I interviewed Manoj Kumar Sethy whose musings are available in stores as A Dirty World

Here goes the interaction with him.
Hello thank you for the time you will spend on this interview. Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
   Coming from a middle class family, I was born and brought up in Bhubaneswar ,Odisha. Initially,I was not a book freak, but when I felt that it was one of the best things to be in life,  I eventually turned into a book lover. Currently,  I am pursuing MBA from Berhampur university, and I am fond of watching  English, Hindi and South Indian movies.

If you were to describe your book to someone who has yet to read it, then how would you do it?
  It’s a simple girl’s story, who faces a lot of criticism for her character and how she faces all the odds against her and tries to save her love life.

Are the characters in your book real? I had come across an author once who had said “If you hate someone, write a book and make them the villain, so any relation to any person in real?
     Well, all my characters are fictional but one of them resembles me, I wouldn’t make a villain in my story, everybody plays their role in the book according to their character.

We all had some master goals set for us when we were kids. So what was your goal as a kid?
Being from a middle class family, my first perspective was making money, a lot of money, but when I grew up I saw there are people in the various sections of the society who aren’t fortunate enough to fill their stomachs ; so my ultimate goal is to be rich, as I want to help as many  poor people possible.

Can you say something about your journey from being a person with a manuscript to an author of a published book? How was the struggle?
Well  it was very horrible, almost 22 publishers had rejected the manuscript when OMJI publishing house accept my proposal, a big thanks to them who nourished my brain child. When I got the rejection mail from different publishers, I felt harassed but  my heart and my parents were always with me . My parents supported me and guided me on every step of my journey from being a person with a manuscript to an author of a published book. One special person  always with me, but I can’t take her name. 

Can you share with the readers, the names of some books and writers who inspired you? Some of us could surely use some inspiration
          Wings of fire by A.P.J ABDUL KALAM, Life is what you make of it by Preeti Shenoy,
                 And books by Ravinder Singh and also Agatha Christie.
            

Apart from the writers, who are the people and what are the things in your life that inspired you to write the book? When did the idea strike?
        Well, I believe everyone has a story, so I felt if I tried to discover the stories that people have and unfold them to the whole world, then it must work and also an incident of my life that occurred in 2014 made me think about writing  a story.

We all know that a book requires time. What was your family’s reaction to find you engrossed in writing? Any incidents you would like to share with us?
       Hahaha, that’s the hard one because, I got loads of scolding from my parents and brothers when I got engrossed in writing, because at time I used to forget to eat or do daily chores when I sat writing.

Any words for the young readers and the aspiring authors?
   Just read a lot and try to write daily, not a page but if 100 words possible then write. Because the more you write, it adds up and eventually it becomes a story.

Time for a fun question. You must have read fictions. Given a chance, which fictional character would you like to go on a date with?
         Ha ha ha, I might be confused. well I would like to go with NAINA, my book’s protagonist.

And now, the final question without which the interview would go incomplete. Do we get to read another book from you?
        Yup, definitely because I am currently working on 3 projects simultaneously and also with some anthologies coming up.

Interviewed by Banaja Prakashini