In Conversation with Aymal Raza- Exclusive Interview with Shoby

In Conversation with Aymal Raza- Exclusive Interview with Shoby

Shobywood: When did you started writing?

Aymal: I started writing since my childhood at a very tender age. Initially I wrote few stories for children which got published and I received praises for them. Then I shifted towards fiction. My first story for children was published back in the year 2008 for which I got third position in the competition and my first fiction was published in monthly digest Shuaa in 2014.

Shobywood: What is your writing for you?

Aymal: To me, my writing is just an inception and nothing else.

Shobywood: Do you read other writers (the old & new ones). Who is your favourite writer and who inspired you to write?

Aymal: Yes, I have read almost all of the writers, both the new & old ones. In fact I have read so many veteran writers including the likes of Bano Qudsiya, Ashfaq Ahmed, Mumtaz Mumfti, Mohammad Ilyas, Rajindher Singh Bedi, Prem Chand, Manto, Syed Mohammad Ashraf, Ilyas Ahmed, Seeta Devi, Jeelani Bano, Raam Laal, Ismat Chightai, Intezar Hussain and Quratul Ain Haider. Among the young ones, Umer Saeed, Elif Şafak (Elif Shafaq, a Turkish writer) are my personal favourites. Their style of writing inspired me a lot.

As I had a craving for reading books, what should I say that who inspired me the most to write. However, when I read Raja Gidh, somewhere in my mind, it was like some stimulus was triggered. Hence it was decided that I have to write. The more I read Bano Qudiya, the more the decision got firmed. You may say that I have been writing by reading Bano Qudiya’s stories. Her stories taught me how to write.

Shobywood: How do you differentiate the old classical writers with those of our era?

Aymal: There is a lot of difference. Today, people write for earning, and in the mean course, the actual spirit of the story looks like tempered, whereas this phenomenon was not common with the earlier writers. I feel observational & analytical approach has diminished in the new writers. They are neither doing justice with the story nor with the characters.

Shobywood: In your stories, the society is always shown from a specific perspective. Do you like writing stories based on society only?

Aymal: We have so many colours of society. So much so that it always looks lesser in terms of volume, no matter how more we write for it. The society always astonishes us even if we look at it merely as a layman. You may say that I like writing on society. But its not like this that I want only to portray the society through my writing. The human psyche attracts me too. I love to write fantasy, horror, suspense. I don't want to be stereotyped. I am open towards all the innovation, tradition and periodic of creation.

Shobywood: The characters in your stories are always living and relate-able and yet you always connect them with the art of every corner of this world, just like what you did in Taveez e Hubb. Do you plan it before writing that you have to place certain elements in your story?

Aymal: You can say, yes, up to an extent. Actually there are diverse types of stories. For instance, there is a type of story what Manto sb used to pen and now we have the type of stories which we have to present after proper ornamentation. You have to embed certain essential ingredients. This is sometimes need of the hour and sometimes it is just a thirst of doing something unorthodox. Plus, I like if my characters are not stagnant. I like if they continue doing their bits. They should be engaged with different fields of the world. They should belong to various countries of the world. Doing so, the readers gets to know about new things of the world.

Shobywood: Your characters evolve after grasping so much of pain. I should rephrase it, they in fact re-discover themselves after going through some intense circumstances. From where you bring this much of pain & intensity in the characters?

Aymal: These are mere characters which are revealed to the imagination and then get transferred to the paper in the form of writing. To tell you honestly, I have nothing much to do in this regard. I feel, if you have pre-planned the pain or any certain phenomenon given to a specific character, it is fabrication. It looks artificial. To me, It is an atrocity with the characters. I believe, characters themselves tell you how to treat them.

Shobywood: Your character sketches & dialogues are very different from other writers and often they have a visible colour of foreign authors. Similarly, you use multi-cultural & multi-ethnic philosophy in your writings. Do you implement these things intentionally?

Aymal: I have read more of my own domestic literature more than others. My novel Taveez e Hubb has an influence of Umer Saeed’s Safaal Ger and it is not something unintentional. When I read Safaal Ger, I felt that it is an altogether fresh & new way to project in the field of novel writing. Then I decided to write my own novel on the same pattern. That is why I wrote Taveez e Hubb in the style of Safaal Ger.

In my other stories, you will feel a touch of Bano Qudiya’s works. I have learnt writing by reading her stories. She is my spiritual teacher. I feel there is a visible impact of her writing in my writings. I have an in-depth focus on dialogues, characterisation and projection. I think these three components are the backbone of any story.

Shobywood: Recently your novel Main, Mohabbat or Tum was published. This time, you chose to write a bit different than your usual style of writing. It was nice to see you with a soft romantic sort of read. But you are actually famous for stories like Taveez e Hubb and Piyaal Saaz. What sort of writing you enjoy the most?

Aymal: I like writing the likes of Piyaal Saaz and Taveez e Hubb but I think if you the reader will get bored if you keep on writing in the same pattern regularly. Earlier, writers had a specific school of thought and they used to write on one single pattern throughout the career. Bano Qudsiya was more into writing about human psyche. Ashfaq Ahmed has made the society his field of study. Mumtaz Mufti, Ismat Chughtai, in fact all of them write on one pattern. And the interesting thing is, this phenomenon is not only prevailing in our literature, in fact the foreign writers have also used one domain to write on. But if we look at the newly growing breed of writers, we can see that they are attempting multiple styles. A very recent example for the same is Elif Şafak who used altogether different writing approaches in Namoos and Ishq Ke Chalees Asool. Sumaira Hameed of Khawateen Digest is another excellent example. Her novels Borshay, Ishq Amad o Mann, Yaaram all have been written in diverse styles and all of them are fantastic reads. I like comedy but I prefer to write tragedy.

Shobywood: Are your stories always a fiction or are they inspired from the reality?

Aymal: All of my stories are always fiction albeit one character of Piyaal Saaz (i.e. Misbah). This character is a real one, not only the name but also in its fate.

I have not yet written any story based on a real incidence but the characters I use are very relate-able and they are taken from the living society. Whatever you witness or read is always getting stored in your mind. When you perceive an idea about a story, then all the relevant phenomenon arrives with the same. Considering this thing, we can say that the pure fiction is also not a “complete perfect fiction”. It has some true components of society as well.

Shobywood: One thing that is specific to your stories is the absence of traditional hero-heroine stuff. I feel, you always sketch the story with real hard hitting author backed characters and script is always your real hero. Do you believe in the traditional hero-heroine thing or not?

Aymal: Everyone has a distinct style of writing. I feel, hero- heroine are not necessary for a story, it is more essential to have pivotal and I always give this “pivotal” component the most important place in the story. This “pivotal” can be anything. Hope, Courage, Will, Spark, Enlightening, Struggle, anything.

I am not saying that do not write stories with traditional hero-heroine sagas. Those who want to write, they are most welcome to write whatever they enjoy. Those who don’t want to attempt this, they should not. We have so many diverse topics in the world that even if you does not write on traditional hero-heroine stuff, you are still not short of the topics.

Shobywood: People have almost stopped reading now a days. Is it because we are short of good writers or readers?

Aymal: To be honest, we have shortage of both. However I feel we are more short of good readers today. Yes it is true that good writing is difficult to find in today’s literature, but look people do not read the classical old stuff too. Habit of reading is scarce now and libraries are getting desolated. Recently I was talking to the librarian of Punjab Library. He was saying that earlier we used to issue 1000 book on an average daily and now the quantity has dropped to 50 or 60. It is my own experience as well. Seven, eight years ago, I had to wait for one or two hours to get a book issued and now my heart gets lonely having seen these libraries vacant. Librarians are getting bored of no business and books are looking someone to come and collect them. There are many factors behind this, but I think misuse of latest technology has made us slack. We are doing worse with our own selves by giving a secondary thing the more priority.

Shobywood: Recently you launched your book Sooraj Ke Paar in the last year. What do you want to say about the book? What was the reaction of public and critics?

Aymal: Sooraj ke Paar is my fiction collection. I am delighted on its launch as it was already decided that my first book would be dedicated to my beneficent Ms. Umma tus Saboor. So with the launch of the book, my dream came true.

The fiction stories available in the book were already published in digest and I have always garnered praises over the same. Wherever I have received positive criticism, I have always tried to make my writing better.

Shobywood: How seriously you take the take of critics regarding your work? If someone’s take hurt you, how you react to them?

Aymal: Feedback is important but I shall write what I feel like writing. You can say that I am a bit stubborn in writing. I shall not modify my style or plot of the story on someone else’s recommendation.

I have not mind anyone’s feedback till date. However sometimes, we come across sort of a feedback based on a single point, without understanding the actual spirit & essence of the story. Then I wonder why something is getting criticised which is not actually endorsed in the story.

Shobywood: Do you like writing for films or dramas?

Aymal: Off course. I like to write both however my foremost priority is novel writing.

Shobywood: Which is your most favourite character and why?

Aymal: The Nigaar of Piyaal Saaz. There are many reason which I would not like to disclose.

Shobywood: Which of your story or character you would love to see developed into a film or drama?

Aymal: For the time being, I guess no one. I wouldn’t allow any of my characters to be dramatised considering the prevailing conditions of our domestic dramas are not suitable enough. Dramas that are being made in our country is plagued with hast.

Shobywood: If Aymal Raza was not a writer, what she would have been?

Aymal: Aymal was bound to be a writer no matter what. Only if ALLAH PAK has destines something else for me.

Shobywood: What sort of writing you personally enjoy the most and what do you wish to write?

Aymal: I like to write tragedy novels. And I want to write almost every sort of thing. Horror, suspense, fantasy, romance, classical literature, Itinerary almost every known genre of writing.

Shobywood: Short Fiction or Novel? Which one is more difficult to write?

Aymal: I think fiction is more difficult. It is immensely difficult to elaborate the wholesomeness of something with all its charm within few strokes. I think once you are done with short fiction, it becomes easier to write a novel. But after novel, you can get assistance for only writing a story and you have to once again strive to go back from a story to fiction. This is my own perspective.

Shobywood: Your fans want to know that you have not come up with an episodic after Piyaal Saaz. For how long they have to wait for this?

Aymal: Novel itself tells us, when it has to be emerged on the papers. It itself gives you an insight that the time has come for its existence. If something sparks in your mind, it starts triggering you. It ends up having penned. It itself gives a material entity to its spirit. Writer has to complete it as soon as possible. It has only one other aspect that you keep on waiting with story sketches in your mind for the right time.

Shobywood: What are your hobbies other than writing?

Aymal: I have many hobbies. I love painting. I do this in my free times, which are usually not available. I like music too. I like singers of Lebanon & Turkey. I like the songs of Adam, Umer Wahab, Nancy Ajzam, Haifa, Serence, Muraad. I also like cooking but since I have started writing, I have not tried anything new. There are many other hobbies as well.

Shobywood: Shobywood is the only Pakistani blog where Poetry & other forms of literature are also getting ample limelight along with film & entertainment industry. What would you like to say about my blog?

Aymal: It is a very positive blog. We can make social media productive but not much is being done in this regard here. We have only a handful of Urdu websites whereas our neighbouring country is far more ahead of us in this aspect. It is astonishing to see that they have so many personal channels. We all should focus and do some combine effort for the same. Shobywood is an excellent step in this regard.

Shobywood: Any message for your fans?

Aymal: Work hard and do it with such a passion that your work reaches to the premium heights. Learn how to smile and forgive. Doing so, not only the life will be become easier but also you will achieve tangible success. Always belive on your struggle. Remember this quote of IMAM ALI (asws):

Ho Sakta hai aap ki qismat aap ka saath na de lakin aap ko aap ki mehnat ka phal na miley, yeh nahi ho sakta.

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