Author interview: Rajender Singh on his book 'A Conversation with the Mountain and Other Stories '

Congratulations on 'A Conversation with the Mountain and other stories '. Is this your debut as a writer?

Thanks a lot for the wishes. Yes! It is my debut as a writer for fiction.

Would you like to share with us the subject and premise of the story that the book encloses?

This book is a compilation of short stories, in which the central theme is my tribute to the smallest of the happenings in Nature around us as well as my own inner nature. I believe that the Nature around us has its own way of responding to our queries during our inner pursuit for meaning of life but, are we wise enough to understand its signs and gestures! This belief gets reverberated in the stories like ‘A Conversation With The Mountain’, ‘The Lohri Tree’, ‘The True Owner’, ‘The Payback’, ‘Sighs of a Rebellious Heart’, ‘Road to Nag Temple’, ‘The Centipede’, etc. in this book.

Few other stories depict the simplicity of the Himachalis vis-à-vis the changes occurring in the so called ‘Modern belief systems’. Overall, I have tried to give shape to my belief that we humans are nothing if we don’t apply humanity.

What inspired you to write your first ever story?

When I was young, I got an opportunity to read one of the greatest writers of all time, ‘Khalil Gibran’. His stories influenced me a lot with regard to his way of writing, his viewpoint of the world around him.

In the meantime, I met a German writer named Ms. Stephanie Faber, who used to live in my neighbourhood, during my college days in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. And I thought, I too should pen down my beliefs of this world around me.

Outlines and notes on most of the stories in this book were written by me around twenty years back (between 1998-2001), which now I have presented in the form of this book as ‘final outcome’.

Has anyone read the stories yet? How has their reactions been?

Most of the stories in this book ‘A Conversation With The Mountain and Other Stories’ have not been read by anyone, though few of them I had narrated to wife and my two friends only. They liked these.

What plans do you have after the release of this book?

Currently, I am writing few more short stories, as well as a novel.  I am grateful to Power Publishers for publishing my stories in the form of a book.