Interviews
Extracts from 'Creative and Concrete Construction': an interview with Vijay by Safeena Chaudhry
Born in Oldham, and educated at the University at Wales in Business Studies, Vijay set up a construction company that builds surgeries, nursing homes and houses in and around Manchester.
‘There were several reasons why I started to write, travel, observing life and the growth of the creative impulse in my late twenties. Its hard to define what makes a writer tick, you can throw a little light here and there.
‘For me travelling to India on a regular basis since I was young has definitely had a big impact. Everything seemed ALIVE in India, a spontaneity, a certain uncertainty!
‘You couldn't be sure that you would return in one piece even after a simple shopping trip, the way people drive there! Never mind anything else.
‘The great crowds of people, traffic, noise, smells, the contrast between the large urban centres and the villages; the exotic landscape, the brilliant palaces, the unique temples, the holy Ganges, the people i have met- all this has entered my conscience and has slowly started to find expression.
‘England on the other hand has inspired me in a different way. Order, descipline, a work ethic, and ofcourse the unbelievable resources of world literature at one's finger tips.
So in a sense perhaps a writer needs both order and chaos to truly function!
‘I started the novel [The House of Subadar] with the image of a young man walking along a dusty road in India. This was the original thought. Where was he going? Where was he coming from? These questions then entered my mind and the story developed. So in that sense you can say that the novel started with a character, and a definite place i.e. the dusty road leading somewhere.
‘After writing a couple of pages my writer's instinct told me that this story would run- it would be a novel. I don't think this is something that can be taught in writing schools- that inner voice which pushes you forward to write the story even when people tell you that they don't think this story has much chance of publication. It may well not be published but at least you will have written a completed novel, which will always give you a good base from which to write your next novel.'
Vijay was inspired to set his novel in India after spending many months of many years there as a child. Memory traces of lizards on walls and impoverished people translate from his trips to his fiction in a way that makes writing as a process and life style an enriching experience.
You can read the full interview on Art Vibes.