Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Asif Husain Khan a former Management official and author of Tracing my Footsteps.
Tell us a little about yourself?
I have been a management person with varied experience in Marketing, Planning, Procurement, and production. With thirteen years of stay with a tobacco company in Pakistan (an affiliate of Philip Morris Inc.) I was responsible, in addition to other marketing functions, writing company's long/short-term plans and also the preparation of periodic reports. During next fifteen years, I was responsible for procurement of fertilizer and pesticides from all over the world; this provided an opportunity to communicate and meet people from different nationalities.
I am a graduate with Economics and Statistics; in addition, I have attended several professional courses.
What inspired you to write your first book?
It was March 2014 in Fremont, California, that I desperately searched for a short course to kill my three months stay in the USA.
I had no specific choice in mind.
While going through available courses, I chose one on English Writing skills for non-fiction writers offered by Berkeley University, California. The choice was more for the university than the course itself, as I always desired to study there.
At the end of the course, participants were asked to write an essay on different topics suggested by the instructor.
I was asked to write on myself.
It was a difficult topic, as I had no idea what to write, the only few sentences I could think of were who I am, my qualifications experience, just like a curriculum vitae not to talk about 2500 required words.
It took quite a few days, and gradually, I was able to add more words.
When the essay was complete, it exceeded 2900 words.
Before the final evaluation by the instructor, the whole class was divided into two groups, and each group sat in a circle.
Each author dispensed his or her essay to every member of the group and read his or her essay aloud.
After he was done, other members discussed the positive and negative aspects of the essay, the author had to sit quietly.
I was the second to last to readout.
When I was done, I just sat with my fingers crossed and waited for the negative comments to pour in.
People started giving their opinion, but I could hear positive comments coming from everywhere.
They returned the copies to me with their comments after the discussions. When I went through the comments, the instructor wrote at the opening paragraph “Great first sentence. I have never heard this before. It’s very interesting.”
Again she writes “These paragraphs end with ‘snappers,’ like Zinsser mentions.
Nice work.”
One of the course participants wrote appreciating remarks at every paragraph: she wrote in the opening paragraph, “I really like learning this detail.”
At the last paragraph, she wrote “Great close. You just need a paragraph like this at the end.”
Another participant wrote about a paragraph, where I mentioned a servant in her late seventies who used to tell us a story every night; she wrote “I would like to hear more about the story-telling aspect.
What did her voice sound like?”
One of the members of the group wrote “Lovely writing. I would like to see the finished piece or the book this could turn into”
Comments from other participants were no different.
When I was back in Pakistan, I received a few emails from my course-mates persuading me to expand the essay; Shalra, my wife also encouraged, and that was the time Tracing My Footsteps started taking a shape.
Are your writings based on someone you know or events in your own life?
Tracing My Footsteps is my story, a story about people around me: my parents, and people around me.
It contains details about the culture and traditions inside the house, a house built in 1760, it's about the culture and daily life outside the house.
It's about my travelling to other countries and also within my own country.
It contains interesting anecdotes which I encountered from time to time.
There were some emotional moments how I felt then when my parents and siblings started leaving one after the other.
What was the hardest part of writing your book?
I spent ten years in the house I was born, my father was born, and my grandfather and great-grandfather were born. I remembered the house and the people living there in a joint family system. I also had some memories about the surrounding vicinity, but I wanted to know more about the place and the people, my ancestors and the history about the house and the area. I had interviewed people living now in Pakistan and they were there in Meerut at that time, but the information I collected was not enough I would think enough for the book. I contacted my cousin still living in Meerut, India, who is very fond of collecting such information and is a writer himself. He provided some detailed information which helped me to write this book, but I still think that information was not enough.
Do you have a specific writing style?
Yes, I do in fact, although I was not aware of.
The instructor at UC Berkeley mentioned on my final project as saying " These paragraphs end with ‘snappers,’ like Zinsser mentions".
I am not sure if this style is of my own or I picked-up unconsciously while going through Zinsser's book "On Writing Well", but it seems less likely because styles cannot be changed by going through one book.
I also like and believe what Sam Shepard says "The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning."
Zinsser quotes work done by three authors, E. B. White, H L Mencken and James Herndon. All these three authors have chosen a topic which is normally of no interest to mass readers. They have written for themselves but strong attributes like rhythm, selection of words, specific details and a purpose with simple style have made those writings worth reading. Zinsser advises writers not to worry about what the reader or publisher is looking for, write for yourself, choose your own topic, depict your personality and humor if you like it. I have tried to add those attributes and wrote it for myself.
What book are you reading now?
I have just completed Brenda Mohammed's book " My Life As A Banker" and I am now reading "Life In a Hospice" by Ann Richardson.
What are your current projects?
Hopefully, my paperback version will be out this month and then I will start my new book which will consist of short real-life stories.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
In case I get a chance to visit my birthplace, Meerut in India I would change my book "Tracing My Footsteps" considerably.
The reason is, I would see the house I was born after more than fifty years, I would go into minor details which I might have missed out.
There is so much to study, even the surrounding vicinity of the house which was built a few hundred years ago and was in its original shape at the time I was born has changed a lot how it has transformed into present-day structure but the layout is the same and most of the people living there are 2nd or 3rd generation of the people who lived at that time.
I would collect some more details and anecdotes of my forefathers from my cousin living there and is fond of maintaining the historical record. With all that additional input, I am sure the book will be changed considerably.
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
I like Russel Baker as a memoirist; his memoir "Growing Up" has a flow of story with detailed description and nice words.
In fact, I learned from this book that I went for searching new words in my book.
Although at times he describes emotional scenes he seems to be in control, on the contrary, I wrote some emotional scenes but that show I am on emotional pitch. I like Zinsser for what he describes and guides on writing non-fiction.
I learned a lot from "The Art of the Personal Essay" by Philip Lopate.
It contains essays on almost every topic.
Who designed the covers?
I conceived the basic concept of the cover design, which shows author following his footsteps back to his childhood. I asked a girl from commercial arts to develop the design. She did a good job. She showed the concept in a human face. It has come up very well.
Other than writing do you have any hobbies?
I go to gym for my exercises about 4-5 days in a week. I play tennis although not on regular basis and also go swimming occasionally.
If you were not a writer what else would you like to do?
I am a management person by profession incidentally turned writer, but I am strongly inclined towards designing and interior decoration. I feel I would have been an architect or an interior decorator if I had not chosen management as my career.
Follow Asif Husain Khan on Facebook and Twitter
Buy his book at Amazon.
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