WRITING LOVE STORIES SURE TO MELT ANYONE’S HEART

Noufer Aboobacker and Ipshita Choudhuri, co-authors of the book "Amour: A Tale Of Two Lost Souls"

Noufer Aboobacker is an engineer by profession. He currently resides in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., and is from a village South Punnayoor in Kerala. Since last few years he is into movie making. His debut short film grabbed awards from various International film festivals. When he isn't writing, you might find Noufer wandering the city with a film camera in his hand. He has recently come out with his debut novel “Amour: A Tale of Two Lost Souls”, which he has co-authored with Ipshita Choudhuri. In a candid chat with Chirdeep Malhotra, he talks about his book, his writing journey and his favourite books and authors. The co-author of the book, Ipshita Choudhuri, also chipped in and answered some of our questions. Read on!



Please tell us more about Noufer Aboobacker as a person.

I am an Engineer by profession. I work in marine vessels for a semi government company here in Abu Dhabi. Apart from writing, I am in to movie making also.



Has writing always been a part of your life? Or did you chance upon it later on and then instantly fell in love with it?

I do know that when I was younger I tried to write some investigation stories. I can’t be specific about what exactly I was writing about; I don’t remember in detail what exactly I wrote. It wasn’t the best piece of writing I have ever produced, but it was the first time that I got involved with a story that I had invented, the story was for me. I had no idea about publishing or submitting it to a magazine. I was merely inspired to create.



Please tell us more about your book “Amour”.

The main focus of our book was to portray the life stages of a girl in an orthodox society. This is mostly about satisfying the readers’ expectations of a good story showing compelling character transformation. So we worked out on such a subject. This is the story of a girl’s transformation at various stages of her life.



How did the idea of writing this novel emerge, and how did Ipshita Choudhuri, the co-author of this book get involved in the project?

There will never be the perfect time to write a book. I promise you, it will never come. We got a story and decided that it needs to be told. I and Ipshita were friends from a long time. She worked with me for my short film in my direction team. That project grabbed some awards at various international film festivals. It was a good combination. So we decided to try writing a novel.



What was the collaborative process between you two co-authors like? Was one of you focussing more on the creative part and the other on the writing part? Which parts of the book were written by whom?

We live short lives. Fading moments and breaths are all we have. Oddly though, we have found a way to immortalize ourselves and our stories. We write them down. It started with a phone note app. I started the discussion with visual images in my head. Both of us are having equal role in the creative and the writing parts. All of our discussion was only going on through WhatsApp and phone calls. At the time of discussions and writing, mostly I was working on the marine vessels at Abu Dhabi and Ipshita was at Kolkata. Throughout this whole procedure of writing and publishing, we two didn’t meet. This is all thanks to technology. But I can’t tell which part has been written by me and which part is written by her. Because both of us have equal contribution in each chapter.



In terms of the complexity of the character and the nuances of the dialogues, the character development of whom was the most difficult in this book?

A story develops through a character- something that happens to a character, and because of those happenings, how is the character transformed subsequently. It is mostly an imagination. Character development of Hassini was more difficult for us. The transformation of her at various parts of her life made us think a lot.



What are your favourite books? Can you share with our esteemed readers about the genres that you like and your favourite authors?

Khaled Hosseini is one of my favourite authors. If you ask why, I would say that this is mostly because he is an awesome story-teller. I love the way his stories encompass the true raw emotions of his characters, their tryst with destiny and with society. He is the one who can surely make me cry of tears of joy, sorrow, grief, hope. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini, and “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho are my favourite books. I don’t have any special interest in specific genres. I like to read all genres.



There are many new writers and poets who are aspiring to get their work published. What would you say to them?

The world needs writers. Never quit honing your crafts. Life gets hard, problems have to be solved. Don’t give up.



What’s next for you? Are you working on any exciting new projects our readers should look out for?

For new projects, I have a couple of themes in mind. One is a history based theme. On the other hand we are in process of making “Amour” as a film script. Definitely we want to try it as a movie. Let’s see where we end up.



Any message that Ipshita would like to give to our readers.

Believe in your dreams and don’t let other say what you can do and what you can’t.



Can you share with our readers a motivational quote that keeps you both going?

Noufer Aboobacker: A motivational quote that keeps me going is- “Push yourself today, because no one else is going to do it for you either today or tomorrow. Sometimes later becomes never.”

Ipshita Choudhuri: I get motivation from this quote- “I have believed in myself always and there are ups and downs but it’s always important to fall down and then again rise up.” This thought keeps me going and hopefully will keep me going.