his creative process, allowing him to connect deeply with the stories he tells.

Uploaded by

onkarjaspal2025
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Interview: Manav Kaul.

Author, Rooh – “I carry my home with me”

Tender and compassionate, Manav Kaul’s books Rooh and A bird on My Windowsill focuses on both the
hardship of Kashmiri Pandits and their exodus from the valley and on Kashmiri Muslims left behind in a
state of terror

1) How has your idea of home changed over the years?

The memory of home is so interesting. I live in a fictional world because I write fiction. I am more excited
by memories of home and its people than the physical place itself. When I visit the places where I grew
up or the places from where I started a career in theatre, I am often disappointed because the memory
of those places is so much bigger. In that sense, I carry my home with me.

2) While reading Rooh, I got the sense that you feel closest to your home in Kashmir when you
are actually far away.

That is so because I was born in Kashmir and was forced to leave it behind at a very young age. I have
vivid memories of Kashmir. There was so much going on in my head while writing Rooh – I was travelling
and I had lost my father. When I write about a place and its people, I write as if I belong there. I did the
same when I wrote a book about Scandinavia. Similarly, my book Shirt Ka Teesra Button is the story of a
girl growing up in a small village. If you read it, you will think that I grew up in that village. This is
because my memory of places is so clear that I can recreate it easily in my writing.

3) Who are your literary influences? How important is reading to your creative process?

I started enjoying reading very late I my life. When I got hooked on to my favorite writers, I had started
reading Nirmal Verma, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Bhavani Prasad Mishra, and Sudesh Deepak. Later, I started
exploring Dostoevsky, Chinua Achebe, Sartre, Camus, Saul Bellow, and Paul Auster – the list is long.
Writing is a very solitary process, and when I am writing, I want to keep my friends close to me. These
writers are my friends. So I read books while I am writing or while I am travelling. I surround myself with
amazing stories. It is like a diet—if you eat well, you are going to look well. For me, watching good films
and reading good books and travelling are essential for my creative process.

4) In A Bird on My Windowsill, you write about Kafka. How has Kafka’s life and writing
influenced your work?

Who here has not been influenced by Kafka? How interesting is it that a man starts a story by writing
that when George Samsa woke up, he had been transformed into a big insect. An entire generation of
writers has been influenced by Kafka. When I went to Prague, I was searching for both Kafka and Nirmal
Verma. I travel for art. Readers and writers are global citizens. The job of an artist is to create art, to
write stories that bring out an understanding of the human nature.

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