STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN LITERARY PURSUITS AND AN ENGINEERING CAREER

Author Interview: Vishwas Vaidya

Vishwas Vaidya is your friendly neighbourhood poet born and bred in Pune. He did his Master’s Degree in Control Engineering from IIT Delhi. Having worked in various corporates including Tata Motors, he has now switched over to freelance engineering consultant focussing on technology and innovation as well as industry guest faculty for post graduate engineering degree courses. His debut novel is “Within the Cocoon of Love”, which he has co-authored with Meena Mishra, a publisher and author. He has also authored two poetry books. In a candid chat with Chirdeep Malhotra, he talks about his book, his writing journey, and his favourite books and authors. Read on!



Please tell us more about Vishwas Vaidyaas a person.

Born and bred in the cultural city of Pune, I grew-up in a middle class neighbourhood as a math savvy child. Languages did not really interest me at least as a matter of school syllabus. That was one of the reasons I opted for engineering, right after my matriculation. I could bid a lasting farewell to the mundane study of languages, bound by shackles of a stifling syllabus. However, during the course of my further life journey, I stumbled upon literary stalwarts like Tagore, Kahlil Gibran and Chekov and that really showcased before me, a connection between engineering, mathematics and language skills. To me, the basic process of creative writing is not very different from cracking an engineering sum. That explains why as my literary creations blossomed, engineering innovations were born along the way enriching both sides of my world.
As regards my profession, I am an engineering research veteran with many international publications, patents and innovation dotting my journey.



Can you tell us more about your writing journey?

During my academics and corporate career, I realized how power of effective communication nurtured by rich language skills could be a very potent tool. I witnessed many live examples of how it could magically influence one’s rise in a corporate career. That propelled my own interest in literature. I could gradually build my own language skills by reading/studying literary works of legendary quality. However it was not until I accidentally stumbled upon a Tagore’s poem (entitled “Coloured Toys”) that I realised how a “knock down calibre” of a literary work can taste like! That poem really hijacked my heart, soul and breaths in a moment! It is the literature of this stature which can really madden the heart of masses. For a decade I was haunted with almost everything under the sun that Tagore has written. I also developed a lasting bond with works of Anton Chekov and Kahlil Gibran. I started liberally posting excerpts from Tagore on social media, when somebody challenged me to write my own poem.
As I posted my first poem to answer the challenge, many people suspected I had just copied a Tagore poem under my name! That was a real tribute to the legendary influence the world laureate had on a novice like me!
That is how my journey as an author started. My poetry indeed had picked-up some polish from the works of giants I was worshipping and that attracted readers and publishers.



If you had to describe “Within the Cocoon of Love” in one sentence, what would it be?

It is a discourse packaged in a sci-fi crime fiction, stimulating a debate on many plaguing questions related to human relationships.



Now tell us a little bit more about the book!

It is a story of young college girl who gets trapped in a phony mirage of puppy love through her interaction on social media. This only leads to anguish in her life as her intimate videos start virally spreading threatening her very existence. She is fortunate enough to escape this bitter experience as she successfully fights dark clouds of depression haunting her growing years.
Chastened by the dark phase in her life she decides to pursue a career in counselling and training in the area of emotional intelligence and human relationships. She is also interested in understanding functioning of a criminal mind and exploring applications of her human relationship/emotional intelligence skills in the area of criminology. Another motive behind her mission is to unearth the mystery behind unexplained disappearance of her parents during the course of a religious pilgrimage near Himalaya. The plot thickens, when she receives a phone call from her father telling her, he is speaking from the clouds!
Deeper into the story, voices of a few more “departed souls” including her “past phoney lover” startle her by coming alive on her cell phone. I cannot reveal the entire plot to preserve the readers’ interest. However past celebrities like Agatha Christie and Marilyn Monroe come alive to dazzle the reader further down the story.
At the end Pratiksha sums-up fundamental challenges our generation is facing regarding human relationships and offers us various avenues to tackle the same stimulating internal debate in the minds of the readers.



This is a crime fiction novel based on Sci-fi. How and when did you decide to delve into this genre for your debut novel?

Life can be stranger than fiction! Meena Mishra is a publisher and award winning author based in Mumbai. Our common literary interests brought us together on social media. I had written a preface for her poetry book which was quite appreciated by her for its literary quality. It was her, who started writing this novel to depict a tale based on puppy love that is so rampant on social media, claiming young innocent victims. She wrote the first portion of the story until the protagonist Pratiksha is shown deeply mired in the honey trap with her videos going viral. At this juncture of the story, Meena felt some other author needed to take over. Perhaps she wanted a fresh twist to the story. Based on our prior literary interactions she decided to trust me with the task, even though it was going to be my first novel. I guess my preface to her poetry collection proved to be an “audition test” for me. She was expecting me to steer the course of the story line with a twist in plot based on my exposure to technology, science as well as my numerous stints overseas during my careers. It took me a couple of months before I stumbled on the idea of bringing dead souls alive in the novel powered by futuristic technologies of artificial intelligence and augmented reality.



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?

As already clarified above I started from the point when the protagonist Pratiksha ends up deeply honey trapped with her videos going viral. Before that Meena has woven the plot of teenage romance with many interesting scenes, showcasing anatomy of a puppy love.
I take the reader forward in time by a decade where Pratiksha has grown into a young professional engaged in counselling and training in the area of emotional intelligence, human relationships etc. As per my discussions with Meena the plot takes you through various countries like Germany and Italy. I also added a futuristic sci-fi twist bringing dead souls alive as we discussed above.



What kind of research did you do for the book?

I was fascinated by Agatha Christie’s fiction novels. Another book which really influenced this novel was “Mossad: The Greatest Missions of Israeli Secret Service” by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal, published by Jaico Publishing House. This book takes you to the inner workings of world class intelligence agencies apart from show-casing “honey-trapping” techniques for winning over influential figures from the enemy camp. My novel goes one step further and employs futuristic technology for mimicking and bringing alive departed souls in the process of honey trapping.
As regards the technology part of the sci-fi, I am already conversant with those concepts which are increasingly being proposed for futuristic automotive cars, which is one of the areas of my engineering research. I only had to brush-up a little and imagine future miracles these technologies would possibly lead to.



What challenges did you face while writing this book?

Sparing time out of my pressing corporate schedule was the main challenge. However I started typing my novel chapter by chapter on my cell phone whenever I had a breather. I had to commute one and a half hour daily to work, which provided me the free time every day to type my novel scene by scene. Another challenge was to seamlessly pick-up threads of the story and weave the complete carpet with a colourful twist.



Can you recommend five books from any genre, for our readers to add to their reading lists, that you particularly cherish?

The first one is “Mossad” mentioned above. Two more can be “Freedom at Midnight” and “Is Paris Burning” by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. Add “Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran and “The Seagull” drama by Anton Chekov. Tagore Omnibus volume is a must have for any serious literature reader, according to me.



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

I am myself a novice in the field of literature. However based on my experience I would advise new writers to read a lot of quality literature from literary giants as well as currently well-known writers before you think of writing your own.



What are you working on next?

I would rather like to promote my current books (two poetry books and the novel discussed here) and strengthen the lessons I am learning out of them. Let the destiny decide my next literary work.



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

I want to quote Chekov: “Dissatisfaction with oneself is one of the fundamental qualities of every true talent”.