Indians have a complex relationship with rules: Amish Tripathi

Its pouring cats and dogs on the day we call author Amish Tripathi who is surprised we have not taken the day off Pleasantries done we shoot a volley of questions at him about the first book of his Ram Chandra series Scion of Ikshvaku which launches tomorrowAmish TripathiWhen he is not writing Tripathi is reading confessing his house in Mahim is filled with books Thankfully all the books I buy are tax deductible as they are part of my research he quips Excerpts from the interviewQ After the Shiva trilogy did you always plan to write the Ram Chandra seriesA Every book series I will write over the next 25 years are all interlinked to the Shiva trilogy They will tell the story of the Vedic people of our age over a 9000 year period mdash how their culture was created to when their culture was destroyed 3500 years ago And we are their unworthy descendants The Ram Chandra series tells the stories of people who lived 1500 years before the events of the Shiva trilogy took place I have left clues for all the future series in the Shiva trilogy Be it the Mahabharata stories about Lord Parshurama Lord Manu Lord Brahma I have the entire thing mapped in my mindQ Tell us about your version of the Ramayana What do you want to conveyA There are many things I want to communicate about Lord Ram through my book One that it is cool to follow rules Indians have a very complex relationship with rules mdash we love pointing fingers at politicians and bureaucrats But how often do we follow the rules ourselves Do we know what we want to do with rules or are they just a tool to attack people we dont like Secondly can we build a better society if we follow the rules It is not easy to follow rules all the time Or should we choose freedom over rulesBut overall the book is an adventurethrillerQ Did you refer to a particular version of the ancient textA The book is my respectful version of the Ramayana which has so many versions The most popular one in Maharashtra and up north is the Rama Charitra Manas which was the source material for the popular television serial in the 80s This version is the 16th century modernised account of Valmikis Ramayana Much of my knowledge of mythology comes from my family as my grandfather was a pandit I have studied many versions in detail such as the original Valmiki Ramayana Kamba Ramayanam and Adbhuta Ramayana I have heard stories of tribal and Jain versions of the Ramayana tooQ How do you think the reader has changed over the yearsA I cant say I understand my readers completely no author can claim that I just write what comes to me naturally However I do believe that the new generation is more Indian than my generation or the generation of my parents They follow the traditional Indian way of questioning and do not take anything at face valueQ Tell us about the kind of books you readA I read four to eight books every month and have read at that pace for decades Most of it is nonfiction and about 10 to 15 per cent is fiction Recently I read two of Dr Ambedkars books Pakistan or The Partition of India and Who Were the Shudras I really enjoyed Sam Harriss Waking Up Currently I am reading the English translation of the Malayalam book Bhima by MT Vasudevan NairQ What is your writing disciplineA I wake up at 530 am every day After my exercise and puja I read four newspapers and sit to write I usually go with the flow mdash sometimes I write for straight eight hours and the day words dont flow assuming Lord Shiva is busy with someone else I take a break go watch a movie perhaps or read There are two things I need when I write Firstly music which ranges from Hindustani classical Western classical Bollywood to pop music and rock to match the mood of what I am writing Secondly cream biscuits So I tend to put on weight when I am in the middle of the writing process But once I have finished a book I make sure I get back into shape