About the Author: Azar graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. He currently works for a private organization as Senior Executive and published his maiden novel “Who told Men not to Cry?” at the age of 20. Today the world knows Azar as a competent engineer, a budding author, an amazing narrator, a stellar performer, and as the one who took us on an adventurous ride into his magical world of creation under the label “Story Master”, his YouTube Channel. Filled with passion, dreams, and a child-like spirit, he strives to add color to the world around, in his own beautiful way.
Que: I would like to begin by congratulating you on the publication of “Situational Sins.” How has the response to the book been so far?
Azar: Thank you so much. I would say that I enjoy my tears of joy, from the response to the book. The book has given extremely positive feedback from all the leading reviewers, I’ve approached (including you). I’m honored with the respect you all showered over me, for the limelight on sex trafficking and victims of prostitution by “Situational Sins”.
Que: What led to the idea of writing “Situational Sins”? Were there any events that inspired the work?
Azar: Honestly speaking, the spark happened, when I met a sex worker for the first time, on the streets of Bangalore, late in the night. I knew their lives are tough, but I wondered about their survival when I started reading the articles about survivors of sex trafficking. On digging deep, I had a chance to explore an entirely different perspective about them and my own life. I wanted to open it and it all happened since then.
Que: How easy or difficult was it for you to set the narrative in the near future and build characters who had the impressions of the present time in “Situational Sins”?
Azar: It’s never easy, but challenging indeed. You must take the life of a criminal and bring an emotional connection to readers. The readers must smile, laugh, cry and emote for a criminal. A big task for me, but I wanted to take it! If not for me, at least for the characters of my story. If you believe me, I lost two proper sleep after writing that darkest incident to Shivani. Now, I’m happy that it has become the USP of my story and the cover design.
Que: What are your views about present-day writing? Do you think it does complete justice in depicting human nature in the light of “Situational Sins”?
Azar: Frankly I’m not an avid reader to have any comment over present-day writing. But, I do find many Indian writers, who wanted to write their own experiences and shape it into a book. I do agree that few among them turn out to be unique. Yet I feel, the readers want something different from an usual rom-com book. They wanted to read something out of ordinary. I feel they’re clever enough to appreciate honest efforts for books, which closes a non-routine route. And that’s how I wanted my “Situational Sins” to be. I knew, it’s complicated when I wanted to justify the life of lady criminals, who were sex workers. But writing has the potential to hook readers beyond imagination. I’m not sure if I’ve succeeded to the best of writing. But I’m sure to give something fresh for my readers.
Que: “Situational Sins” shows the uniqueness of your style of writing. Are there any authors that you enjoy reading or any books which are your favorites?
Azar: As said, I’m not a very good reader. But if my style of writing had that uniqueness, I wish to dedicate my gratitude to all the movies I’ve seen since childhood. It taught me both, how a story should and shouldn’t be. And, if there’s one author I can name as my inspiration, it would be Kalki of Tamil novel “Ponniyin Selvan”. The novel has many characters, yet shifts from one person to other, flawlessly smooth. Comparatively “Situational Sins” had just 10% of that character count, and I hope I’ve written it without confusing my readers.
Que: How would you categorize “Situational Sins” as its appeal seems to be to a broad audience?
Azar: When I’ve read about the sex workers, I was sure to take their pain, to as much as my readers I could reach, irrespective of age. But, as a story I had to force-fit a few adult contents, to bring the impact of their pain. If I had chosen to present a docu-drama of what I’ve seen, interacted, and read; I was sure not to reach the targeted masses. Hence, I chose the genre of a crime thriller. I spun a story around my characters filled with twists and turns. Finally, I’m glad to get many positive reviews claiming it to be a highly recommended awareness-thriller for all ages, despite having such adult content.
Que: “Situational Sins” has given a powerful introduction to your potential as a writer. Can the readers expect more from you in the future? Please share about your future projects.
Azar: As a writer, we all wanted to enter into this field to impress our readers. My first book didn’t have either a good reach or an impression. I was just aged 20 then, and I wasn’t aware of the business nuances of marketing a book. Also, I would honestly agree that my writing was poor, though I had decent content to deliver. But by then, it was beautiful learning. I still find “Situational Sins” as another learning to make my next attempts. For now, I’m thankful to all my reviewers for their high recommendations. I’m just concentrating on the ways to make this honest attempt to reach the maximum people, I could deliver. In the future, I have plans to write a historic fiction in Tamil and a detective novel in English. Yet, the future is always uncertain, as I may get attracted to some other real-life incident and end up delivering it.
Que: What is the story behind the title of your work, “Situational Sins”?
Azar: I felt no other title would do rhyming justice to this novel. In fact, you have to read it with the tag “Situational Sins – A Carnal Damnation”. If readers notice, each character of this novel does a sexual sin, forced by their situations. They didn’t have a choice. If you ask, whether it means we’re all blaming situations for our sins; the answer would be a ‘big yes’! Each of us is committing sins without knowing we’re one. The world is bound to blame and not to commit sin. Also, in particular, this book revolves around the sexual hell on earth and so is the tagline. I chose to give that sexual warning without announcing it explicitly as an adult book. And, it’s just a writer’s spark to this title!
Que: How easy or difficult was it for you to create the characters and show the story from their eyes and also the eyes of a third-person narrator without hampering the readers’ perception in “Situational Sins”?
Azar: I didn’t want to overload with philosophies of life and tragedies of sex workers into my book. As your review clearly said, I revealed only what I wanted my readers to know from that instant of the story’s flow. I believed in creating strong characters and placing them in an interesting plot. When did, the story was built interestingly on its own. Each character had a believable story and I wanted them to put it in the right place. As a writer, I just twisted it to make a tasty read for my readers.
Que: In the present time, stories featuring people like your characters in “Situational Sins” do not find much mention. What, according to you, could be the possible reason for that?
Azar: I’m too young in this field to leave any comment on other stories. Yet sometimes, I feel lack of strong characters or compromising the real attributes of a specific character or their narration, to meet the expected standard template of a book, fails badly in terms of reality. For example, we would have read much force-fit intimacy in certain novels, which has become a template these days. Ultimately, it may or may not hit the targeted audience, but profit solely depends on the marketing strategy of that book.
Que: If you were to describe your book “Situational Sins” in a few words without giving any spoilers, what would those words be?
Azar: It’s an honest attempt to throw some limelight over the life of sex workers and change the perspective of us, on them. On the other side, it’s a complete commercial attempt of an emotional crime thriller to hook up the readers and bring them to their seat edge, right at the beginning and continue to thrill them till the end. It’s a close-to-reality novel, which anybody can relate to quickly and it’s a highly recommended awareness, irrespective of ages/genders. If not for the writing, I wish this book to reach the people, at least for the pain of sex workers and victims of sex trafficking.
Que: What advice would you give to budding writers who may be planning to write in the same genre as “Situational Sins”
Azar: If you have decided to be a writer, it already means either you’re fed up with the present-day writing or you wanted to tell something unique to this world. So stick to what you’ve decided. There would be many hurdles and hard rocks on your path stopping or shifting you, from where you wanted to go. But remember your destination; walk, jog or run; when tired, take some rest and run again. Eventually, if you’ve done your part, your destiny will do the rest and pull you to it.
Que: Thank you very much for sparing your time. I look forward to reading more books from you in the future. All the best.
Azar: Let me say this! Yours was one of those best reviews I’ve received for my book, with a detailed analysis. I’m glad that you’ve liked it and I’m grateful for your efforts to promote this book. Your works are awesome and honest, which any writer would expect. I had a positive impression from your review that will definitely push me for a much better book, next time. Thank you so much for your time and I wish you success as well. And to those who’re yet to read “Situational Sins”, I would say you won’t regret your money spent on it, whether you’re a regular reader or a fresher. So, Go Grab It..!