Amal Gupta lives in Bangalore with his wife and son. He had a knack of writing ever since he was in school, and despite his demanding job, he never gave up on writing. He admires the works of Murakami, Arundhati Roy, and Amitav Ghosh. Apart from being an author, he is also a technologist, a passionate cook, and admires Hindustani classical music. One may often find him writing on his laptop in a solitary corner of a coffee house, working on one of his writing projects. He has recently come out with his debut novel Distraught, that is a blend of literary and crime fiction, and is picaresque in nature.

I chat with him about his book Distraught, how the book came to be, book recommendations, and much more.

Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself!

I was born and brought up in Lucknow, and completed my secondary and senior secondary education from La Martiniere Boys’ College. And that’s where I developed a deep sense of love for the written word. I thank the school and my teachers for that. Although I left the city in 2004 to pursue my higher education, writing never left me. In fact, it is better to say I could never leave writing. During my graduation, I wrote stories on pieces of paper and forced my friends to read them.

I continued writing after I got a job and moved to Bangalore. I spent most of my weekends in the British Library. I wrote short stories and poems. I read books on English Literature, forms of stories, poetry, drama, tragedy, and romance.

The literary magazine Estrade held a short story writing competition in the Bangalore Literature Festival, 2013. I got the first prize; the story got published, and I have been on a journey to write better since then.

My debut novel Distraught got published this year. It feels great, but I know that there is a long, winding, and tough road ahead. I am going on. One written word at a time.

If you could only describe your book Distraught in one sentence, what would it be?

Explore a gullible and complex character who gets pushed to extremes after a brawl and a murder.

Now tell us a little more about the book! What can readers expect?

Readers can expect an easy read that gets better with every page. Also, since I wrote the book in first person, the readers dive straight inside the mind of the narrator. The book is an interlinked sequence of events from the narrator’s life. My readers would be able to identify the struggle between their value systems and the circumstances. The dilemma between the right and the wrong. Constant peer pressure. Social approval, or lack thereof.

Portions of the narrative have an undertone of psychology as well, so that’s an added treat.

How did the idea of writing this novel come about? How long did it take you to write it?

The idea came up much before I began writing it. If I recall correctly, I was on my way back from the library on a Saturday, when I saw many little children playing on the road near the little slum behind my bus stop. Dirty tattered clothes, bare feet, unkempt hair, racing the speeding top end cars and bikes, losing every single time. Yet, they were shouting and shrieking carelessly in a manner that most of those car drivers and bike riders had perhaps forgotten. It is then that I thought of an imaginary scenario, where a similar child was devoid of the comfort of his home, and trying to find his way in life.

That’s where the idea of Manoj was born. I did some polishing over the idea in the next few months or years and began writing.

I plotted it as I wrote, and perhaps that’s why it took 5 years to complete the novel. One important factor was that I worked on it along with my day job. The first draft took over 2 years. Revisions, re-writes, plot correction, and elementary editing took three more years.

Please describe your novel’s protagonist Manoj to readers who might not yet be familiar with who he is and what he’s dealing with?

Manoj is a gullible and an under-confident child from lower strata of the society. He isn’t ambitious and is easily impressionable.

There are a few primary aspects to his personality. His love for poetry is the first that grows as the novel progresses. Then there is his desire to belong, to feel loved, and the growing feeling of worthlessness because of his under-confidence. There is another important trait to him in his later life (smirk!). It unravels in the last section of the novel and I would like the readers to discover it themselves.

As a debut novelist, were there any authors or works which influenced your writing style?

I tried to steer away from the writing style of many authors that I know. Traces of Aravind Adiga's writing style were evident in the first draft. There were also passages that were very Dickensian, I would say, but I finally got rid of them entirely. It hurt, but it had to be done.

How have you been coping with the current pandemic and what will be the new normal for you post it?

I have spent most of this time at home with my wife and my newborn son. We did travel to our native place earlier this year. Apart from extended times in the day job, I have tried to study more on the art of writing, and am also analysing my blogs and stories. I am working on how to improve my writing, so that the readers can enjoy my subsequent works. In the middle of all this, I try to keep reading more and more.

Lastly, are you currently reading anything and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

I have started reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I would recommend The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and Milkman by Anna Burns.

The book ‘Distraught’ is available online and at your nearest bookstore.