Gaurav Sharma has been living in Canada since 2015 and will be visiting India in February or March this year for two reasons. First, when he mailed the draft of his second book God of the Sullied to a reputed publishing house here, they asked for an in-person meeting to discuss things further. And second, because he has been invited by TEDx to talk at Maharaja Surajmal Institute in Delhi. As his first novel Gone are the Days (published by Gyan Books), not only earned him fame, but also his own Wikipedia page, it's exciting to imagine what his second book could accomplish. And though his first was an autobiography, which required him to dig deep into himself, his second is a historical fiction about the ill effects of the Kaliyuga, which according to Sanskrit scriptures, is the age of evil.
"I tried my hand at a college romance novel, but soon figured that I was no good at it," laughs the 25-year-old, who later decided to explore the genre of historical fiction, thanks to the reviews he read about his first novel. "Though it (the first novel) was appreciated, some reviews stated that it was more for those who know the author personally," he recalls. So, he challenged himself and in a span of one and a half years, he penned his second novel, God of the Sullied, which infuses contemporary themes such as terrorism and borrows instances from the first chapter of the Mahabharata. I guess it's safe to conclude that the novel gives us a little bit of the past, present and the future.
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Sharma went ahead with the decision of writing in this genre though he knew many others were already writing about it. Was he not sceptical about it considering the kind of 'anti-nationalistic’ comments one could face in India and that dabbling in this genre could invite trouble? "My book does mention the names of some prophets and Buddha as references, but I haven't written anything wrong," he justifies. And if his editor insists that he drop these references, would he be okay with it? "I would definitely try to convince them, but I also understand that I'm at the beginning of my career and I'm still learning. So, if they aren't convinced then yes, I will drop the names," he states, honestly.
Before writing novels, this New Delhi-born author has written three textbooks, the last of which, Development and Communication Morphosis, was launched by journalist Abhigyan Prakash. His textbooks occupy a space of their own at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in New Delhi and the other colleges affiliated to it. Ironically, Sharma prefers reading blogs and news articles over novels. He likes to write whatever comes to his mind and then edits it to make sure that it is the best version of what he can do. And that's what he hopes God of the Sullied is too — the best version of what he is capable of writing.
Want to know more about him? Click on authorgauravsharma.com
