In a conversation with Manish Gaekwad
Hello book lovers, today we have on board the author of Lean days- Manish Gaekwad. A freelance journalist based in Mumbai, he has written for Scroll.in, The Hindu and Midday. Lean Days is his debut novel. So without further ado , let's get started! 
1. One fictional character that resembles you the most?A friend said I am like Sheldon Cooper from the television show The Big Bang Theory – that I am anti-social, stubborn and have a wry sense of humour. All true, except that I haven’t seen the show to corroborate.2. What is your writing motivation? Money, for rent at least, so that I can have a roof to write under on rainy days.3. Who's your favourite author?This year, Sally Rooney. Last year it was Anthony Doerr, before that Sarah Bakewell, Hanya Yanagihara. Keeps changing every year. Perennial favourite at one time was Michael Ondaatje, now in a list of many. 4. Few quickies :Money or fame? Right now, with rising living costs, money of course. Fame can knock later, even posthumously is fine. Money allows you to be free to write, fame makes you delusional and stop writing.Commercial fiction or literary fiction? Literary fiction, despite being well aware that there is no money in it. Blogging or vlogging?Blogging.Interviews or book reviews? Reviews please. Audiobooks or ebooks?Printed books.Paperbacks or hardbacks?Depends – hardback for bookshelf, paperback on the go.5. How long did it take to write the first draft? 6 months.6. How was your experience? Did it differ from your expectations? Magical at first, holding the manuscript of the draft, like it was some messianic message from the gods that needed to be sent out into the world through multiple photocopies. More or less the gist was as I felt, so expectations were met.7. What do you think is the most exciting thing about being a 1st time author? And how much of it went into your book ? Did you tweak it or was it completely a product of your imagination?Debutants are idealistic as I was. 6 months after publication I realize how tough it is to get reviewed because there are so many books being written and so few people who read and review. But I also see how younger people are taking to social media to put out reviews, snippets, and gorgeous photos about titles they like. And so even that helps in the absence of coverage from print media. Lean Days isn’t perfect but I also wanted the narrative to be structure-free and meandering. It could use a little more editing for what editors calls a commercial title. The book borrows a lot from the world around me. Fact and fiction blend and blur and sometimes for the reader to separate the two is what makes reading it worthwhile I guess.8. What do you think is the biggest challenge?Not writing. 9. Who's your favourite debut author so far?Leila Slimani's Lullaby. It is her second novel, but her first to be translated from French. 10. Could you kindly introduce us to Lean days in brief? Lean Days is about an amateur writer setting out on an unplanned journey across the country in search of love, inspiration to write, and stories to record. It can literally lean into the territory of autofiction, where the unnamed narrator of the book sometimes reflects on the experiences of the author writing the book. I traveled across the country for about a year on a solo-trip and took notes throughout in the hope that at the end of the trip I will find a story to tell. Later, when I looked at the diary entries and wondered where the story was, I decided to add fictional elements to give it a novel-length form. 11. A lesson that you've learnt throughout the process of publishing your first book? Yes, never give up. Everyone will reject it if you don’t have a reputation that precedes you. It took six years for my book to be published. Several agents, publishers, and editors kept it in cold storage until an email from the-then commissioning editor Somak Ghoshal (HarperCollins) landed in my inbox one day. This year when Section 377 was struck down it seemed like a good time for the book to make its debut so it all worked out well eventually.12. Your advice to aspiring authors?Read. Repeat. Read.About Manish Gaekwad : Manish Gaekwad is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai. He has written for Scroll.in, The Hindu and Midday. Lean Days is his debut novel. He is currently pursuing a career in film writing and hopes to write Hindi film songs in the future. He blogs occasionally at: https://medium.com/@manishgaekwad and is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram under his name.
1. One fictional character that resembles you the most?A friend said I am like Sheldon Cooper from the television show The Big Bang Theory – that I am anti-social, stubborn and have a wry sense of humour. All true, except that I haven’t seen the show to corroborate.2. What is your writing motivation? Money, for rent at least, so that I can have a roof to write under on rainy days.3. Who's your favourite author?This year, Sally Rooney. Last year it was Anthony Doerr, before that Sarah Bakewell, Hanya Yanagihara. Keeps changing every year. Perennial favourite at one time was Michael Ondaatje, now in a list of many. 4. Few quickies :Money or fame? Right now, with rising living costs, money of course. Fame can knock later, even posthumously is fine. Money allows you to be free to write, fame makes you delusional and stop writing.Commercial fiction or literary fiction? Literary fiction, despite being well aware that there is no money in it. Blogging or vlogging?Blogging.Interviews or book reviews? Reviews please. Audiobooks or ebooks?Printed books.Paperbacks or hardbacks?Depends – hardback for bookshelf, paperback on the go.5. How long did it take to write the first draft? 6 months.6. How was your experience? Did it differ from your expectations? Magical at first, holding the manuscript of the draft, like it was some messianic message from the gods that needed to be sent out into the world through multiple photocopies. More or less the gist was as I felt, so expectations were met.7. What do you think is the most exciting thing about being a 1st time author? And how much of it went into your book ? Did you tweak it or was it completely a product of your imagination?Debutants are idealistic as I was. 6 months after publication I realize how tough it is to get reviewed because there are so many books being written and so few people who read and review. But I also see how younger people are taking to social media to put out reviews, snippets, and gorgeous photos about titles they like. And so even that helps in the absence of coverage from print media. Lean Days isn’t perfect but I also wanted the narrative to be structure-free and meandering. It could use a little more editing for what editors calls a commercial title. The book borrows a lot from the world around me. Fact and fiction blend and blur and sometimes for the reader to separate the two is what makes reading it worthwhile I guess.8. What do you think is the biggest challenge?Not writing. 9. Who's your favourite debut author so far?Leila Slimani's Lullaby. It is her second novel, but her first to be translated from French. 10. Could you kindly introduce us to Lean days in brief? Lean Days is about an amateur writer setting out on an unplanned journey across the country in search of love, inspiration to write, and stories to record. It can literally lean into the territory of autofiction, where the unnamed narrator of the book sometimes reflects on the experiences of the author writing the book. I traveled across the country for about a year on a solo-trip and took notes throughout in the hope that at the end of the trip I will find a story to tell. Later, when I looked at the diary entries and wondered where the story was, I decided to add fictional elements to give it a novel-length form. 11. A lesson that you've learnt throughout the process of publishing your first book? Yes, never give up. Everyone will reject it if you don’t have a reputation that precedes you. It took six years for my book to be published. Several agents, publishers, and editors kept it in cold storage until an email from the-then commissioning editor Somak Ghoshal (HarperCollins) landed in my inbox one day. This year when Section 377 was struck down it seemed like a good time for the book to make its debut so it all worked out well eventually.12. Your advice to aspiring authors?Read. Repeat. Read.About Manish Gaekwad : Manish Gaekwad is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai. He has written for Scroll.in, The Hindu and Midday. Lean Days is his debut novel. He is currently pursuing a career in film writing and hopes to write Hindi film songs in the future. He blogs occasionally at: https://medium.com/@manishgaekwad and is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram under his name.
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