The Hippo Girl and Other Stories - Author Shah Tazrian Ashrafi in Conversation.
Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Ask an author series of interviews. I'm Ramya, and I'm going to be talking to Shah Tazrian Ashrafi today about his anthology 'The Hippo Girl and Other Stories' published by Hachette. This compelling collection takes us on a journey through the heart of Bangladesh, exploring the raw and unfiltered human experience in a landscape defined by violence, rage, and grief
Shah Tazrian Ashrafi
@Shah12 · 1:28
And then luckily, I found my agent, Kanishka Gupta from writer's side. And I'm very thankful that his acceptance truly made me believe that this book could be a solid thing out in the world because before that, I didn't have much faith in it
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
The acknowledgement of the Bangladesh Liberation war in your collection of stories suggests a deeply personal connection to this historical event. How did your own experiences or family history influence your writing, especially the depiction of violence and conflict in your stories?
Shah Tazrian Ashrafi
@Shah12 · 1:59
With the power of narrative to the victims of the war who. Some of whom are dead, some of whom are alive. And I do remember being impacted on a subconscious level by the stories that I heard from my family. Like, I had this relative who had to escape from West Pakistan, I mean, from Karachi into, now Bangladesh, I mean, then East Pakistan
Shah Tazrian Ashrafi
@Shah12 · 1:39
I think because of these, it allows you to create characters who resemble people from real life, and also it allows you to insert depth into your characters rather than making them some sort of one dimensional, flat characters, tokenistic characters. So, yeah, I mean, on the surface, this framework might not look so complex. I mean, it might look very simple and it's very easy to fall into the trap of writing more one dimensional characters using these framework
.. I just have one more question for you, but before that, I'd like to thank you for taking the time out and joining me today. It was fascinating getting to know what went into the writing of these stories, the inspiration behind them, and how you kind of brought it all together so beautifully. Congratulations once again. And here comes the last question for you
Shah Tazrian Ashrafi
@Shah12 · 3:43
I am very lucky that I did not have any challenge to. I didn't face any challenge when I was writing these stories because, as I've mentioned before, when I was writing these stories, I wasn't consciously planning to compile them into a book. So I was really taking in the pleasure of the language and the. The art, you know? So. So, yeah, I think