Eminent writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar launched Kainaz Jussawalla’s debutante novel ‘Coffee Days Champagne Nights And Other Secrets’ on Monday in Mumbai. While interacting with media, Javed Akhtar stated that no medium can replace books.
Talking about importance of books to garner any kind of information or knowledge, Akhtar said, “Now day’s life has been kind of fanatic speed. Everything is either googled or found on their smart phones. People have hardly any time for books leave aside writing. They don’t have time for reading but I suppose, no medium can replace books. Today I see most of the children on I pads or they are watching TV but the difference between an I pad which is audio-visual medium and the book is that, you are given a fixed menu. There is no participation of viewer. Viewer is the only receiver but when you are reading a book, particularly fiction, that time you are making your own locations in your mind, faces of characters, sets of houses so when you read the book your imagination enriches and it gets exercise which doesn’t happen when everything is provided to you. For that, you have to use your own energy and mind. People want easy way out and they want everything on platter which I feel is not correct”.
When asked him inspiration behind writing great scripts and lyrics, Akhtar replied, “It’s not a surprise that I write. It would have been surprising if I wouldn’t have become a writer. I come from a family of writers. I am 6th generation who is into writing. My children also write. Farhan has started writing lyrics in English. Zoya is also poet. Both of them write their own film’s scripts and they are our 7th generation in writing. I have inherited these skills from mother’s and fathers’ side. I suppose, if some people are doing something for generations then to some extent, the child must be programmed to do that. I was interested in reading right from my early childhood and that’s how it all started”.
Akhtar also gave piece of advice to young and aspiring writers, he said, “If you want to become a writer then there should be lot of reading. There has to be lot of intake then gradually you develop a relationship with language. People who write letters they think they are writer. It’s not true. Writing is job in itself. When you read masters and learn how they have used words and how expressed things and how they have not said something but made you reach that point where you will understand it then gradually you develop the skill for writing”
“Sensibilities as a writer doesn’t come on platter. You can’t go and buy it from shop, that you learn and develop this technique by reading various kind of books because only reading classics can make you dry and too serious. Young people should also read light literature, humor, and detective novels. I feel you shouldn’t be in a hurry to become a writer. One day when you will be full inside only then you write because then you can write well”.
‘Coffee Days Champagne Nights And Other Secrets’ is dark fiction with exciting twist and turns, based on the complexities of the human mind…Woman-oriented, though there are some strong male characters too. Seven short stories, all different but linked by a common theme.
