Quitting a well-settled job to chase your dream is the hardest decision one can take for themselves. It includes a great amount of risk, tension, hurdles, and many challenges while taking the steps to achieve your dream. Sachin Garg is known for his writing stories which not only connect with the people but also leave the readers with a long-lasting thought.

He quit his day job in 2011 to start his own venture in print media. He also wrote for many India Publishing Industries like for The Times of India and so on… He is an Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) and did his MBA from MDI, Gurgaon. Apart from books, he has a keen interest in strength training activities and travelling.

The Interview Times gets an opportunity to talk about his challenging life as a writer.

Tell us about yourself a bit… Your childhood and about your family.

 I grew up in North Delhi in a place called ‘Rohini’, but my roots are from Haryana. I went to a very small school, that probably nobody heard of. And I used to spend most of my time in the sports field as I play a different kinds of sports. I was always good at studies, so I did my engineering then went to IIT for some reason. I had a happy childhood as I was surrounded by good friends and we all did a lot of crickets, hockey. 

My father is a retired government servant, he worked for Delhi Development Authority. And my mother is a homemaker. I have two siblings both elder to me. And my extended family all are in Delhi. I moved to Mumbai five years ago and still sustaining here. 

You did your engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and later MBA from MDI, so why interested in writing? And when did you first realise that you wanted to be an author? 

After my MBA I did a corporate job but I was writing way before that. So, writing came to be very natural, it really excites me when I write anything. 

And honestly, my first writing was the long SMSs to my friends, because at that time SMSs use to be very expensive and you have kept a count of every character you are sending. I would type 400 in 80 characters, making sure to use every aberration and I will send it to my friend. And they use to tell me that I am actually good at this as these are very interesting SMSs. So, my friend insisted that I should write a blog. Then I started writing blogs which got a little popular at that time, with 70-80 comments which was a huge thing for me. Later I decided to write a book- ‘I am twenty-four’. 

Sachin Garg, Author

Your first book ‘I’m Not Twenty-Four’ released in 2010 was a huge success, what inspired you to write that book? Any hurdles that you faced? 

I had just started my first job, which was in a small village in Northern Karnataka and at that time I was a complete Delhi boy and had never been to South India. This was a big shock and a big transaction for me. So, when I reached there, I had a lot to say and write about which was not possible in a blog. So, I thought why not write a book on it and to increase the shock value instead of my experience I created a female character- a south Delhi pampered kind of a girl reaching to a small village of Karnataka- that’s what the premise of the book is. 

Actually, I was working in this factory and in this kind of factory, the industrial accident happens quite often where people actually lose their lives. So, when I reached there and witness all this, I was shocked to see the kind of normal people behave in these kinds of incidents. So, I just escalated it by making this Delhi girl character into all this. So, the story is about how the Delhi girl handled all these deaths in this factory in the middle of nowhere in Karnataka.  

Never Let Me Go

Well talking about hurdles, I did face that much because when I reached that place everybody looked at me and assumed that I won’t be able to sustain there for much longer. They thought I was so misfitted that I won’t be able to sustain and handle this kind of work. So, for the first two months, nobody gave me any work as they were just waiting for me to leave the job. And in the meantime, I was getting a lot of ideas for whatever I was seeing around me. As I got a lot of time so I was able to finish the book in two-three months. 

Do you think that the current generation is disregarding the true essence of reading novels because all we see is them draining their energy in their phones?

I have been publishing books for 11 years now, and I see a huge difference that earlier when I use to travel in local metro or train people use to read books, people still do but the numbers are lesser. I use to see books in people’s hands but now the percentage is much lesser. And the pandemic has changed everything so now people are on screen more than the books. 

Actress Gul Panag launches the book Never Let Me Go by Sachin Garg at the World Book Fair 2012, in New Delhi.

 So, I have read your book- ‘Hindu Refugee Camp’, Lahore’ where it was mentioned that it is based on a true story. Can you tell us about it?

A few years back I travelled to Pakistan and I got interested in this Indo-Pak relation, how we look at them and how they look at us. And a few years later I attended a live performance of ‘Dastangoi’ performance where performers come to the stage and orally, they tell stories without any props for one or two hours. And from one of the performances, I came across the story of Ghulam Ali which was stuck in my head for years and years. Later I researched as much as I could but there was very little documentation on him so I had to add my little imagination to the story and create my own characters and their world. 

 How long does it take to finish the book (Hindu Refugee Camp) and share with us about the research you did for the book?

I read a lot about partition and I traced to that story who performed, I went to the house of that performer and asked him where did he get that story. And he said that this story is from the book ‘The Long Partition’. I read the book and tried to get in touch with the author but in vain. Then I read a lot on partition literature and books from that time to know how the people from that time used to think, how did they look up to the world, what exactly they do in their free time, what they talk about like the language.  

Pic Courtesy – Ayhkid_reads12

Your genre is mostly on Young Adults and romance, so any thought of writing any other genre? 

I don’t think I have a genre; I write whatever comes to me. Currently, I am exploring true crime. Let see if anything comes up to me. Nothing sustains and we as an individual should explore more things rather than getting stuck into one kind of thing. ‘Hindi Refugee Camp’ got a lot of appreciation, especially the letter format writing and the emotions that readers connected while reading. So let see if anything exciting comes up I will surely explore that. 

What was one of the most surprising things you learned while writing your books till now? How do you get your ideas or what inspires you the most? 

Well, surprising thing- meeting so many people can give the same emotion on reading something. We see that we are an individual but there are emotions and feelings that we all of us share and we writers try to bring out those stories. So as a very surprising writer and a good thing for me. 

Any suggestions for aspiring writers. 

I always think that for a long time when I started writing, I was writing without talking to other writers, so I would suggest that you should be a part of a writing group, talk to them, make friends with other writers. You should have some feedbacks and work on it. 

 What is your next book? Or what about future plans?

I haven’t written anything for a long time as I am kind of semi-retired. ‘Hindu refugee Camp’ got a lot of appreciation but the sales number were kind of disappointing. Probably because of the pandemic or what, but the numbers were very disappointing and it made me think that whether I should continue with this or not. 

Interview By Dikhya Mohanty