A Dalliance with Destiny - Author Aman Singh Maharaj in Conversation.
Spanning a century and set in South Africa. Author aman Sigmaarad's latest novel A dalliance with Destiny. It's about the journey of a seemingly brash man in his 30s who fights to remain lucid in what appears to be an irrational world. While everyone around him is still celebrating the entry of his country into the rest of of the democratic world, he set odds with everything around him until an eventful journey to India with an unconventional friend puts things in perspective
Aman Maharaj
@AmanTheAuthor · 1:40
So there has always been this story in my head ever since I sort of started reading, maybe about four or five years later, that I wanted to write some sort of philosophical book. So we're talking about the mind of maybe a ten or eleven year old who had this kind of a thought process. When I read autobiography of a yogi, it introduced me into the philosophical realm of religion. Not a way, but probably in tandem with ritualism
Thank you for that. I was very intrigued by one of the reviews that the book received that draws comparisons between the book and chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Would you agree with the comparison? The Canterbury Tales could well be described as being both a satire and a work of social realism that sought to criticize take the social problems prevalent at that point in time. Would you rather call your book as a commentary on the human experience? I am very curious to know
Aman Maharaj
@AmanTheAuthor · 0:46
So to call it a commentary on the human experience, I think it does have much of that. The book is initially written in third person, and then it goes into first person in the second part. So there is a narrator whose commentary on the mindset of an individual who's not aligned with himself. He's quite at odds with himself and he's seeking some sort of benediction or salvation, so to call it a commentary
Aman Maharaj
@AmanTheAuthor · 1:11
But, yes, I agree there are some sort of parallels with it. Not 100%. It's done with our own sort of desi style added to it. And it's more contemporary, obviously, because chaucer wrote, I think, in medieval England. But, yes, there's definitely elements of chaucer like writing in it, if I can say that, about bound writing
Aman Maharaj
@AmanTheAuthor · 1:02
I'm one of those very lucky people who does not suffer from writer's block. As I typed out each word, the next word came, and that is how I wrote. So there was no strategic intent in my writing itself. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, it's difficult for me to say. Look, there was a general idea of a plot, but what unfolded around it was purely not by design
Aman Maharaj
@AmanTheAuthor · 1:45
Unless a writer has written fantasy, if one has written contemporary fiction, there has to be, if not aspects of one's own personality that goes into one's writing to sort of describe a character, then definitely there are events that 1 may have witnessed as the writer from everyday real life, and we sort of capture that as a moment in our writing. But whether it's exactly as per what happened that is questionable
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Thank you so much, aman, for doing this micro interview with me on swell and giving us a little sneak peek into your book. It was fascinating to get to know how your experiences, extensive travels and formative life experiences have shaped your creative process as you worked on the book. I wish you the very best and for our listeners, I'm going to be sharing the Amazon link to your book for them to check out
