Soudia Parveen: A heartfelt congratulation for the publication of your book “The Exhilarated Soul”. How has been the responses towards the book till now?
Hasnain Shawl: Pretty much good, getting your first book out at such a young age is a discussion worth considering for each person, especially who is grappling with the field of literature. So this was it, I proved my own worth to myself. I hope I could learn from my mistakes and make my creative life better. Also, I wanted to write my first book seven years back, it really depresses me when I think about why it took so long. Where’s the time going? But that’s writing.
Soudia Parveen: You have taken a great step in writing such a book to guide one’s life! What in real inspired you to do so and how has been the outcome?
Hasnain Shawl: I have been writing poems from quite a long time, I wanted to do something with it, but to make a book you should have enough pages, then I wrote three short stories. So this is just a glimpse, a trailer before I convinced myself that this is what I want to do. What inspired me to write this is a very difficult question for me. It can be anything in life, an image, a visual in your head, or an event in your life. I love capturing life and reality, I want to capture stories from the events I see or the things that excite me or inspire me. Also, I’m an adamant storyteller who is trying to find a perfect medium to tell stories.
Soudia Parveen: Was it difficult or easy to collect these enhancing poems? How did you do this? Also, how are you obsessed with certain incidents?
Hasnain Shawl: Nothing is easy at all, everything takes time. I want to do quality of work and I feel if would have access to go back and change kinds of stuff from my book that can’t be done now, I would have definitely gone for that. How I write, not poetry but stories, scripts also lyrics sometimes I visualize myself a certain, character, give myself a situation, then everything I get is a chain of material flowing through my head.
Soudia Parveen: The book is all about multiple characters, whether it’s a poem or your story. what would you like to say about these characters in real?
Hasnain Shawl: They are actually fictional characters, as I said just now. I make characters as my story goes ahead, I don’t make a character sketch before writing. I’m myself a character in real (jokes).
Soudia Parveen: For the reader, everything seems to be mysterious! Would you like to give a hint and clue to the readers to attract them more to read this masterpiece?
Hasnain Shawl: ok? A poem based on a guy stuck in the partition of 1947. A Kashmiri boy, hugely talented is misused by another writer who is totally unaware of his inner potential. Now go and explore more (laughs)
Soudia Parveen: What do you feel about fictional books and the characters in them? Do you feel imagination and dreams are very strong?
Hasnain Shawl: It’s suicidal to say, but I rarely read books. The last book I read was in 2019, after that I read a lot of scripts and plays. So I’m kind of attached with characters. See – imagination has great power. You have creative freedom on paper, the things that can’t happen can happen on paper and that’s what gives relief to the audience. Two years ago I wanted to marry an influencer girl with a huge fan following, Why? I don’t know, I was kind of obsessed with her and lost myself but that was the most turning point of my life, which gave me an interesting story to tell one day
Soudia Parveen: How would you describe the protagonist from your story? When did you have this idea and what made you write it with such complexities?
Hasnain Shawl: Actually it’s a collection of work so I can’t talk about a specific character. But if you read you know there’s a protagonist in each poem.
Soudia Parveen: Why do you feel your book is different from all other fictional books? What’s the most attention-seeking factor in your book?
Hasnain Shawl: It’s literally not. The attention-seeking factor in it is that the artist has something to say, a story to tell.
Soudia Parveen: In conclusion to the book, what message do you want to leave for the reader as well as the budding writers? In the future, will you come up with more such books, containing relevant knowledge?
Hasnain Shawl: I will say just keep writing until your name gets out. You face a lot of obstacles but you should create something that excites you. There was a book I was writing but now I have turned it into a film script, you can expect to see a movie made on it. Actually, I have nothing but a sack full of possibilities.
Soudia Parveen: I value and respect your opinion so far and I really appreciate your words and am very thankful to you for sparing your precious time in sharing your humble words. More power to your pen. All the best.
Hasnain Shawl: Thank you for having me.