Aditya Sinha, former editor of DNA and The New Indian Express, is out with his debut crime novel, The CEO Who Lost His Head. He speaks to Shuma Raha about his book, why Indian crime fiction is yet to hit the big league, and the future of journalism in the country.
On Resemblances to Real People...
Q: Your book The CEO Who Lost His Head is a murder mystery set in a newspaper office. It is also a roman à clef of sorts, where there are a number of characters who bear a striking resemblance to real people in the media. How have your former colleagues in the media reacted to the book?
A: Well, I have repeatedly said that all resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Yet, it is also true that any writer derives from his own experience and characters are often composites of people that he would have bumped into. Having been a print journalist for 30 years, it was natural to set the story in a newsroom –though some readers have assumed it was modelled on the last newsroom I worked in. In fact, a bunch of former colleagues from that very newsroom called or WhatsApped me once the book was out, asking me, “Boss, am I in the book?” or “Thank God I’m not in the book”.
The people who presumably are the “models” for specific characters have kept a discreet silence. Perhaps they are writing novels of their own.
Q: Though it is a crime novel, it has also got plenty of satire, humour and wordplay –which is unusual for crime fiction. What made you choose this model?
A: I had set out to write a fun novel that sneaks a peek into the crazy world of the media. The crime story was basically a vehicle for this peek. I read a lot of crime fiction – which is why I chose this specific genre. As for the light tone, I did not consciously know it at the time. But recently, I realised that I was probably trying to emulate the 1946 detective fiction novel by Edmund Crispin, The Moving Toyshop. It features an Oxford professor of English literature, Gervase Fen, as the crime solver who comes to the police’s rescue, and when I read it decades ago, I remember being ROFL.
Q: The protagonist of your book is Mona Ramteke, a Dalit, gay, sub-inspector who is free with her punches and reads Salman Rushdie.
What were the prompts for her character?
A: Mona Ramteke was never premeditated; she just emerged as the novel was being written. I was a crime reporter in the late 1980s, and I would say that she is a composite of people I’ve met, as well as an ideal. I must say that most readers who have liked the book – who are mostly the younger lot – have liked it because of her.
Q: While Mona Ramteke is an interesting and refreshing creation, didn’t you have any qualms about whether or not she would be a hit with readers? After all, Indian society is still largely homophobic…
A: Well, the book was not written with an agenda of any kind. I was not worried about whether or not Mona Ramteke would be a hit; I was more worried that fewer people would give the novel a chance, given that Indians haven’t yet taken to Indian crime fiction in the way that they take to Agatha Christie.
On Journalism, Journalists and Fiction
Q: After you quit as Editor of DNA you co-wrote Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years with ex-RAW chief AS Dulat. How easy or tough was it to transit from non-fiction – the natural habitat of journalists – to fiction?
A: All the books I’ve written in the past are non-fiction. Even when I was a newspaper bureaucrat, I was a hardcore political journalist.
When you’re immersed in the world of non-fiction, it is a bit difficult not just to write fiction, but at times to even read fiction. Which is why reading crime fiction has always stayed with me, even in periods of my life where I could not get through five pages of literary fiction. It was often a refreshing escape from hard-boiled journalism. Which is why, when I did this novel, it was as a crime fiction.
Q: Who have been your influencers in crime writing?
A: I’ve always been a fan of crime fiction. I took to it in a big way around 2007. Stieg Larsson was big then, but Henning Mankell is the true crime writing fan’s favourite. Keigo Higashino is big now, but there has always been Soji Shimada or Yukito Ayatsuji. Val McDermid, Barbara Vine and Georges Simenon have long been favourites.
Q: Though publishers are betting big on crime fiction, why do you think there has been no breakout Indian crime writer as yet? Is it because Indians don’t care to read Indian crime fiction? Or is it something to do with the quality on offer?
A: It’s probably a combination of both. Though publishing has grown in the past decade, it is mostly on the back of commercial fiction, which is not of a high quality. So it would be ironic that the world’s most commercial fiction – the genre of crime writing – would not sell because the quality is supposedly not high. The reading masses are somewhat like film-watching masses – they prefer the comfort of a known offering rather than some realism. Crime fiction is closest to realism of any genre of fiction. And the masses don’t give an eff about quality – otherwise Shashi Warrier would be a bestseller since he writes the best crime fiction in the country.
Q: To come back to media, what is the future of free and independent journalism in India, given that so many media organisations are now owned by business houses with vested interests?
A: I think that new media institutions like The Quint and others are showing the way as far as free and independent journalism is concerned. To take an example, most of what I have read on the UP elections has been on Twitter, not in any newspaper; and some of the best reportage has come from freelancers, not from newspaper staffers.
Still, I am not one of those who predicts the death of the newspaper.
The death of the credibility of the newspaper will force change. So let’s see what happens.
Q: How much autonomy did you enjoy when you edited DNA and The New Indian Express?
A: Lots. I had a great time in both newspapers because I had a super bunch of first-rate professional colleagues, and that’s what counts the most in a team. Autonomy was never a problem. What remains a problem in Indian journalism is the refusal of owners to back their journalists when they speak truth to power.
Q: What will make you go back to journalism?
A: A job offer.
Q: Tell us a bit about your next book.
A: I’m writing a sequel where Inspector Mona is deputed to solve a murder in Chennai, a city where I lived for four years. Let me not say more.
Q: Your advice to journalists who want to become authors...
A: Go for it! Journalists have an advantage over other people in that they have access to all levels of society, from sex workers to prime ministers. So they can populate their novels with a variety of characters – they need not be limited to one slice of society.
But writing is hard work – and that’s not just in facing a blank screen, but also in keeping your back straight if you’ve been writing for hours. Write in the morning – even if only for half an hour – but keep writing till you die.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi. She can be reached @ShumaRaha. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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